Yesterday, received my RockAuto order which included some items for this car.
After work, I decided to tackle the tie rod ends. The outers had previously been purchased and are also Moog Problem Solver.
Started on the passenger side. Carefully un-banded the boot off the steering rack and used a specialty tool to remove the inners from the rack. I had to buy the tool as I have never touched anything with rack and pinion steering before.
Once removed, I painted it at the threads so I'd have a reference for where it was before disassembly, then removed the outer from the inner to get the boot off. I assembled the new tie rod assembly, and reassembled the old using the paint as a reference, and compared lengths to get them as close as possible. It's getting an alignment anyway but no sense making it too far off.
I was able to reuse the band to clamp the boot back onto the rack successfully. Passenger side complete, minus grease for the outer.
Moved on to the passenger side engine mount, as it was getting late and I needed the impact for this. Fairly painless to change. The old one was supposedly hydraulic but had a big split in the bottom and no sign of any fluid within, plus a FoMoCo logo on it, so I'm fairly sure it was original and toast. Tested idling the engine afterwards and verified NVH is substantially improved. The new part is a cheap Chinese one from FVP; Focus people specifically warn against any cheap engine and trans mounts, but I'm giving it a shot mostly because of its lifetime warranty. I can tell you that it did improve things out of the box, so longevity is the only unknown.
Discovered that my new exhaust hangers at the downstream cat have broken apart. The original Ford ones will have to go back on. They were in fine condition but just seemed too saggy; maybe my aggressively not-saggy new ones were too not-saggy. They were purchased in 2013ish so definitely no warranty on those.
Moved on to the driver side tie rod. Got the old out, then discovered while assembling the new that it has tool marks from wrench slip on the hex formed into it for alignment adjustments. The part seems tight and usable but I requested replacement from RockAuto anyway. The box had been opened and re-closed with clear packing tape. Probably an overreaction and probably a usable part but I didn't feel like messing around with it. I reinstalled the original parts just loosely so I could roll the car back and forth as needed until the new one arrives. I did compare against the other one and it didn't look the same at all; nice crisp edges on the hex.
Accordingly, car is down until the new tie rod end arrives, and tire+alignment activities are on hold until after that as well.
- 2x Moog inner tie rod end
- Cabin air filter (2005 has the cabin filter decontented vs 2004, but I kept the hardware from the 04 parts car to be able to install it - not moving ahead with this at this time, but wanted to be in a position to)
- Some Panther ball joints, parking brake cable, and coolant hoses
After work, I decided to tackle the tie rod ends. The outers had previously been purchased and are also Moog Problem Solver.
Started on the passenger side. Carefully un-banded the boot off the steering rack and used a specialty tool to remove the inners from the rack. I had to buy the tool as I have never touched anything with rack and pinion steering before.
Once removed, I painted it at the threads so I'd have a reference for where it was before disassembly, then removed the outer from the inner to get the boot off. I assembled the new tie rod assembly, and reassembled the old using the paint as a reference, and compared lengths to get them as close as possible. It's getting an alignment anyway but no sense making it too far off.
I was able to reuse the band to clamp the boot back onto the rack successfully. Passenger side complete, minus grease for the outer.
Moved on to the passenger side engine mount, as it was getting late and I needed the impact for this. Fairly painless to change. The old one was supposedly hydraulic but had a big split in the bottom and no sign of any fluid within, plus a FoMoCo logo on it, so I'm fairly sure it was original and toast. Tested idling the engine afterwards and verified NVH is substantially improved. The new part is a cheap Chinese one from FVP; Focus people specifically warn against any cheap engine and trans mounts, but I'm giving it a shot mostly because of its lifetime warranty. I can tell you that it did improve things out of the box, so longevity is the only unknown.
Discovered that my new exhaust hangers at the downstream cat have broken apart. The original Ford ones will have to go back on. They were in fine condition but just seemed too saggy; maybe my aggressively not-saggy new ones were too not-saggy. They were purchased in 2013ish so definitely no warranty on those.
Moved on to the driver side tie rod. Got the old out, then discovered while assembling the new that it has tool marks from wrench slip on the hex formed into it for alignment adjustments. The part seems tight and usable but I requested replacement from RockAuto anyway. The box had been opened and re-closed with clear packing tape. Probably an overreaction and probably a usable part but I didn't feel like messing around with it. I reinstalled the original parts just loosely so I could roll the car back and forth as needed until the new one arrives. I did compare against the other one and it didn't look the same at all; nice crisp edges on the hex.
Accordingly, car is down until the new tie rod end arrives, and tire+alignment activities are on hold until after that as well.
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