1963 Idler arm

[boatbum]

I have a lot of play in the idler arm and would like to fix it. I see that there are kits and rebuilt arms out there. Is there any tricks to installing the kits?

[Greg McDonnell]

Have you looked at ALL of your steering parts up closely? It may be more than your idler arm that is worn out. My '63 Monaco I just bought only has 64K miles on it and all the bushings are cracked and split. Some are worse than others. I talked it over with my mechanic and at first he said just replace the bushings. Of course that would be the least expensive way to go. But I opted for a complete front end rebuild (ouch) so that I will be able to forget about any sloppy steering for many years to come. I was able to get an idler arm complete with a new bushing from a guy off of Ebay. The starting bid was 49.99 but I chose the buy it now for 75.00 because I was going to be away from my computer and didn't have time to stay and watch the bidding. The guy lists them all the time. By the way, don't forget your sway bar. It also could be worn. I am replacing it too with a kit from Thunderbird Headquarters (150.00). When I am finished, I hope my car steers like it did when it was new!

Best regards,

Greg

[Alan H. Tast]

One big tip is to use the '64-style arm, bushings and mounting bracket/spindle. It's heavier-duty than the original '63 design. The '61-'63 idler arm went through a series of several changes to the idler arm bushings, which I won't go into here, but it suffices to say the '64 arm/bushings are probably the latest and better solution from Ford's engineers during the period.

You should be able to get everything you need from the 'Bird parts vendors. I did this swap about 10 years ago when these parts came back on the market. I got mine from The Bird Nest in Portland, but if you have a preferred vendor they should be able to get them.