I complained earlier about feeling like my car driving around like a box of loose bolts, but after taking the stuff I forgot about in the back, as well as changing out to different wheels/tires (skinnies up front/drag radial 275's out back) it seems ... "livable", however my mechanic buddy says it needs a front end rebuild. Question is: what happens if I don't rebuild it? It has basically been sitting for the past 7 years, so it really has only seen about 15 years of road duty, and even then, several years it wasn't a daily driver.

I also need a front end rebuild, if you do a rebuild it it can help alot. handling will be better plus it helps assure ya that you wont break something if you keep driving.

Not likely anything is going to break, and you pretty much don't have to replace the big metal pieces such as swaybar, tie rods, pitman arm, idler arm. But its not going to be tight either, you don't have to replace every single thing, just replace the wear items and it will be tight again, though you may still have steering wheel play if your steering box is worn out a little, I think they can be adjusted to compensate for wear, and obviously replacement is an option. But the non wear parts, like tie rods, pitman arm, idler arm, swaybar, shouldn't need replaced unless they received damage. I would also suggest new springs and shocks if they are old, and it probably wouldn't hurt to do the motor mount bushings.

Edit: forgot control arm bushings, also you will need an alignment after replacing a lot of these things, so I strongly suggest you do it all at once.

tie rods, idler arm, center link and sway bar bushings and end links do wear out, among other parts (steering box wears out as well and can only be adjusted to a certain extent before requiring a new box). The pitman are isn't a wear item and does NOT need to be replaced unless damaged.

Control arm bushings can also wear out. I have poly bushings but i've heard Delrin are better. My poly ones are squeeking a bit now when driving over bumps.

Also, the steering shaft has a rag joint where it connects with the steering box, you might want to check this out too.. And if your car does NOT have a steering brace you might want to check the frame area where the steering box mounts to the frame for cracks.

Struts and strut mounts can also wear out and cause bottoming out in some cases (like say if your 25 year old springs are sagging so bad that the car is low with worn out struts.. This will sometimes cause bottoming out.)

everything you listed is a wearable item, aside from the swaybar.

The pitman arm would be non-wear.

JamesC

I'm glad everyone else seems to understand the question...because I don't. Maybe if you posted up the thread in which you were complaining earlier it would help me understand the question better....

Seems to me if you've taken the time to change out the wheels (nice BTW) - you're planning on driving it.

I'd assume it would be like choosing not to rebuild an engine that is starting to knock. It'll eventually break. In your case, you'll find out where the looseness is because you'll start wearing out tires, or worse a ball joint will fall apart. Best case scenario is the bushings and ball joints are OK, and it's just a loose steering box - which can be adjusted.

I would have an alignment specialist check your front end. Firestone will do this for free. A set of quality gas struts and shocks like Bilstein or Koni yellows will make a huge difference. You can rent most of the tools you need at Autozone.