Thread: 79 Ford Front steering rebuild

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Guys, my 79 F100 steering has developed a bit of sloppyness.
Most of the old Fords that I have driven have this problem. It's not a saftey issue but more of a "feeling" when driving on the highway.
I want to replace all the tie rod ends and as many of the rubber bushing as possible. This model has the "I" beam in the front.
Other than bushings and tie rod ends, what other items need to be looked at?
I have replaced the Steering Gear Unit. A rebuilt unit from NAPA

Thank you techinspector1
I have done a front end job on some English stuff but not a US and esp. a big steel truck.
Where during the replacement of the parts do you think it actually did the most good? I was thinking that the tie rods may be the cause of most of the lag. I really don't want to do this job half ass. The truck is going to need to be realigned if I do the ties rods alone, and again if I do the spindels and all the other stuff.
Question: you mentioned the prob with alignment of the bolt holes, is this the axle assembly going into the spindle?
We replaced all the rubber in my 71 spit with urethane and the new bushing made reassembly a bear! all the parts wer now tight and they didn't like being put back together.
Also, did you leave most of the fasteners loose before you put weight back on the truck? I have heard that final torque needs to be done with the weight on the suspention.

Again thanks for the heads up on this

I wish this thing had a spell checker!