carl becker

I have a 1989 LX 5.0 with 212k miles--daily driver for 24 years. It has a hellish squeak with any kind of bump, as well as when I turn the steering wheel. I also need to replace the rack, which was replaced in '07. The rack I had installed in '07 was the wrong number of turns lock-to-lock, I believe, as it wants to turn the wheels too far. Hence, they rub.

I'm looking for recommendations on front bushings, just OEM type, nothing performance. I just want the monster squeak to go away. I would also like to know which rack to buy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This has been the most reliable car I have ever owned, having been a car owner since '79. She may yet become a restoration project--we'll see. Thanks again.

Waferboy

Have you narrowed it down at all? Any jumping up and down on the car to see if maybe it's a strut? How old are they? There are a fair number of bushings and a lot of labor $ involved. Maybe a front spring isolator? Those things are bound to wear out after this long and when they do it's metal on metal contact just prime for squeaking.

Never had a squeak up front, plenty of pops though. The sway bar bushings have been my issue. I have yet to replace them but they stopped popping during the spring. Mainly hear it in the winter dry/cold. If it is me (and it will be soon) I'm going to change over to polyurethane. I'm no expert but I have changed over to poly in the back end with a bunch of other back end upgrades and I've never had a squeaking issue with the poly parts. The cost for these parts isn't astronomical and everyone has them. Seems that standard rubber parts are harder to find than the poly, but if you want to stay with stock rubber then I'm sure NAPA, AutoZone, etc would have just what you need.

mjr46

if tires rub you need to identify what rims ad tire combo you are using, most likely it's not stock, because installing a rack with the wrong number of turns does not cause the car to have any greater turning ratio than one with less turns, the ratio inside the rack is the difference, meaning one has to turn the wheel less to reach the same distance of one with a greater ratio.......I have installed many racks with different ratios than what came out of the car and it does not change the sweep..........often rubbing of tires in these mustangs, boils down to the rim offset and wheel combo, so your "more turns lock to lock"theroy is flawed. However they do make rack limiter bushings you can install to reduce sweep. And no one will be able to tell you what rack to buy unless you know how many turns it made lock to lock on the old one.