crazy problem

[sjr8ut]

Maybe someone out there has an idea what is going on with my '88 Taurus. Turning onto my street after a five hour drive without problems, I hear a clunk, clunk, clunk as I rounded the corner. It sounded like it was coming from the front end. The noise went away after completing the turn, but then the steering wheel was shaking back and forth ( a lot) when driving straight down the road. I pulled into my driveway and shut off the car. It would not start after that--it just cranks and cranks now (it always would start right up before).
I thought that maybe it was just a bad CV joint. I do have a torn boot--but it never made noise before. And why would the car not start now? Is there anything that could cause both problems? (not starting and the noise/steering wheel shakes)
Sorry for the long post--any ideas would be helpful.

[curtis73]

The CV joint is bad causing the clunk and the steering wobble. There may be other problems up there too, but the no-start is most likely a completely separate problem.

[sjr8ut]

Thanks for the reply. It seemed strange to me that both problems would happen at once, but I can't think of anything that would cause both symptoms. I think you are right--the nonstarting must be unrelated to the steering/clunking issure.