![]() This far in, I am not hopefully that it will work out. ![]() In the meantime, I thought I would experiment with a low cost fix just to see if it will work. In the end, I will probably end up doing this. The suggestion given to me was to cut these out and reinsert the rubber bushings that are supposed to be used for the idler arm. ![]() Apparently, this is one of a multitude of after-market parts that became available when Ford stopped supporting service parts for these models. Outside the forum, an owner linked me up with another owner. I do not want to cut these out without some additional knowledge for fear that maybe the holes in the center link and the idler bracket were reamed out to a larger diameter, then I won't be able to install the factory type bushings very easily.Ĭjc56, I think I have a reasonable conclusion. Does anybody recognize this type of setup? Maybe it is from a different vehicle adapted to the Thunderbird. The seller has no information about the history of these bushings either. I suspect that this is an aftermarket conversion of some kind but I cannot find any information on the internet. The bushing in the idler bracket is exactly the same. The photos show one of the bushings at the end of the center link. The set I bought did not include any fasteners to hold it all together. Further, they are much shorter than the factory bushings, so I would need to find some spacers to fill the voids on each stem of the idler arm. By rotating, they do not provide any of the self-centering torque described in the CTCI Restoration Manual. As opposed to the factory bushings that are pressed in with a rubber layer between the inner and outer steel bushes, these have no rubber and they rotate. In place of the stock bushings for both ends of the idler arm, there is a different kind of bushing pressed into the center link and the idler arm bracket. All of the parts are well used and need refurbished. I recently purchased a complete set of links, hoses, ram, control valve, pump, and mounting to convert it back to PS. Sure enough, it did as confirmed by the original invoice. I suspected that it had power steering from the factory due to many telltale signs. My 56 Thunderbird had manual steering when I bought it out of a barn.
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