Fox-Body Mustang Steering/Handling - On The Right Track

We tackled the passenger-side tie-rod assembly first. Once the outer tie-rod end was secured on the rack, we reattached it to the spindle. Once it's attached, you need to make sure it's secured using the cotter pins. We found that the supplied pins were too large to thread through the spindle holes, so we had to use some others from the parts tray. Never reuse old cotter pins.

Once the tie rod was firmly attached, we used a grease gun to lube the tie-rod/spindle fittings. Be liberal with the grease, as the last thing you want is for your tie-rod end fittings to seize from dirt and lack of lubrication. With the passenger-side install done, we turned our attention to the driver side, repeating the process.

With the new tie-rod ends in place, it was time to turn our attention to the sway-bar assembly. Our kit (left) came supplied with brand-new sway-bar end links, polyurethane sway-bar bushings, as well as upper strut bushings and bumpstops.

In order to install the new parts, we first needed to remove the factory sway bar. It's secured to the framerails by four bolts, two on each side, plus the two bolts on the lower control arms where the sway-bar links attach.

Once the bar was out of the car, we placed it on the workbench. In order to remove the mangled factory bushings, we must remove the outer brackets that hold them in place-a flat blade screwdriver or pry helps, especially if the bushings are old and a little bit rusted, like ours.

To pull out the old bushings, you first need to use a knife to cut them. Unlike most replacements, the stockers aren't sectioned, so once you pull them off, even if they're in good shape, they're done.

Before installing the new polyurethane bushings, we cleaned the part of the sway bar where they mount by using a die-grinder with a sanding disc. This will help prevent the frontend from squeaking.

We greased the new bushings and mounted them on the sway bar before reattaching the brackets that hold them in place. The new bushings come with precut splits, so they were easy to mount.

We turned our attention to the sway-bar end links. Using locking pliers, some penetrating lube, and an impact gun, we were able to twist the old links and pull out the nut that secures them to the sway bar, before greasing the bar ends and attaching the new links.

With both the new sway-bar links installed, it's time to reattach the sway bar to the framerails.

Once the bar was installed, we attached the end links to the lower control arms using an impact gun and torqued the bolts until they were secured.

Back underneath, we found that after installing the new rack and tie-rod ends, the car had a pronounced toe-out. In order to somewhat correct this problem, we adjusted the nut on the passenger side by several turns.