I was driving my 56 Victoria with manual steering yesterday and noticed a chatter and vibration in the right front and thought it might be a wheel bearing. Apon checking, the wheel bearing was ok but the idler arm had a lot of play . I was checking on replacement parts and found a wide variance on prices. I have a used arm and bracket saved from a low mileage car and was considering using it being that it is original Ford equipment. It however, had a slight bit of play which I think might be in the design. Bushings appear to screw in place with the actual arm screwing into the bushings.. Some pictures i have seen of replacement assemblies seem to show press in type bushings., Is this a cheap aftermarket replacement ? Another ad I saw from Vintage Ford Parts R US showed just the screw in type bushings only for about $21 dollars. They looked like original Ford equipment. Can anyone advise me on what to buy? I feel inclined to try to replace the bushings and seals only.   George

I found a NOS rebuild kit for mine on Ebay. Look there first. I figured old American made parts are alot more reliable than new Chinese made junk.

Durham Missouri

Idler arms were the first part to go bad on many early cars. Mines been changed twice. At one time there were bearing kits for them in the aftermarket but I have never found one for a Ford and have been looking. Other makes have them available, just not ours. Once a bearing is installed steering is easier..I’ve been thinking of doing something with a better product like urethane.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Assuming it is the same as 55-57 Tbird/w manual steering, the bushing is not pressed in. 

I rebuilt the steering and suspension on my 55 Tbird. I bought an entire kit on ebay, only to be told by a shop, and Gil Baumgartner, that the control-arm bushings didn't fit. I returned the entire kit for a refund. Gil bought the correct bushings from Napa and installed them. He seemed to think that my new idler arm bushings were a bit tight, so he gave a complete assembly to me. I did, however, install my original, rebuilt assembly. The steering is tighter than it should be, but I attribute that to the aftermarket upper ball joint, as the spindle on that side was much harder to rotate after the ball joint was installed, even before installing any steering components. I've since bought a NOS upper ball joint, but I will leave it to the alignment shop to install it, if they deem it necessary. 

By the way, the aftermarket ball joint was made in India and sold by a Tbird parts supplier. 

You say yours has been changed twice. I rebuilt my front end 50,000 miles ago and used a new idler arm complete assembly bought from Concours in Nevada.. Guess I can't complain and agree that these are the weak link in the 56 Ford suspension. An old time mechanic whom I respected greatly told me the ball joints on the 50's fords were very beefy and seldom needed replaced if they were lubed periodically. I have had good service from Tee Bird Products and will probably order another idler arm assembly from them.

Gil Baumgartner also said the same thing about the OEM ball joints' not wearing out. Unfortunately, I damaged the threads on one of mine, couldn't remove the nut, had to cut it off, then press it out of the spindle with a vice. The remaining 3 ball joints are the originals.  

"By the way, the aftermarket ball joint was made in India and sold by a Tbird parts supplier."
I would NOT use or TRUST any part made in INDIA!!! 
Are you kidding me?!


"FREE SAMPLE"

My 55 has original ball joints with Ford script stamped on the housing, someone years ago told me Ford used Fairlane ball joints in the T-Birds.

1955 312 T-Bird Warwick, NY

The 1955-1957 Thunderbirds do share the same upper and lower ball joints as the 1954-1956 Ford cars.  The idler arm however is different between the cars and the Thunderbirds.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Further on the Idler arm subject: On my 57 car, I recently had a real problem with trying to get grease into both fittings. I pulled the lower nipple & it would pass grease off the car, but not on. And the upper at the frame won't take grease either & when I tried to remove it, it just spun in the fitting & won't come out. Any suggestions?.. 


Paul