Tie rod ends. L & R, or not?

[ew1usnr]

(1) I thought you were going to do the work yourself and then have it aligned afterward, but either way should be nice driving it with a new front end.
(2) Are they going to inspect the steering box 'while they'er at it' (WTAI as opposed to WIAI).
(3) The only other thing you could have added, which I think you would have liked a lot, is a thicker front sway bar.

Hello, Roger.

(1) Taking those grease encrusted frozen parts apart would have been a real bear. The mechanic has a lift, the extra tools, and he knows what he is doing. He has a machine to do the alignment. He will probably have it done by tomorrow afternoon. Bingo bango duno.

(2) There is some extra play in the steering. How much is normal? Until the new pitman arm, idler arm, ball joints, etc., are installed I won't be able to tell how much of the play is due to a worn steering box and how much is due to everything else. I did pump the box full of lithium grease about a year ago. I could not add much extra, which showed that the box was almost full of grease to begin with. If it has been kept full of grease, maybe it is OK. Rust probably destroys these things quicker than does wear. I'll see what the steering is like after all the new parts are installed. If I can't say for sure that is a problem, maybe I don't have a problem.

(3) I did give a heavier sway bar some thought. I wondered why if the heavier bar was better, why didn't the Ford engineers specify one insead of the stock 11/16" bar. One guy at work thought that maybe it was economics. If the heavier bar cost 50-cents more and you build two million cars, the heavier bar costs a million dollars. Another guy said that a heavier sway bar makes the suspension stiffer. You sacrifice ride comfort on a bumpy road for less body roll on a sharp turn. Then I considered that the stock bar has been on the car for the past fifty years. Why should I take it off now? What I liked about my car when I bought it was that it was relatively unmolested. I want to leave it as original as I can. The 1963 ride may have had some body roll, but that's what a 1963 ride was and that is part of what makes it different from new cars. Along with its drum brakes, leaf springs, and generator. I can always add a heavier sway bar later, but I would first like to feel what the original ride was like. The new parts that will be installed include new sway bar links and bushings to get the stock bar performing like it is supposed to. I may be happy with it as is.