Generally most front wheel drive cars will run a small amount of negative camber to help with stability and improve the handling.. But if your scrubbing off the inboard edge of the tires on down to the cords it sounds excessive.. A bent control arm would most certainly affect the 'thrust line/angle'or the relationship of the back tires to the fronts in a straight line, causing the car to 'dog track' or want to pull the back end off center from the front drivers and make for a squirrlley ride.. Would affect camber as well.. Struts don't actually hold the vehicles ride 'height' but do control road feel and bounch and of course tire wear.. The springs control the amount of ride height and the camber and contribute to the scrub radius (tire wear area/contact to the ground) ect. of the tires, more so if the springs have 'settled' over time.. In the past, cars were set for more possitive cambers to offset for load/s and road speed ect... With one sidedamaged, chances are it wouldn't cause the opposite side to go negative, but anytime a component is damaged, it generally affects relatedspecs/componenets.. If you have your trusty camera handy, take a few pics for a 'side to side' comparision view from the back of the car for posting..

 

Have my trusty cam ready at all times! But at the present time, I have a friend over changing that bent elbow for me Going to see how much that helps the tires to straighten up. If it don't help much, next will be replacing the struts. I talked with the previous owner and they say the struts have never been changed. Should be about time then right? I bought the car for $400 a yr ago. Haven't had a bit of trouble til now. I knew I would have to put more money into it eventually. I've gotten my $400 out of it so I'm happy!
By the way, is there another name for the tension strut? I went on the Ford Parts website and searched for it and that part didn't come up. I don't need it changed so it's not that important but just curious about the name of the part being that I can't find it anywhere!

 

OK, here we go. Take a looksie at the new pics. On the bottom pics, the left control arm is facing out, right one is facing in. (If you can tell by the pics..the sun wasn't working with me today...lots of glare!)The old right control arm was facing in when taken off so the new one was put back on facing in. Does is matter which way they go? Do they both need to be facing the same way? Also, I'm told the bushing on #1, which I have labeled #2, looks like it needs to be changed but still can't find that part.

 

see if this site helps you any.

 

I wasn't able to see your pictures, but you can forget Ford's new Parts Website! I needed Rear Wheel Hub Assemblies. Should be pretty easy, right? I went to "parts.ford.com" and entered the wife's Taurus' VIN and searched for the keyword, "Hub", "bearing, Hub Assembly", etc. Every single time, "NO RESULTS", was the return! I tried "Contact Us". Well, you can forget that, too, unless you would like to speak to someone in Bangladesh, whom you cannot understand! There are no email addresses shown. Thought you'd all likme to know where Ford is headed.

 

Didn't find any link.

 

I used this link with good results
https://www.autoanything.com/car/for...95A1A6A43.aspx