Things that go clunk in the night ... brakes?
 

Hello All. I still consider myself a novice of novices. I have a base model, 1985. Approximately 80,000 miles on it. Over the last couple of years I have replaced the front pads, rear shoes, and the rear axle bearings. (Yeah, I'm kind of slow...)
Over the last few times that I've driven the car, I've noticed a very distinct clunk, clunk that appears to stop when I use the brakes. What should I be looking for? I did jack the car up tonight and try to wiggle each wheel - there seems to be no major play in any of them. I also spun each wheel by hand while the car was lifted, but no distinct clunk. Thoughts? Thanks!!

Clunking on bumps, rhythmically with speed, accelerating, decelerating? Front, rear, right or left? Try to narrow the conditions when you hear it.

One possibility is a loose break pad. You would hear from your front, over bumps and although it would still happen at highway speed, you would hear it mostly at low speed with windows open as there is less noise to mask it. It can happen if the springs aren't installed the pad and it can move around enough to make a metallic knocking sound over bumps. You would not be able to easily recreate the sound when the car is jacked up.

Here's a picture from my rear brakes for an idea of how the pad fits in the caliper bracket and where the springs are. There are four and you need all of them. When you apply pressure to the brakes, the piston holds the pad so the clunk stops. I realize you only have disks up front but it's the same idea as my rear setup shown here.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...367773c85f.jpg

Wow! Thank you for the details. I'll report back ... :)