Did I break my balls today?

[Motorhead350]

My truck won't stay straight anymore. Could it be my ball joints or is it worse?

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I have an 88 K1500. Here is what I had to replace to get it to stay straight down the road.

Control arm bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends, idler arm, rag joint, and the steering gear. If your truck has any kind of miles on it, ALL of those things need to be replaced. I tried replacing one thing at a time and it did not drive right until all of them were done. The parts that were the worst contributers were the upper control arm bushings and the steering gear themselves. The saginaw steering gears in these trucks do not hold up like the car saginaws steering gears, I guess from the much larger tires they are turning and the increased weight and rough use.

[Motorhead350]

I have 180,000+ miles on that truck and the suspension is completely stock. Sounds like I gotta spend major bucks even if I do it myself. :(

Just what I needed.

Thanks for the info.

[ImpalaSlayer]

I have 180,000+ miles on that truck and the suspension is completely stock. Sounds like I gotta spend major bucks even if I do it myself. :(

Just what I needed.

Thanks for the info.


gota pay to play, **** wears out, fix it, get used to it

[Ken]

Did I break my balls today? Idk? Can you still walk?

Ken

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I did it all myself but yeah you are looking at some pretty serious dollars to fix it, especially if you use quality parts. I cheaped out and used some of the Mevotech stuff rockauto.com had, and I had to send some of it back due to machining defects right out of the box. But even with the cheap taiwan/india parts I used it was easily $500 doing everything myself. A shop press and some fancy pullers are needed to get the control arm bushings out and in.

If you were local I'd do it for you

[Motorhead350]

Man... and I have been using the truck for work and saving us money from getting a van. SUPER!

Vic I appreciate everything you said. I wish I was closer to ya.

[LIGHTNIN1]

My truck won't stay straight anymore. Could it be my ball joints or is it worse?

Could be that Jim Beam in the gas tank.;)

[Motorhead350]

Could be that Jim Beam in the gas tank.;)

Naa. That beast is full of gas like me. :D