1955 drag link interchange question

[henro]

I am rebuilding my 1955 T-Bird. It has power steering, which I am not going to use because of an engine swap(351c). i need the drag link or center link for a non-power steering car. i found one for a 1956 Mercury for sale. can anyone tell me if the Merc drag link willl fit? I would also be willing to trade my P/S drag link for a standard one. thanks

 

[fordrodsteven]

I am rebuilding my 1955 T-Bird. It has power steering, which I am not going to use because of an engine swap(351c). i need the drag link or center link for a non-power steering car. i found one for a 1956 Mercury for sale. can anyone tell me if the Merc drag link willl fit? I would also be willing to trade my P/S drag link for a standard one. thanks

I just looked in my Hollander Interchange manual and I don't see that anything else is interchangeable. The only other place I've seen the manual drag link (or center link as some call it) for sale is at Hill's Thunderbird. They show the P/N 3305 as a used part with a note to call for price and availability.

 

[henro]

I also saw that Borgenson makes a adapter to switch to manual steering, $145.00 or so.

 

[fordrodsteven]

What the previuos owner did on my car was he disconnected all the P/S stuff and just left the same drag link. It seemed okay when I drove it (45 years ago) but I seem to remember it would sometimes act like a back and forth wobble when I hit around 50MPH. I never did anything with it because I knew I would be replacing all the front end rebuildable parts anyway.

 

[henro]

yes they will work fine that way, especially if the end-play is tightened a little.