Hoping someone can help me out here because I'm pulling hairs. I had planned to keep all mention of it away from the forums until i got i it looking the part. But i am ditching the EL Futura (After finally sorting all the issues with it and getting it running good.. Because apparently when things work i feel a need to replace them) And i have replaced it with a 1996 NL Fairlane GHIA ..Looks/Features/Comfort/Ride wise.. everything is much better than my Futura.. And a little work has obviously already been done to it (More about that later)

The issue that has arisen though (well the main one) is the steering was really heavy and the steering wheel was off center all the way home. The seller said this was because his friend had put the steering wheel on wrong but i begged to differ. More so when i tried to reclock it and figured out the wheels have a different idea to the steering wheel as to what "Straight" is.. So it obviously hasn't had an alignment in some time. But the steering being heavy didn't match up.. So i changed the pump & high pressure hose from the 97 Futura over.. no change.

Dove deeper today and pulled the rack out.. Found out its a EF rack.. looks like it was slapped on from wreckers. Does not appear to be speed sensitive either. So i pulled the one out of the EL.. Tried to put that in with no love.. So i resorted to changing over the shaft aswell.. only to find that does not match up either.. Iv noticed the shafts are a little longer and the bit at the regulator where it connects to is stubby on one rack.. and longer on the other.. Any tips?

you may need to fit the el intermediate shaft and column to match the el rack..
ford in there wisdom made them slightly different from ef to el

Dove is not a word. The adjectival form of Dive is DIVED.

Very high possibility that it was an EF rack from factory. Late 96 was the change over from EF/NF to EL/NL. (Wait till you play with climate control)

NL Ghia should have SS steering Rack.

EF & EL Intermediate shafts have different splines, so if it was an EF rack in your car and you are trying to fit an EL one then you will need to change the intermediate shaft.

And that's where it gets a bit weird cause I see no speed sensitive connection on the rack that came out of it. Yet as you guys just told me and IV read everywhere else. NL Ghia should come with speed sensitive steering. On that note if anyone could post a photo of there speed sensitive rack and where the plug connects to that comes off the rack.. that may help in future.

In the case of what I was attempting yesterday I meant to say I had also tried to take intermediate shaft off the EL (basically tried to transfer everything but column) but the EL one was too long to fit the knuckle at firewall. The EF shaft was too short to fit (and wrong splines anyway)

So if I'm understanding you guys right I need to basically rip dash out and swap over the columns. Or just go buy a rack with spss from wreckers..and if I went with that option would I be looking for an EF rack or can I fit an NL one?

I would have at least thought the EF one would fit back in my futura? ?

So confusing

You don't need to pull the dash out to swap the steering column, its a pretty simple job..
If I had the EL steering column sitting there id just swap it over....

Great to know for any future reference.. But you're a bit late to the party lol. Sorted this out a fair while ago now.

Have since sold the EL, And pulled motor out of old motor from the NL and soon i will be dropping a good AU motor in.

Still don't know where my "power sensitive steering" went to. Guessing Rack has been changed before. Or i just got unlucky and did not get the car made in the specific year they were doing that.