i called up a shop and asked them about getting a front end rebuild inner and outer tie rods, idler arm, balljoints and alignment. i asked about the centerlink and he told me its a non wear item and shouldn't bother replacing it unless its bent.

is it an item i should replace or not bother with?

 

i replaced mine because it was bent

i beilive the guy is telling you the truth.

 

yeah this is a pretty reputable shop, they've done work for me before so i kinda believed him

 

The center link IS a wear item, it has joints where it attaches to the pitman and idler arm, the only non-wear item in the steering on a 3rd gen is the pitman arm.

 

x2 just replaced my whole front end, only piece i retained was the pitman.

 

Yup, he's thinking about ford style parallelogram front linkages, where the centerlink is non wear and the pitman is a wear (pitman is the only non-wear steering linkage part on a 3rdgen) and the idler has an extra wear joint.

Replace it, a lot of wear actually build up there.