Caged Cougar

Currently, the Cougar is confined to it's cage - or the garage. No, it's not being cagey, in a cage match to the death, or even honing it's basketball skills; I should just say that it's parked. I'll explain -- When I had the tires replaced two weeks ago at Patterson Tire and Service the technician took me in the garage to show me why the tires were wearing in the first place. The technician showed me that there was a considerable amount of play in the idler arm causing the alignment to be off and thereby causing the inside edges of both front tires to wear badly. The rubber gasket on the idler arm was worn down to the size of a flat washer! He jerked the idler arm up and down and it had a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch worth of movement up and down instead of being tight.

I did some research (if you know me you're probably really surprised here) and the plan is to replace the idler arm and the export brace on the Cougar to tighten up the front end and make sure the alignment true. The idler arm replacement is obviously a must, but you may be asking why the export brace. If you weren't asking I'm going to tell you anyway. Originally, Ford made braces in two pieces and they extend from the shock towers on both sides of the engine compartment diagonally to the firewall. However, on Shelby Mustangs and vehicles that Ford produced for export from the United States the braces were one piece instead of two. This kept the shock towers from flexing as much. See picture below for the one piece brace:

I priced these two pieces at Mustang Corral in Edwardsville and they quoted me $69.99 for an idler arm replacement (PN C7ZZ-3350-BR) from Scott Drake Enterprises and the export brace (PN C5ZZ-16A052-E) is $49.99 for a one piece replacement painted black. They also have a chromed version of the export brace, but I like the look of the black engine compartment with chrome on the engine only. I think that the engine pops more while surrounded by the all black engine compartment.

So, until I have time to buy these parts and replace them the Cougar sits so I don't wear out a new set of front tires too fast.

*SIGH*