Technical 51 Ford Idler Arm help please

I have no instructions and my shop book still hasn't arrived so I am asking for help please. The old idler arm wasn't installed correctly so I'm trying to figure it out. Do you thread the caps all the way into the steering arm and frame bracket and then back them off to suck in the idler arm? But if so the caps won't be tight when you do that. Any help is appreciated. And before anyone says anything I don't have the money for the $300 dollar upgrade kit at the moment.

 

If its anything like the one on my '54 Ranch Wagon the bushings are reverse threaded and you tighten them in to the the steering arm and bracket and then thread the idler arm into the bushings.

 

That is pretty much what it seems like i just don't understand it as when you are tightening the idler arm before it is super tight the bushing threads it's way out of the bracket and steering arm.

 

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I've got some info regarding this in a manual or something. I'll try and find it and post it.

 

Sounds good thank you

 

You have to assemble the unit with the bracket off the frame. Screw the bushing caps into the bracket and the steering link and then spin the arm into each bushing until it touches the rubber dust shields, then bolt it to the frame.

 

This is kind of a hard piece for me to understand, I can't hardly make my brain deal with left hand threads. I've got a new one of these, and a new frame bracket on my bench right now and looked at them a while ago. Like Mike says, I guess you screw the bushing parts hard into that bracket and into the drag link- both on mine are right hand thread. Then the arm, that's left hand threads on both ends so this must be the critical thing to set before bolting bracket to frame.

But here's what I wanted to tell you: in my 50 which has been on the road a couple years, I replaced every single steering part except that bracket. I've got some slop now which is mostly from that idler arm. When I did all that, didn't know what I was doing.......plus I think the threads are worn in the old bracket which allows some play there even when you have it all tight. All the rest of the old steering was way worn out. So I popped for the new bracket and am gonna try it again. Those new parts feel good together on my bench.

 

And all of this is covered in the green shop book, but even then it was hard for me to understand.

 

This is from the 1952 Ford Shop Manual. The 1954 supplement didn't talk about the idler arm so I'm guessing that the 1952 info is correct or at least similar for the 1954 models.

 

I did the one for my '59 off the car, made it a ton easier on the bench in a vise, plus everything was apart to be cleaned and painted.