96 965 Front Suspension Clunking (Headache 1 of 2)

[ItWasTheSalmonMoose]

I love my 96 960 wagon, but man is the suspension driving me nuts!

I have a persistent loud knocking coming from the front and I’m stumped. I’ve had a variety of noises and done a bunch of work to sort things out over the past several years: struts, mounting plates, bearings, lower control arms plus all bushings and ball joints, sway bar bushings, sway bar links (custom universal because replacement LCAs were beefier iron than OE aluminum and didn’t clear stock links), brake flex lines, steering rack and end links. All of that worked nicely, but now I can’t figure out the new noise.

The noise tends to occur when going over bigger bumps and uneven pavement. It seems more on the left. I’ve jacked the car up, yanked on everything, tried compressing suspension and then yanking stuff, and can’t replicate the thunking when not driving.

One weird thing I noticed was that the bolts holding the ball joint to the bottom of the knuckle on both sides seem to foul on the LCAs at full lock both directions. Could the stress induced have caused premature play in the ball joints causing the clunking? If so, shouldn’t I be able to jiggle it when manhandling the knuckle? See photos. (I’m just going to grind out the corners where fouling - these cast iron LCAs are pretty crudely over-built.)

Alternately, could the strut have failed in a way that is making it bang about?

Appreciate your thoughts!