Tie Rod, Ball Joint or Bearing?

[dblackhawk]

I have a 1988 Mark VII (Bill Blass). I just changed the front air springs on it (and it was a cinch as I was told).
I was putting the front passenger wheel back on, and noticed that it has ALOT of play wiggling side to side. It had none wiggling top/bottom. I was told by a mechanic that top to bottom wiggle would indicate a wheel bearing. Side to side is the tie rod. Does anyone know if this is correct? Whatever it is, it's getting worse because when I'm driving, the car tends to want to sway side to side.
Does someone have advice on this as I'm pretty sure it's a tie rod on the front side of the wheel. If so, are they hard to change and where can I find instructions?
Thanks In Advance.

 

[WolfmanDave]

Just had to do the tie rod on my '90 Mark VII. In the air, I could wiggle the wheel side to side. It was so bad that when I was driving it, the brakes were affected. It shook the steering wheel whenever I applied anything past 25% on the brake pedal. In your case, I'd bet its your tie rod. Should be a pretty simple swap with basic hand tools. That's what I used and I was done in under 2 hours. But, I also did my steering rack mount bushings at the same time. One tip for you, count the number of threads on your tie rod that are exposed before the jam nut. When the new tie rod goes on, make sure that many threads are exposed. That will give you a 'good enough' alignment until you can get a shop to do the alignment the right way on their machine. Hope that helps.

-Dave