Front end driver side clunking

Looking for diagnostic tips to find a clunking in my front end, I hear it after hitting bumps sometimes or when I slow down/accelerate but not every-time.

 

There are many things that could be making a clunk on a 22-year-old truck. It could be as simple as a sway bar end link bushing, or as bad as a wheel bearing, and everything in between (upper and lower ball joints, upper and lower control arm bushings, worn shocks and or worn mounting hardware, CV axles if you have 4wd). You really just need to get the tire off the ground and use a pry par to find out what moves. If you haven't replaced anything, then you'll be looking at doing all the things I just mentioned.

 

I had very similar symptoms and it turned out just one of the nuts had fallen off the sway bar end links. Could literally be anything

 

Sway link is new and cv is solid, What’s the best way to check the upper and lower ball joints

 

Noises can be real tricky !!

Check out the whole truck might be a loose exhaust system.

Maybe the rear suspension.

 

Take the wheel off and use a pry bar, not a ton of force but check if they move up and down in the direction of the bolt. Any play at all should be treated with a lot of suspicion. IIRC the Toyota spec for those ball joints is "Any perceptible movement" means it's bad.

 

Honestly though, if you haven't replaced the lower ball joints, you should replace them no matter what else you find. If you search around here you'll find many folks who have blissfully unware they were driving around on failure prone parts.