Hi,

I have some wheel play which I'm struggling to diagnose without a ramp. It's my Jeep Pat, if I jack up the offside I can clunk the wheel left and right. The inner and outer tie rods are fine, with no movement on the ball joints. There's no vertical play. When I bump off my drive with the wheel turning I can hear and feel a clunk.

Could this be lower wishbone ball joint? I'd expect play about the vertical as well...

Large levers are the answer. As well as a trusty friend to either rock the wheel or feel for the play on each joint with their fingers. Play in suspension is NOT always obvious, some times you need levers to find it, some times just observation.
I've had vehicle brought in to me after MOT failure of the "Bottom ball joint excess play", where I've found no fault with the ball joint, BUT have found excessive play in the macpherson strut inner support bearing. I have also found excessive bottom ball joint play/lift where an MOT tester found none.

HTH's

From your description I'd guess at bottom balljoint. Yu often can't feel play vertically (pulling, pushing top/bottom of wheel) but plenty sideways. You really need an assitant to pull/push while you get underneath.

ps... whats a cm of play at the wheel is only a mm at the joint and also when jacked up the joint is sitting at a different angle, prob' where it isn't worn as bad.

[Edited on 11/3/15 by adithorp]