Front End Update

[orange57]

The steering on my Limited is pretty loose. I mean I've got a good amount of slop in the steering wheel where i can jockey the wheel back and forth and it doesn't do anything. So it tends to wander quite a bit.

Truck has 195K, front end I"m pretty sure is all original. So I'm planning to update the front end and replace some parts. Basically I plan on keeping the truck for a while, so it will be money well spent. The list I was putting together is this:

Ball joints, Upper and Lower
Inner and outer tie rods
Tie rod sleeve
Idler Arm
Pitman Arm
Upper and lower control arm bushings
Sway bar end links
Front and rear shocks

Total comes to about $500 in parts. And probably a weekends worth of work, although I have read the ball joints are really difficult to get pressed in and out.

One of the other things I have seen discussed, but not in a lot of detail is the steering shafts potentially being worn and a potential jeep steerign shaft upgrade? I wanted to see if anyone had anymore info on this.

Thanks,

matt

 

[retorq]

Don't know about the shafts as I've not done them myself but I've swapped all the parts you have listed. The ball joints weren't too bad, I used the loaner tool from Autozone and air tools. I'm in AZ so my stuff isn't fuzed together by 25 years of road salt.

 

[orange57]

Don't know about the shafts as I've not done them myself but I've swapped all the parts you have listed. The ball joints weren't too bad, I used the loaner tool from Autozone and air tools. I'm in AZ so my stuff isn't fuzed together by 25 years of road salt.

Good to know. I don't have air tools, but have a pretty stocked garage. I have a ball joint tool in the garage already. Had to do them on another car a while ago, but a few posts I came across seemed these were really bad.

I'm also in AZ. The truck has spent it's entire life in AZ. THe first 135K miles as a Navajo Gov't truck. Then a private party for about 9K miles. I had it for about 20K, and the last owner had it for 30K, and now it's back to me. So there is some dust underneath, but no rust. Which I am thankful for.

Did you do this all at once? Or did you do it a bit here and a bit there?

I have to fix my MIL's car, and then repair the AC on another, and then maybe get to the Tahoe.