[tcnofh1]

And Pitman arm puller...
Had to hit the brakes hard the other day, van went abruptly right.
Good thing I was in the Right lane.
Not the caliper, I can put on normal brakes, hands off the wheel, stops straight.
Had the wife move the wheel back & forth while I examined the tie rod and pitman arm joints. The pitman arm has more play in it than it should, but the Right tie rod socket is really loose.
I don’t want to install crappy 3rd world made steering parts, brand names like TRW and MOOG no longer seem to mean quality. So I’m going to the local Ford truck parts place and paying the ransom money for what I hope are better quality parts. The steering parts are original, 280k miles, can’t complain about that.
Going to count turns and try to get the new parts on w/o messing up the alignment too much, just need the wheels to be straight enough to drive to the alignment place, 70 miles from here.

 

[klhansen]

I just put Moog tie-rod ends and ball joints on my truck. All of them still made in the US of A. The right side tie rod (the long one) was actually larger diameter than the original equipment rod. Everything fit fine and they were good quality parts. Some Federal-Mogul stuff is made offshore, but apparently not the Moog Suspension stuff.

FYI, I put some Motorcraft rear brake discs on a few years ago, and the box was marked "Made in China", so buying from Ford is no guarantee you're getting US made parts. :shrug03:

Measure the length of the tie rod (center to center) after you take it off, and make the new one the same length. You shouldn't have to even adjust the toe-in, but it doesn't hurt to check it.

 

[tcnofh1]

Thanks for the Moog tip, did not know they still made good parts.
PS: Drove the RV right past Eagle River on the way to Fairbanks this Summer, will pay more attention next time I am in Alaska!

update dec 3
Moog parts arrived, I made a gauge so as to measure the old positions and set up the new to match, worked great!

old_new_gauge