Posting this here as it fits into lifted and stock suspension, so the mods can sort it out.
My 2007 GMC Yukon SLT 4x4 has about 126,000 miles on it and was exhibiting a couple issues. There was one front hub/bearing that was going bad (a bit of grit could be felt in spinning it), one inner tie-rod end was a smidge loose, one outer tie-rod end was a smidge loose, and a lower ball joint was bad. I discovered this a couple months ago while doing a full front and rear brake job on the truck, and set out to repair it. All front end parts were original.
I had a 2" Rough Country front spacer (plastic spacer) lift on the truck, and while I was happy with the leveling, I decided that if I was rebuilding the front end, I'd go to a lift-strut, instead of a spacer. I cross shopped prices and ended up finding the best deals, somewhat surprisingly, on Amazon. I decided to do front struts, new upper control arms (since they were original, the boots were in bad shape, and I was running stock arms with a level kit), lower ball joints, front hub/bearings, and lower ball joints. Here's the story.
Struts: After looking at Bilstein and Rancho, I appreciated the adjustability of Bilstein and their great reputation. However, I've had great luck with Rancho in the past, and really appreciated that the Rancho struts can be purchased fully-built, with spring and mount attached. As I don't have a strut compressor and find spring compressor clamps to be terrifying, I selected the Rancho Quik-Lift.
Upper Control Arms: I looked at a variety, from stock, to "lifted/difficult to align" models with adjustable ball joints, to aftermarket options including tubular models that are $700+. I ended up selecting Rough Country upper control arms; they work well with lifted trucks, and have a greasable upper ball joint.
Lower Ball Joints, er Control Arms. When I really looked at the bushings on the lower control arm, I saw that they were aging as well. By the time I looked at replacing both lower ball joints and the LCA bushings, I found that I could just buy new, fully-loaded lower control arms for the same price. My truck formerly had aluminum LCA. I swapped out for the cast steel LCA, simply because they were $100 less, each, and for the price, the weight difference was inconsequential on my truck. The only difference between the two is that the flange where the bottom of the strut mounts on the steel LCA is thinner than the flange on the aluminum...so you need shorter bolts at that location. In short, steel and aluminum LCA are interchangeable.
Hub/Bearings: I decided to replace both.
Inner/Outer TRE: I decided to replace all of them, on both sides.
I had the struts, upper and lower control arms, inner and outer TRE, and both hubs. I had previously done a brake job with pads and rotors, and last winter, I had replaced the swaybar links. Otherwise, this would've been a good time to do either or both.
The struts came out easily.
I used a pickle fork and hammer to separate the upper and lower ball joints, as well as the outer TRE. Since I wasn't reusing those parts, I didn't care about ruining the dust boots. The inner TRE was surprisingly easy to remove. I used a large crescent wrench for this part.
The lower control arms unbolted and removed easily.
The hubs require a 36mm socket to loosen the CV-shaft bolt. (Only specialized tools were 36mm socket and pickle fork. Otherwise, just standard wrenches, sockets, jack, jack-stands, pry bar, hammer and hand tools). Once the CV shafts were unbolted, there are three 15mm sockets that are taken off to remove the hub. The hubs on my truck were frozen/rusted in place. I banged on them with a hammer on all sides, and ultimately used a thin chisel to get them started moving. Once I had a little crack going, I worked around the hub until I could fully remove it.
The upper control arms.
The bain of my existence.
3 out of the 4 UCA bolts (at the frame) snapped off. I ended up having to take a sawzall and cut the bolts off inside of the mounts at the frame. I'd take a flat chisel and use it to squeeze the UCA bushing to the side, use the sawzall to cut the bolt, and go from there. It was a pretty miserable job. The UCA bolts are specialized, so I had to go get 4 of them from the dealer. Since I was lucky enough that they had them in stock, I bought the bolts, nuts, and the outer, moon-shaped "washers" that show alignment markings. Cutting the UCA bolts took several hours and was awful, as I couldn't figure out how to cut them except with a sawzall (no room to get a torch in there), and the bolts are large (7/16 or 1/2) and hardened. I had soaked everything with penetrating oil for a few days before the project, to no avail. What should've been a 3 hour project more than doubled. In short, if you're doing this project, be prepared for this issue...have the bolts on hand and be prepared to cut them.
The Rough Country UCA installed easily, and worked great with the Rancho lift struts.
In reassembling, I put a liberal amount of anti-seize on all threads (other than inner TRE connection to steering rack that got locktite).
Ride afterwards is great. The adjustability of the Ranchos is unexpectedly good. They adjust from 1-9 (1 being soft and 9 being firm). I have them at 3, and it's still a bit soft. Will try 4 next. Ride height is about 1/4-1/2" higher than with the previous spacer lift, but I anticipate it will settle a bit. I run E-load rating 275/70R18 BFG Radial All-Terrain AT/KO2 tires, which are pretty stiff. The struts do a great job of managing small and large bump compliance.
All told, about $1,300 in parts, and now the upper and lower ball joints and outer TRE are greasable.
Rough Country UCA: P/N 1278
Hubs: SKF BR930661 (x2) (After looking at many, I went with these; they worked perfectly and get good reviews).
Inner TRE: Moog EV800084 (x2)
Outer TRE: Moog ES800223 (x2)
Struts: Rancho RS999901
LCA: Moog CK620956 and CK920955
Don't forget the pickle fork, 36mm socket, and anti-seize. An impact wrench is not required, but is invaluable.
My 2007 GMC Yukon SLT 4x4 has about 126,000 miles on it and was exhibiting a couple issues. There was one front hub/bearing that was going bad (a bit of grit could be felt in spinning it), one inner tie-rod end was a smidge loose, one outer tie-rod end was a smidge loose, and a lower ball joint was bad. I discovered this a couple months ago while doing a full front and rear brake job on the truck, and set out to repair it. All front end parts were original.
I had a 2" Rough Country front spacer (plastic spacer) lift on the truck, and while I was happy with the leveling, I decided that if I was rebuilding the front end, I'd go to a lift-strut, instead of a spacer. I cross shopped prices and ended up finding the best deals, somewhat surprisingly, on Amazon. I decided to do front struts, new upper control arms (since they were original, the boots were in bad shape, and I was running stock arms with a level kit), lower ball joints, front hub/bearings, and lower ball joints. Here's the story.
Struts: After looking at Bilstein and Rancho, I appreciated the adjustability of Bilstein and their great reputation. However, I've had great luck with Rancho in the past, and really appreciated that the Rancho struts can be purchased fully-built, with spring and mount attached. As I don't have a strut compressor and find spring compressor clamps to be terrifying, I selected the Rancho Quik-Lift.
Upper Control Arms: I looked at a variety, from stock, to "lifted/difficult to align" models with adjustable ball joints, to aftermarket options including tubular models that are $700+. I ended up selecting Rough Country upper control arms; they work well with lifted trucks, and have a greasable upper ball joint.
Lower Ball Joints, er Control Arms. When I really looked at the bushings on the lower control arm, I saw that they were aging as well. By the time I looked at replacing both lower ball joints and the LCA bushings, I found that I could just buy new, fully-loaded lower control arms for the same price. My truck formerly had aluminum LCA. I swapped out for the cast steel LCA, simply because they were $100 less, each, and for the price, the weight difference was inconsequential on my truck. The only difference between the two is that the flange where the bottom of the strut mounts on the steel LCA is thinner than the flange on the aluminum...so you need shorter bolts at that location. In short, steel and aluminum LCA are interchangeable.
Hub/Bearings: I decided to replace both.
Inner/Outer TRE: I decided to replace all of them, on both sides.
I had the struts, upper and lower control arms, inner and outer TRE, and both hubs. I had previously done a brake job with pads and rotors, and last winter, I had replaced the swaybar links. Otherwise, this would've been a good time to do either or both.
The struts came out easily.
I used a pickle fork and hammer to separate the upper and lower ball joints, as well as the outer TRE. Since I wasn't reusing those parts, I didn't care about ruining the dust boots. The inner TRE was surprisingly easy to remove. I used a large crescent wrench for this part.
The lower control arms unbolted and removed easily.
The hubs require a 36mm socket to loosen the CV-shaft bolt. (Only specialized tools were 36mm socket and pickle fork. Otherwise, just standard wrenches, sockets, jack, jack-stands, pry bar, hammer and hand tools). Once the CV shafts were unbolted, there are three 15mm sockets that are taken off to remove the hub. The hubs on my truck were frozen/rusted in place. I banged on them with a hammer on all sides, and ultimately used a thin chisel to get them started moving. Once I had a little crack going, I worked around the hub until I could fully remove it.
The upper control arms.
The bain of my existence.
3 out of the 4 UCA bolts (at the frame) snapped off. I ended up having to take a sawzall and cut the bolts off inside of the mounts at the frame. I'd take a flat chisel and use it to squeeze the UCA bushing to the side, use the sawzall to cut the bolt, and go from there. It was a pretty miserable job. The UCA bolts are specialized, so I had to go get 4 of them from the dealer. Since I was lucky enough that they had them in stock, I bought the bolts, nuts, and the outer, moon-shaped "washers" that show alignment markings. Cutting the UCA bolts took several hours and was awful, as I couldn't figure out how to cut them except with a sawzall (no room to get a torch in there), and the bolts are large (7/16 or 1/2) and hardened. I had soaked everything with penetrating oil for a few days before the project, to no avail. What should've been a 3 hour project more than doubled. In short, if you're doing this project, be prepared for this issue...have the bolts on hand and be prepared to cut them.
The Rough Country UCA installed easily, and worked great with the Rancho lift struts.
In reassembling, I put a liberal amount of anti-seize on all threads (other than inner TRE connection to steering rack that got locktite).
Ride afterwards is great. The adjustability of the Ranchos is unexpectedly good. They adjust from 1-9 (1 being soft and 9 being firm). I have them at 3, and it's still a bit soft. Will try 4 next. Ride height is about 1/4-1/2" higher than with the previous spacer lift, but I anticipate it will settle a bit. I run E-load rating 275/70R18 BFG Radial All-Terrain AT/KO2 tires, which are pretty stiff. The struts do a great job of managing small and large bump compliance.
All told, about $1,300 in parts, and now the upper and lower ball joints and outer TRE are greasable.
Rough Country UCA: P/N 1278
Hubs: SKF BR930661 (x2) (After looking at many, I went with these; they worked perfectly and get good reviews).
Inner TRE: Moog EV800084 (x2)
Outer TRE: Moog ES800223 (x2)
Struts: Rancho RS999901
LCA: Moog CK620956 and CK920955
Don't forget the pickle fork, 36mm socket, and anti-seize. An impact wrench is not required, but is invaluable.
