Hello, All:

Had a nasty clanging noise coming from the front passenger side of my 245. It got so bad that it felt like the wheel was going to come off at low speeds. The car also pulled hard to the right and I had a shimmy in the steering wheel.

Today, I replaced the passenger side ball joint with a Lemforder - supposedly original equipment. I was surprised by how easy it was to replace the ball joint. Using hand tools, and encountering some difficulty with removing the strut anchor from the old part, it took me about two hours. Had I used air tools, I imagine that I could have been in and out of there in 30 minutes or less. Hardest part of the job was removing the old, rusty hardware from the control arm.

Anyway, big improvement. The clang is gone and the front end does not feel like it will collapse at any moment. By the way, the old ball joint (a Meyle) was totally trashed. The joint moves like a joystick.

But...the steering is still loose, and although it is not as strong, the car still wanders to the right.

What should I look at next? My inclination is to replace the outer tie rod, but it doesn't look bad. How do I test it for play?