Not being a fan of throwing parts at a problem to fix it,I am very sure your front end didn't wear out sitting over the winter.
If it drove ok before winter and doesn't now I find it hard to believe that the front end wore out sitting over the winter. Something happened from sitting. Something dried out, or stuck etc. from non use. You can remove the tie rod from one end and see if that side is still stiff. If it changes then that side is to not blame. By the process of elimination I think you can locate the problem area, then you can fix that issue.
If the front end was loose before you parked it then a rebuild is in order, but I personally wouldn't try to rebuild a good front end to locate this issue.
Larry

 

I hear you Larry, before I bought anything I was going to go through each part to see if i can locate something. Then go and get what I think I need but seeing that last time i had it off the wheels it only got a little better I think the king pins might be the first logical (and maybe cheapest) thing to test. Will let you guys know how it goes.

Cbass

 

ok, I am trying to separate everything so that I can narrow this down but the ends will not come apart. Looked in the manual to see if I was missing something but it just says remove pins and castle nuts and use forked rod remover. Is there some special technique for this?

 

You must use a small sledgehammer on the ball joint fork and hit it HARD.

 

thanks, hitting things hard with sledge hammers is what I do for a living so that is not a problem. Just didnt want to bugger anything up.

 

Is that the same for the spindle arm joint as well?

 

So, I plan on doing this tomorrow and dont want to do any damage. If I hit the fork with the small sledge will it ruin the joint? I really dont want to have to replace something that is not broken trying to find out what is broken. Does that make sense?

 

Anytime I need to remove joints like that, I don't use the fork. I use two hammers...one big hammer...put it against the outside of the joint/knuckle(whatever you want to call it) and use another hammer to hit the same joint directly 180 degrees from the backing hammer.. it will almost always come loose in a few hits. I had one of those forks and all it was good for was tearing boots...if it doesnt come loose with the hammers the I may try to use the fork but usually this method works well. Hope this makes sense! sometimes it easier to show you rather than try to explain it. if you have a nut on the end of a tie rod or whatever, make sure you loosen it BEFORE trying to separate it! I always take the nuts off, clean the area up, wire brush air or whatever is needed. then spray some penetrating oil in there, and put the nut back on. If it is a castellated nut I turn them upside down until the parts are separated, then I take the nut off. I turn them upside down and tighten them down to where the stud end is flush with the end of the nut, that way if you accidently hit it you are less likely to ding a thread on the end of the expensive parts. If you have to replace a nut? big deal right? the nuts are cheap. hope that helps!
My experience with this is on vehickes that have upper and lower control arms, but hope it will help ya.

 

I am not sure I get what you are saying. Can you tell me where on the joint you put the two hammers using this photo and the numbers? Thanks a ton.

 

You don't use a hammer on any part of the tie rod end, you use it on the steering arm where the tapered part below the threads goes through. A couple of firm licks and it should pop loose.

 

ok in that picture, it would be above 1 and 2. the tapered part goes up throught the hole of the spindle arm. you would be hitting the arm area where the taper goes through it. again big hammer on the one side for wieght backing and hit with another 180 degrees(as close as possible) from the big hammer. It was explained to me that the force between the two hammers would sort of flex the steel enough to release the tapered part of the ball joint. now dont think that it will ruin the shape of the hole, I kinda didn't believe it when I learned about this, but trust me...it makes life alot easier!
Of course I change my own tires in the driveway too! with two tire irons, a BFH and soap! I don't pay anyone when I don't need too!

 

Even easier to shy away from damaging anything like the fork tearing the boot, ect...
I use a brass drift to place on top of the tie rod bolt and one good wack straight down on it usually does the trick and does zero damage since the brass is softer or if you have a brass hammer just use that.

Deadanimal

 

hey deadanimal thats a good idea too!

 

Ok, so thank you all for the help. Got them both off and neither of the king pins need to be replaced which is great but pretty much leaves me with a steering box issue. I think I will start a new post on trouble shooting the box just so I people that might have a bit of knowledge dont overlook it thinking it is a king pin thread.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post10098590

 

hey didn't notice you were from chicago! too bad you didn't need a steering box for an F3! got one. I don't know exactly where you are but I am 15 mins from peoria. I know a firefighter with the gurnee dept.
he bought my last toy, 87 Buick Grand National...his name is Joe Olsen.