2001 Mercury Sable 24V LS transmission or axle help needed
 

Hello everyone heres the situation I have a 2001 Sable that I bought at 60,000 miles back in October of last year. now it has 103,000 in 4 short months. Since purchasing what I hoped to be a nice dependable vehicle I have replaced the brakes twice, the ignition coil, the plugs, wires. I have replaced the blend door from the heater control unit. I have replaced that radiator part that has I believe for hoses running from it. I have put in a new alternator, rear strut
and a few other repairs but heres one I dont quite know how to approach yet so here goes and any help is beyond appreciated at this point.

Well we started hearing a mild metal sounding clunk when ever hitting a bump in the road, it has progressively gotten more frequent till not it is heard everytime theres even a mild bump in the road. No noise when turning only when you go over a bump. So I lift the car up and notice that when I grab the passenger side front axle I can wiggle ita good bit both up and down side to side. It reproduces the sound that is heard when going over a bump, so theres the source. My concern is here, the movement is noticable where the axle meets the tranny. It has a good bit of give. I have also started noticing a slight vibration in the wheel and I feel it in the accelerator as well. I had a shade tree mechanic friend of take a look at it and he feels due to the movement it makes when you move it by hand that it is the inner axle bearings inside the tranny itself. And the I am looking ata nightmare of a repair. I have since spoke to many a "expert" at the local autozones and advance autoparts and every person seems to have another view of the issue........ Does the tranny being bad seem to be realistic. The vehicle runs smooth and shifts smoothly no issues other than the clunk sound, and the irritating shimmy of the steering wheel and pedal.

Also if this were to completely fail is it dangerous?? Thanks and again any help would be very appreciated. Thanks