Front end play

Cant post video but How ****** am I...

Jacked up passenger side front tire to inspect the rotor and I have a lot of play fron to back on the tire. Makes a clunking noise when going over bumps from that area. Play seems to come from the tie rod, not hub. Assuming it's idler arm?

Any advice on which rebuild kit I should get?

91 k1500

If you’re on a tight budget, arguably anything is going to be better than a broken part but you get what you pay for.

Ideally, buy the parts separately (“kits” are usually the bargain bin parts). Moog or ProForged generally get good marks and are the more expensive ones. Second choice would probably be ACDelco Professional. Note that their Advantage line is about the same as any parts store brand.

X2.
How I approached it. If its worn or original replace it and do it right. You be surprised how nice the truck drives afterwards. I went with ac delco all the way around. Wasnt cheap but my entire front end is new.

I also have a c1500 so slightly different set up. Did you test your CV joints?

So went back out there and jacked up ear front tire by the lower control arms. Checked up and down movement, and both seemed tight. The slop is there with side to side (9 oclock and 3 oclock) rocking. Looked further and saw my tie rod on the passenger side was moving up and down. This seems all coming from the idler arm. Put a camera there and moved tire, and there's a LOT of up and down play in the idler arm. There's also slight movement in the pitman arm on the drivers side when I do the same thing.

Looks like the pitman and idler arms were changed with MOOG parts back in 2010 with a receipt i found in the glove box....

i wont rule out anything else is shot, but the elephant is definately the idler arm.

****EDIT**** Just found 2 more receipts, the idler arm was changed out again in 2013, then AGAIN in 2015. Was this PO into drifting or something??!?

I had to replace the idler arm last fall on my Suburban and it wasn’t too big of project. My symptoms were the same as yours. I’ve hear that normally the pitman arm would be done at the same time but when I had an alignment afterward the shop said it looked good. If you can wait a few days, online prices were way better than local parts stores, but I was on a tight schedule.