I did mine a few months ago... I Didn't have symptoms like yours, mine felt more like a bad tierod.... I assumed autocrossing is what wore mine out, I'd guess the same with you.
They are really easy to do, just make sure you've got a massive socket for the nut and a good torque wrench to get it torqued. An impact wrench would be nice too.
I also was quoted around $100/piece wherever I looked for the factory style ones.
So I looked up the ford racing FR500 hubs... They're supposedly heavy duty and also come with really nice 3" ARP studs. They are $200 and are sold as a pair. (I was quoted $150 for ONE oem ford one).
I bought the FR500 ones and saved money over regular hubs... not a bad deal. The only thing to be aware of is the super long studs if that bothers you, and you need open ended studs... but for all the tire swapping I do when I race, I'm very happy with the change.
here are a couple pics of my swap, it was even easier than I thought... took me about an hour total