Suspension: 140: Suspension noise

[142 Guy]

Since completing the resto on the 142 years ago, I have been chasing a 'groink' noise in the front suspension. It occurs most prominently when you first apply the brakes coming to a stop (suspension compresses) and at the last moment when you release the brakes and the suspension rebounds. The more vigorous the braking the louder the groink. The bounce test on the fenders generates a tiny amount of squeak, definitely no clanks or rattles so nothing is loose. I have sprayed all the bushings with silicone in an attempt to identify the source of the noise (removed and lubed the ASB bushings). None of this has yielded the source of the noise.

In the front suspension, the original design has a plastic / rubber spacer that sits at the top (or bottom depending on which reference you use) of the front spring. The original part number was 675079. My original spacers were toast and replacements for 675079 were unavailable when I did the resto. Advice I received was that they were not really necessary so it went together without any spacers. I later found out that the part is still available; but, under a new part number 683266.

I am curious as to whether anybody has deleted these spacers and developed similar noises from the front end?. Conversely, have they replaced the spacers to eliminate a noise? They are directly available from Volvo and fairly cheap so I would consider putting them in if it eliminated the noise. However, if this has a low probability of being the source of the noise I am disinclined to do this. Separating the A arms and removing the springs is not technically hard; but, it is a fair amount of grunt work. I am at the age where I am disinclined to do a lot of grunt work unless I have a reasonable expectation of a positive outcome.

Any other observations as to where my noise might be originating? I am pretty confident that it is not the brakes..