My younger brother desperately needed a car and our uncle gave him a 1993 Thunderbird LX (3.8 N/A) that's been standing in the garage for about 2 years now. It's got 119k miles on it. Anyway, I've been working on it over the the Labor Day weekend and got the following things done:
- replaced the radiator, upper and lower radiator hoses, and flushed the coolant
- replaced both outer tie rods (ball joints were gone)
- replaced both rear stabilizer bar links (one was broken)
- redid the front and rear brakes (rotors, drums, brake pads)
- changed the transmission fluid and filter
- changed the engine oil and filter

The car starts and runs fine but it still has a few problems
1) When standing still and turning the steering wheel there is a loud grinding noise. The ball joints on the upper control arms are both gone and I'm wondering if that's where the noise is coming from. The power steering pump is a bit loud, but not leaking. Is this normal for these cars, or does the P/S pump need to be changed as well?
2) The interior fan works, but only on high. Any ideas on what the problem is here?
3) While all the exterior turn signals work, the dashboard turn signal indicators are not lighting up. Burned out light bulbs?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Searched the forums and found some posts regarding the blower motor working only in high mode.

Replace the ball joints and have an alignment done before putting this car into service! The turn signal problem could be bulbs or connections. Have you checked the fluid level in the power steering?

Ended up replacing the driver-side upper control arm and the stabilizer shaft link. Grinding noise is gone. Just wanted to say that the most difficult parts of the whole process were:
- getting to the upper control arm to body nut that happens to be right underneath the master brake cylinder and near a bunch of brake lines
- getting the lower portion of the stabilizer shaft link out of the steering knuckle (couldn't knock it out of the knuckle easily because the strut assembly happens to be in the way)
- getting the nuts onto the stabilizer shaft link studs (I would turn the nut and the stud would rotate too)

Now just have to do the passenger side...

So while replacing the upper control arms and the stabilizer shaft link made the grinding noise coming from the front drivers-side during turns go away for a couple of days, it came back with a vengeance today. Here are the parts that were replaced on the driver-side:

- outer tie rod end
- stabilizer shaft link
- upper control arm

While replacing the upper control arm and the brakes (a couple of weeks back) on the front left side I did not notice any plan in the wheel hub, so I'm assuming that this leaves the lower control arm as the only possible culprit. Any ideas would be appreciated.