Am I reading this correctly? What you are saying is that all the tapers on your tie-rod ends and drag link ends were difficult to remove. This is pretty normal and there are special tools available (eg. ball joint pullers) to deal with this. You are then saying you drilled the old ones out and enlarged the holes and and wrapped something over the tapers so the new ones will not get stuck like the old ones??? If this is the case this is not good!!! Those tapers are designed to get stuck like that so that they don't all fall apart while you are driving the car (with obviously undesirable consequences!). Might I suggest that if this is what you have done you get it all fixed correctly as soon as possible. If what you have done is not as I have understood it to be, please excuse my concerns. In answer to your other question, the "shock absorber" you refer to does just that and is actually known as the steering damper. It prevents the shock of striking something on the road (eg. pot-hole) from being transfered through the steering box to the steering wheel and assists to prevent "shimmy" due to slight wheel imbalance. I agree that it is a good idea to get the correct parts so everything fits. Please don't modify anything else. I also suggest that after getting all this sorted out you invest in a front wheel alignment.

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107.023: 350SLC, 3-speed auto, icon gold, parchment MBtex (sold 2012 after 29 years ownership).
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201.028: 190E 2.3 Sportline, 5-speed manual, arctic white, blue leather.
201.028: 190E 2.3, 4-speed auto, blue-black, grey MBtex.
201.034: 190E 2.3-16, 5-speed manual, blue-black, black leather.