Can the center (drag) link go bad?

With that said, test fit it. If there is slop in the current one, replace it.

Get it while you can as some parts for our cars like the pitman arm are not being made for some reason. Only way to get a new arm, is to send off for a rebuild. Silliest thing, as they used to be $35-$40 at parts stores 20? years ago but you can not find the actual pitman arms at all right now.

Those should, they are supposed to be the high end type of joints that articulate very well and smoothly. They wouldn't bind up and they would be "firmer" than rubber bushings of other parts.

I would look harder if you need a better/cheaper alternative bushing, that price you mentioned is nuts. I think those Spohn CA's were about $450 for a set a few years ago, they have gone up like everything else. Check on availability too, these days you have to try to buy stuff ahead of time.

I do like the idea with the Spohn arms of just bolting them in for an upgrade without having to take the time to press out the old bushings... I'm sure things will take a while so having *something* go quickly would be nice. Spohn's site shows the pair for $299 right now.

As for rear poly, would I take enough curves to have to worry about binding? I also worry about squeaking, and was trying to have the front and rear match. Plus, I think I saw I'd have to burn out the rubber to put the Energy bushings into the old sleeves.

I bought everything new for the front end (except the drag link) -- tie rod inners and outers and idler arm (already replaced steering box and pitman arm), upper and lower ball joints, upper and lower control arm bushings (all rubber), strut rod bushings (also rubber), front sway bar links (rubber too)... it'll be a lot of work. Also got new springs for all four corners. They're for a 75-76 wagon. Mine's a 72, but I figure these will firm up the ride a tiny bit because they're meant to deal with the extra weight of the 5 mph bumpers that I don't have, but won't be extreme like converting to Crown Vic springs.

That sway bar kind of confuses me, since it sure does look factory, including the mounts on the frame. I have a lot of questions about the car... added rear sway bar... was a 351C-2V and C4, but now has the 2V block and heads but cast iron 4V intake and C6 transmission. I did find the address of the prior owner who sold it to junkyard that sold it to the guy who sold it to me, but I'm not sure if it would go over well if I sent a letter asking about it. 

Is there a way to keep the nuts that the shaft bolts screw into from falling down when I unscrew the bolts? When I removed the arm the first time, the nuts fell down to the bottom of the frame channel. Only way I could reach them to put them back was by sticking my hand through the spring perch. Then I had to hold them in place between my fingers to get the bolts started.

I'll sure be sad if I have to take off the bottom part of the suspension too since that's a lot of time.

So resurrecting a bit of an old thread...

I've had a gear oil leak into the left drum brake for a while now, so my project this weekend was replacing the axle seal and then the rear brakes (since the left shoes got soaked with oil). I'd bought a new bearing and seal that I hadn't used, so I went to use the seal and -- surprise! -- it didn't fit. Turns out I have a "big bearing new style" rear end. Luckily O'Reilly could get me the correct seal same day.

But in addition to the new brake shoes, I got new wheel cylinders because the bleed screws wouldn't budge on the old ones. I got the ones listed for the wagon. Surprise! The back side wouldn't fit through the hole in the backing plate. After looking at the options for other years, it looks like mine uses the cylinders for "hardtop," which has a smaller part that goes through the backing plate.

I was able to get the bleeder screws off the old cylinders when they were off the car and replace those, but one of the pistons in the right cylinder is stuck, and I also have suspicions about the left, so I'd still like to replace them. I at least could properly bleed them, so now the pedal feels nice and firm. I'll see how it stops once I get the speedometer working again (the hold-in-place tab is broken and I think the cable backed out a bit) and can drive it.

The main question is, which years of rear axles had the big bearings and also the factory sway bar, but also used the "hardtop" wheel cylinders? I see those cylinders listed under 1973, 1974, and 1975. Did the Gran Torino have a rear sway bar as an option in 1974 or 1975 after the fastback sport body style went away? But also, I'd read here that Torinos didn't switch to the big bearing until the very end of 1973 or start of 1974 production, but Rock Auto lists the big bearing wheel seal for 1973 and not the small bearing one. So yeah, just trying to figure out what year rear end I have.

I counted splines, and there are 28. There is a tag on the pumpkin that says it's 3.00:1, and that seems right based on freeway RPM.

I'm also trying to chase down a rumble from the rear that starts over 70 mph. I'd checked the bearings a year or so ago after first noticing the rumble, and they felt great and were quiet turning them by hand. (I wonder if pulling the axles caused my leak on the left side, but no leak on the right.) After replacing the pinion seal, I topped up the gear oil because some leaked out when replacing the seal, and the seal had been leaking. Between that and making sure the U-bolts on the rear U-joint were only at 13 ft-lbs, the noise improved -- I'd hear it sometimes but not all the time. But driving back from the car show in May (which was when I noticed the gear oil leaking into the brake drum), as I got farther along in the 387-mile journey, the rumbling started getting worse. Is rumbling over 70 mph a sign of low oil, a bearing in the pumpkin going bad, a wheel bearing going bad, or something else? No noises below 70 mph that I can notice over the engine and wind noise.

(Sorry it somehow uploaded upside down...)

Bummer I don't have the WEB-AY, which is the same except with four spider gears, so it should be stronger. But I don't think I'm putting out enough horsepower for that to be a problem... and it would be nice to upgrade to a locker or limited slip someday anyway.

So I took it out driving for a few minutes, and it seemed quieter again, but also hard to tell over wind noise. I did find that I'd start to get a bit of a jerk over 75 mph, like the engine was starving for fuel. Is there any possibility of that having something to do with the rear brake work? The thing with fuel supply is that I've taken it to higher RPMs than that while full-throttle accelerating, so if my floats were too low or pump not providing enough flow, I'd think it would come up then too. But all that accelerating hard was months ago, and the carb does seem to have a new off-idle flat spot that wasn't there in May, so I don't know. Just wondered if anyone has heard of anything to do with brakes causing that issue before I go through the carb again.