ball joints

on mine there's like a 1cm diamter cap in the center but It didn't budge at all when I pried on it with a screwdriver. I didn't want to wreck anything.

Ah I see, well my steering is very stiff and doesn't center itself. It may just be the rack, I have no idea. I thought if the balljoints could be lubed it would be something to try. My car has 60K miles on it. The ball joints are still tight and have no play in them.

I recently aligned it myself and experimented with different toe settings on the highway. I found having it slightly toed in was best, maybe 0.4 degrees total toe.

There's no way to adjust caster on these cars right? I mean, without buying adjustment plates.

Hmm grease needle! sounds interesting.
I also noticed today as I drained, filled and drained the power steering fluid again that the steering is very stiff even with both tires off the ground. It's a bit better with the engine running but still pretty stiff. I'm putting a new PS pump in it tomorrow (just gotta get this damn pully off, renting a puller) but I don't think it's gonna help the stiffness issue. I'm replacing it cause it was noisy. The fluid was pretty clean, no weird chunks or bits in the fluid.

It shouldn't be stiff at all with the wheels off the ground should it? It could be the rack, ball joints, tie rod ends, maybe the struts since they have to pivot/rotate as well? I'd like to inject the tie rod ends and ball joints to see if it helps. I really don't want to replace the rack. Do you have inject hot grease? How does it penetrate the pivot point otherwise?

I think I will try to grease everything I can just to see what happens. wish me luck!

hemi_fan said:

last year the front ball-joint pulled right out of the socket! Car just dropped onto the road

Click to expand...

Yikes! Ah Ford quality