OK so I have a 94 F150 w/302 and auto. The steering is very loose and the truck needs an alignment. I wanted to check the front end parts as my experience is that almost all front end shops automatically tell you the tie rod ends and ball joints need replacing and they are running a "special" so I am so "lucky". ha ha. I jacked up the front end and tried to move the top and bottom of the tires in and out. I get about 1/8" of movement with a solid stop so it seems my bearings and ball joints would be OK. Now, left and right sides of the tire move at least an inch or so easily and another inch w/a little more pressure. The inside tie rod ends where they connect to each other and to the pittman arm seem to be where the movement comes from. I plan to replace them myself but have a few questions.
1) How hard is this to do?
2) Where can I get a good manual w/some details on this? Chiltons and Hayes are both very vague.
3) O'reilly and Autozone carry "regular" parts and "enhanced design" parts. Any idea what the difference is? They don't know.
4) Are there any other parts I should replace while I'm down there?

Sorry for the length of this post but I would appreciate any help you can give.
Tom

 

Sounds like you should go for both outter tie rod ends and a drag link and possibly inners. I use MOOG on most of my front ends. Its not that hard to replace the parts,if you measure how far they are threaded on and try to duplicate it on the new parts. Of course I would go for an alingment when all is put back together.

 

Thanks for the info as well as the despair.com reference. That is an awesome company.
Tom

 

I just replaced my outer tie rod, drag link and center link.
It took a total of 40 minutes.
Piece of cake!

1973 F250 3/4 ton Custom
390 .060 over w/428 inside (422?)
Edelbrock Performer intake
Holley 4160 carb
14" K&N Filter
True Dual Exhaust
and more to come.