Steering/suspension 94 k1500

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Pillsbury42

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Broke a tie rod end this morning thankfully in the driveway. Anybody use any front end rebuild kits that were good? Or brands of parts you liked. Not trying to spend a ton of money but don’t want junk parts ether.
 

alpinecrick

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'96 K1500:

After installing all new Moog steering parts--center link, tie rod ends, tie rod adjusters, upper and lower ball joints, idler arm bracket, idler arm, pittman arm, plus new Timken hub bearing assemblies, and new bushings in the A-arms, and a new steering gear, my Moog lower ball joint on the passenger side started seeing play by 10k miles, and the drivers side lower started seeing play at about 20k. This is stock suspension with LT265 tires. Consequently I'm not recommending Moog stuff anymore. Reading and talking to folks it seems that Moog has Chicom'd out and began outsourcing manufacturing of a lot of their parts to Asia--and quality has suffered.

When I replace the lower ball joints, it will be either AC Delco or possibly Pro Forged. Of course, for all I know they are made in China too..........
 

Pillsbury42

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And when it comes to chassis parts, Rock Auto generally beats everybody by a long shot on price.
Yeah there’s where I have been looking I swear there use to be more companies that made these parts it’s like moog and acdelco and then a bunch iv never heard of
 

smdk2500

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When i re built the front of my 95 2500 i used the ac delco professional line. Ive got about 8k miles on it haven't had any problems yet.
 

TheAutumnWind

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kits are generally junk. Go with MOOG problem solver or ac delco pro. Their lower cost lines aren't really much better than any other cheapo offshore stuff.
 

Kv5137kv5137

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Mechanic friend who services a fleet swears by ac Delco if you can swing it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Pillsbury42

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Yeah I know acdelco pro is probably the way to go. The cheaper prices are just tempting with it being a older truck but it really has been pretty solid the past two years I’ve owned it since getting it back on the road.
 

454cid

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Yeah I know acdelco pro is probably the way to go. The cheaper prices are just tempting with it being a older truck but it really has been pretty solid the past two years I’ve owned it since getting it back on the road.

I would not cheap out on the lowers, but the uppers won't be that hard to replace if the original riveted in ball joints have been replaced already, so you could go cheap there, and not have a lot of extra work if you had to do them again.

Tie-rods aren't hard to replace either. You really want ones that have the boots wired on, especially on the outer tie-rods, or they won't hold their grease, and they'll make a mess and/or fall apart. Pictures won't necessarily tell you if the boots are permanently attached or not... a lot of parts are pictured that way, or even described that way, and end up not being that way. The Moog Problem Solver tie-rods have boots permanently attached even though they aren't in the pictures. The Inners don't matter as much since they don't get the wear that the outers do.

Don't cheap out on the pitman arm unless you like removing your steering gear box. I don't recall the details of changing the idler arm and pivot.

Shocks, and anti-roll bar end links and bushings, are not hard to change.
 

Pillsbury42

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Started tearing into it this afternoon definitely gunna do inner and outer tie rod ends and ball joints idler arm and bracket all seemed really tight still and pitman arm had slight play in it debating if it’s worth changing
 
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