96 Tahoe Front End Rebuild

[laredo1307]

Just recently finished rebuilding the front end on of my 96 2dr 4wd. My steering was sloppy and the upper ball joint on the driver's side was completely shot. She's got 194k miles on her so I imagine everything was shot. The job was somewhat labor intensive but not all that bad. Sprayed everything with Kroil before I started and never had any real problems getting parts off. I would say 90% of the work could be done with a cresent wrench.

Pretty much everything was replaced with new except the control arms and wheel hubs. I did however sand blast and repaint them. The lower ball joints however were a ***** to get in. Definitely get the right tools for this process. It helps a lot. All the parts were replaced with OEM ACDelco pieces except the bushing in which I used energy suspension. I have to say the ride is a huge improvement. Using a combination of Amazon and Rock Auto I was able to buy all my parts for less than $800. If you have the time and know-how than I would definitely suggest this.

When I pulled the wheel hub assemblies the bearings were still good so I was able to reuse those. I just cleaned out as much of the old grease and grime as I could and repacked as best I could.



Parts Replaced

Steering Box
Idler arm actuator
Idler arm
Pitman arm
Upper ball joints
lower ball joints
All steering tie rods
Sway bar links
Upper / lower control arm and sway bar bushings
Rotors
Calipers
Pads
Front brake hoses
Wheel speed sensors

 

[Bottoms Tahoe]

Did this help with body roll? I hate the body roll or swaying that my Tahoe has.

 

[laredo1307]

Not really. Still seems to have quite a bit of body roll still. I'm wondering if it would help to tighten up my sway bar links some more. Maybe there's a stiffer sway option out there that will help with this?

 

[AZ Tahoe]

Looks clean. I need to do the same on my 2dr. Just crossed 210K

 

[arveetek]

Nice job! I just did that on my '95. Spent about $600 on all Moog parts.

Casey

 

[laredo1307]

I'm getting some squeaking when my suspension flexes. I'm thinking it's the sway bar connects but I'm not sure. Maybe they need more tightening? Is there something I can do to quite this?

 

[Jerky Arm Ape]

That's a characteristic of the urethane bushings.
I've dealt with it on VW offroad suspensions.
I have seen urethane bushing grease at one place that sells VW parts, but haven't tried it yet.
I did find a recipe for making urethane bushing grease on the Internet once while searching for a product it worked ok but didn't last forever.

---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:13 PM ----------

Try looking on energy suspension's webpage for the stuff, mine usually come with a small amount in a pouch.

 

[willua11]

Looks awesome. How long did it take you?

 

[willua11]

What did you use on the lower ball joints?

 

[laredo1307]

Looks awesome. How long did it take you?

About a week in a half. i wasn't in a real hurry.

What did you use on the lower ball joints?

Just make sure you get a ball joint kit with the correct cups to press them in. You can borrow from almost any parts store.