hello again.
The front end is completely apart on my 444 and looks like quite a few things need replacing. Don't think the steering has never been touched. The kingpins are shot, and we're going to replace the tie rod ends (ball joints), L & R steering rods, a few bushings, as well as parts of the A-arms. Also, haven't gotten to the steering box yet. Any words of advice or encouragement?

There is zero resistance in the old ball joints. The new ones, I can barely move the joints around. I have a feeling the car is going to steer *a lot* better. :)

don't forget to replace ALL the bushings too, including the idler arm bushing. You will be amazed at how wonderful the steering can be when refurbished.
When I redid the steering box, I took it apart (carefully its aluminum)and found a local machine shop guy with gray hair who knew how to ream aluminum by hand and not put it in a machine. I brought him the new bushings and for $60 he did it perfect...I did not trust my hamfisted self to atttempt this part. Then it just put it all back together again.

Good luck.
-Erik

Thanks. I haven't taken the steering box apart yet, but will do so carefully

The other problem we found was that the passenger side top A- arm is bent, and the bottom may be very subtly bent too, although it's hard to tell. The car was in an accident before I owned it and it was hit on this side. Many of the bolts on this side are also tweaked probalby for the same reason (the car was smashed on this side) and thus have worn very badly and unevenly and need to be replaced.

The steering box is one of the few things on the car that are metric so be warned!

--
Mike!

I'm not afraid of metric! Hmmm. Should I be?

Does this imply special tools or something? Being a chemist, I think in metric--it's tough working with engineers who are always describing things as "thous" or this and "mils" of that. What were the Americans thinking anyway?

:)