Can you still push them??

 

Wow, that is a rather serious issue. Ball bearings failing and locking up the steering gear at any time in any position.

 

Ball bearings failing and locking up the steering gear.............

Not trying to be funny but an actual serious question...I wonder where they were made?

 

My guess is there is no "Made in USA" marking on them.
I just bought a bunch of body parts for my 97 F350, everything I bought was made in Tiawan.
And while working on it, there are more metric bolts than SAE bolts.
Nothing is made in America any more, everything is outsourced to some other country.
And I think that will come back to bite us.

 

Another serious question is what the devil are Fords QA people doing? I guess 'Quality is Job One' must have falled to their cost reduction efforts. Meantime, their board runs off in all directions spending capital on non auto related projects.

Its no wonder my few shares of "F" sit with no appreciation in value in over 2 decades.

 

It already has and will continue to.

 

My Ford will eventually need a new front rotor. I was surprised Ford was the cheapest place to get it.

 

But don't look at the box it comes in.
My last wheel cylinder for my Ford were made in Brazil. I can't remember where the drums were made, South America somewhere, and one of them was so far out of round it had to be replaced. The front rotors may have been Mexico.
Also a little snafu with the wheel cylinders. One side had metric threads for the hydraulic connection, the other side had SAE threads. So went to Advance, Autozone, NAPA, every one they each had in stock were the same way. Fisher Auto Parts saved the day with a pair of SAE threaded wheel cylinders so I did not have to change all the plumbing.

 

Thats been that way with Ford for a vary long time. Ford has been big in other world markets for decades, and have always barrowed from those other parkets for cars, parts, and tech. Think it was back in the late 70's when the cars had a lot of cross mixing of SAE and metric on them. GM did it also, but not as common as Ford I dont think.

My Ford will eventually need a new front rotor. I was surprised Ford was the cheapest place to get it.

Working decades in a dealership as a asst parts manager I saw this all the time. People would always say the dealer with ripping them off, and at times paying twice the price for a part from the aftermarket.