Actually, the real reason I asked was because the helpful experts here could have given me the answer BEFORE I went to the bother to take the wheel off the car once my wife got home.
I'll type this part slowly 'kid', so you can keep up. You see 'kid', my wife works days - I posted the initial question while she was gone, taking the car in question as transportation to her job. So it wasn't at my house. That would have made it somewhat of a challenge to go inspect it at the time I posed the question. Hopefully you can comprehe..... sorry, big word. How about 'Understand'? Yes, that word will do. Hopefully you can understand my rational for asking the initial question. Oops, there I go with the big words again. My bad, but I'm not going to retype all that again just so you can figure it out.
Hey 'kid', considering how useless your replies are (I've read some of your last posts in other people's queries), don't bother replying to anything I ask in the future.
To the rest - Thanks for your help! Despite the 89 SC part not likely to fit, I've stumbled across another idea. I'm pretty sure a 96 Tbird link will work, we've just picked one up - it's in the driveway not registered yet. To avoid buying a part that might not fix the problem, I'll try swapping the Tbird link to the Mark. If it's a problem solver - will get one for the Tbird.
It's weird how the 89 piece looks - it's either damaged, or it has a built-in bend that my Cougar link doesn't have. But it isn't enough of a bend to match the Mark8 one. I may just throw the SC link into the Cougar and see how it fits. The bar is going in next time the engine is out.