[[email protected]]

Wanted to update some progress and what all I have found. 
So I finally have the front end down to minimal play. Most of what I found was loosened connections at all the steering joints. Removing the castle nut and tightening them has removed almost all of the play. 

I wanted to circle back to on the drag link ends being twisted. I was putting the drag link back on and I have the Howard steering assist, so I wanted to look up the adjustment and how it should be installed. So I found the manual for its adjustment, but the one thing that they mention in there is to turn those drag link joints so they are tight, so it was on purpose for the Howard steering assist unit. I will have to go back now and twist them tight. So the thought is that the Howard unit holds the drag link in place and if it can twist the drag link then the unit will not be effective. It all made sense after hooking the Howard unit back up. Anyways wanted to pass that along, mystery solved as to why that drag link was twisted. 
Now I need to read up on how to use the Howard unit, but I am thinking a lot of my issues are now solved. 

I also put new Koni shocks on the front. I actually used the same shock as is on the drive axle. They have the same specs as the original shocks, I measured the expanded and collapsed lengths when I took the old ones off. It was a bit of a bear getting the new shocks in place, I had no idea it would be as difficult as it was. The main issue is the new bushings, getting them to collapse and slide in the slot was not an easy task. They wanted to deform and not sit correctly. I finally found that if I put grease all over the bushings and in the slot it seemed to help quite a bit. There was still some finagling to be done to get the bushing sitting correctly to be able to get the bolt through them. Finalizing checks this weekend and hopefully should be able to get it out for a test drive to hopefully see how all my fixes have helped or not. 
Going to get it to some nice level pavement to check the front toe alignment as well, just to see where it is. I am thinking it may be out of whack since there was so much play in the front. I was able to move the front wheel at least 3/4” to 1” without the steering wheel moving!!