Hey everyone,

Thanks for the help. Water pump in my 86' 245 had complete failure a week ago. I got it towed back to my house, but I wasn't able to be there when they loaded it, so they didn't have the keys. I talked to the guy beforehand and he said that wasn't a problem.

Fast forward a week later, I have replaced the water pump, when revving the engine at a stop everything sounds normal, seems to drive normally on flat road, but when going over bumps or down an uneven dirt road, I hear a clanking sound like something is lose or broken, and it seems I can kind of feel something through the driver's floorboard.

I've climbed under the car and tried to move the power steering rack and a few other things, to see if anything noticeably moves. No luck.

Anyone have any idea where I should start? Not sure if this is related to the tow I got or if I just didn't notice it before and am hyper-aware now.

thanks!

 

Hard to say. No magic solution to this problem--you just have to keep looking and eliminate possibilities one by one. Very possibly something might have happened while being towed--these guys are notorious... I can't see how a water pump can be responsible.

 

Can't say the odd noises it sound like a water pump issue.

Ball joints might be a good place to start checking for odd clunks over bumps.

 

Or strut mounts.

 

If it sounds like something hitting the floorboard on the driver side, I'd check out the tranny mount and crossmember holding the rear tranny mount for looseness. Put it up on jackstands (don't crawl under a car on a jack) and take a look underneath.

 

Much thanks for the help everyone. I'll start with those. Forgive the elementary question, I haven't really done any suspension/steering work, how would I diagnose a broken ball joint or strut?

 

another candidate is the bushings on the control arms, front or rear. lots of clanks and clunks when those bushings disintegrate.

 

You may want to check the exhaust system as well as the drive shaft and mounts.

 

If something suspension related is knocking about, it should be easy to spot. You check by best having the car on a lift as things look much clearer that way, and with a help of a large screwdriver/pry bar compressing various joints and components looking for looseness, ability to get movement where should be none. Without a lift it's harder--crawling around looking up is sometimes hard to get a good grasp...