Big Problem

Hello,

First off welcome to the forum, you will like it here, lots of good people to help you.

I think I have a similar problem on my '80 mustang. is it hard to turn the wheel or make a grinding sound in the column?

Is it a nasty creaking sound?

Almost sounds to me like a ball joint on its way out.

Your tires aren't rubbing are they?

At any rate check the ball joints first.

One recommendation I would make is to pick up a manual of some sort, if you are new to this. Chiltons or Haynes. I love the Chilton's I got for my old Mustang and still use it for my Thunderbird, but the Chilton's for my truck kinda sucks.

It's difficult to explain tie rods without a picture, but they're easy to remove and replace.

First off, you will probably want to rent a tie rod puller from an auto parts store (most make you pay full price up front, and then you get it all back when you return it).

Jack up the front of the car, put it on jackstands, and remove the front wheels. You will see the steering rack at the front of the engine crossmember, with the tie rods attached to the front of both spindles on the inside of the brake rotor.

Remove the cotter pin on the tie rod nut, then remove the nut. Use the puller on the tie rod end stud to force it out of the spindle.

Next, get a large wrench or crescent wrench and find the "flats" on the tie rod body (it may have a hex or just two flat surfaces where you can grip it with a wrench). Put the wrench on there, then break loose the locknut at the end, just enough so that you can unthread the tie rod from the rack.

Mark the location of the locknut with paint or antisieze or something, the remove it as well. Thread on the new locknut to the mark, then the tie rod. You want to get everything back together as closely as possible until you can get the car aligned.

Install the dust boot onto the tie rod, if necessary. Push the tie rod stud into the hole in the spindle, and put the nut on hand-tight to hold it for now. Grip the tie rod body similarly to how you did when you removed it, and tighten the locknut against the tie rod body. Then, tighten down the castle nut on the tie rod stud, and keep an eye on where the hole in the tie rod stud, make sure it lines up with one of the open spaces on the nut when it's tight. Insert the cotter pin through the side of the stud, and bend the ends around the outside of the nut to secure it.

Presto, you're done. Make sure you get the car aligned very shortly after doing this, or it could be very hard on your tires.

Very detailed instructions Red_Lx, great job. I vote for the ball joints as well, but be aware that your ball joints are not serviceable. Unfortunately if your ball joints are bad you will need to replace your entire lower control arm. The arms match one of the Lincolns instead of the other mustangs. A lot of owners end up changing to the SN95 parts up front because of the cheaper cost and easier servicing in the future. Check out the SVO Club of America's site, they may have some more replacement options.

Can you really not press out the ball joints on SVO lowers?

I always heard the '87-93 Mustang ball joints were not replaceable, but I had a guy press my old ones out and replace them when I first got my car because they were completely shot (scary too...creaked really bad on uneven surfaces, and a couple times during sharp turns the steering almost "locked" the wheels in the turned position)

Not a problem.

Have the ball joints checked out by somebody. It's difficult to tell whether or not they are going bad when you're just working with a floor jack. A technician can check for any excessive play.