Fun with the Ford

So since I've had the '97, I've had to replace a few of the OEM mechanical pieces because they were just worn out. At 205,000 miles now, even though I replaced the upper control arms and ball joints several months ago, the steering is getting heavy and inconsistent once again.

I checked it out a couple weeks ago and found that all of the ball joints in the steering assembly are getting loose. All of the boots are gone and there is a bit of play starting to creep in.

So, I started gathering parts. (One piece at a time so I could maximize my cash back at autozone.) Yesterday I picked up the final few parts and this morning I'm going to start replacing the left and right inner and outer tie rod ends, the pitman arm and the idler arm. (Which is a big thing on the passenger frame rail that acts like a secondary pitman arm to support the opposite side of the steering.

Hopefully this gets the steering back where it should be.