Happy Spring, Kidz...  I am sure everybody's looking forward to even MORE expensive gasoline.  Surely the old adage, "you get what you pay for", will apply here too, no?

1980 Bobcat glassback, stock 2.3, 47K miles.... TWO questions....

1.) STEERING COLUMN  u-joint coupling (I'll try to attach photo, but it's not workin) near the firewall.  Have discovered some play developing here.  What are my options here for parts//servicing?  Anyone?  I assume back-in-the-day, you could prob buy the entire column up to the rag joint part, but I'm not really finding anything...  Please share intel if you can.........

2.)  CAT-CONVERTER QUESTIONS....(Why THANK-YOU FoMoCo, for a SECOND CONVERTER, up by the exh manifold!!!  It's provided such joy and pleasure for Pinto owners, 4 decades on...!!!  INSERT SWEAR WORDS HERE...)

I digress..sorry .. SO: Though pretty sure they're not clogged, I'm determined to get these Beasts off the car.  The lower one underneath is straightforwar d (and after considerable inquiries, I found a shop here that will weld in pipe, no questions asked..).  Now the small converter which is up near the exhaust manifold....Aa aarrrgghhh.... .I want this POS gone as well, but of course, there's really limited room to work there.  HAVE ANY OF YOU HAD SUCCESS CUTTING THIS OUT and welding in piping?  Could I use a manifold from a pre-converter-era 2.3 (assuming I could find..)  Or....I imagine some of you may have installed a header here instead....(??)  ..I was hoping to avoid that bcuz I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to keep car.. Please share your acumen with me if you can.

So any advice on either of these will be greatly appreciated, Lads.  Cheers and regards from NYC.....

Hey there, is the play coming from that u-joint or from the rubber rag joint that is lower down closer to the rack?  Typically it is the rubber that fails that causes the play in the steering.

As for the cat that is up by the manifold, I believe that is only an 80 item or possibly a California emissions thing.  I am not sure.  All the other cars 77-79 cars I have owned have never had the small cat up by the manifold.  The one 80 hatchback I had, which donated the engine and the passenger side floor pan to my cruising wagon, had the cat up by the manifold.  I thought it was odd but it looked factory.  I would see if you can just get a down pipe off an earlier car if you want to delete it.