Hi Davey. I'm a bit confused, but then you know that it's a normal state for me anyway. You started out by mentioning a rumble in the front. I've heard of a loose rack bushing, internal or external, causing a clunk, but never a rumble. That sounds more like a bearing noise and now you say you have play in the bearings again, maybe that was the problem all along? There's been a lot of posts about Spridget wheel bearings over the past year on all the forums. What it seems to boil down to is that the newer bearings being made are not as strictly controled in dimension as far as thickness as the old bearings were and even if properly installed with the spacers etc, still wind up having some play in them. In many cases in GB, enough play to fail MOT with brand new bearings. Seems the soulution is to buy a "face adjusted" bearing at some ridiculously high price that are precision machined to fit and apply just the right side load to the balls to eliminate the play while still not overly side loading them. The other solution is to convert to tapered roller bearings, but that has other problems associated with that conversion as well. Nothing that can't be overcome, but still keeping the front wheels rolling on our little cars is getting a bit more complicated. If you're interested in the information I've come up with for the tapered roller conversion drop me a line and I'll send it to you.
'73 Midget (V6)
'59 MGA (I6) under construction
'73 Lotus Europa
"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"