Front End Rebuild (Part 1)

It didn't take me long to realize that my steering was super sloppy. And since I had embarked on a near-complete rebuild of this truck, I figured I'd replace a bunch of parts in my front end.

Again, I did a bunch of research. I found this kit that some others had used on Ebay. The box came full of Moog parts (at least that's what the packaging said). I took some advice from folks on Yotatech.com again, and got to work.

Replacing the idler arm was crazy easy. In fact, it was so easy that I opted to attempt to replace my tie road ends at the same time (inner and outer) since the boots were cracked. I got out my pickle fork and a hammer and beat them to death. After about 3 hours I managed to do nothing but worsen the condition of the boots. It didn't seem to matter which direction I hit the damn thing - it wouldn't budge.

My first conclusion was that I needed a bigger hammer. I made a trip to Home Depot and picked up a smallish sledge hammer. After another hour of banging on my steering components, I still didn't have any luck so I decided to give up and drain a few beers instead.

The next day I headed off to my friendly neighborhood Napa parts store and picked up a ball joint puller. I figured I'd probably need this to get the ball joints off after the tie rod ends, so the $15 tool was worth it. Turned out this was one of the best purchases I have made. I managed to replace all of my tie rod ends in a couple of hours with that puller.

Again, it took me a lot longer than it would probably take most people because I take all the time I need to make sure it's done properly - reading the directions over and over, drinking the right amount of beer (not too many I lost my head though).

I took her out for a test drive after that and realized that my alignment was wwwaaaayyyy off and one of my tires felt like it was dragging, not rolling. That worried me. Had I done something terribly wrong? I decided that a mechanic was probably the best bet here (since I don't have fancy protractors or anything to get the alignment correct and I was worried I'd screwed up).

I took her to the closest shop to my house and spilled my guts. I told the older guy that was helping me that I'd replaced my tie rods myself. He smiled and asked what tool I used. I told him I tried a pickle fork but after having no luck with that opted for the puller. He gave me a very approving look and had my truck back to me in less than 45 minutes. When he returned my truck he told me I'd done a good job. (How true that is, I don't know, but it did make me feel good knowing that he wasn't giving me a hard time for being a girl and attempting a job I knew little about.)

A little reflection led me to find my mistake. Apparently the steering wheel should be dead center and locked (if possible) when replacing these parts. I did measure the threads and put it back the way I found it, but swinging the tire around to get the part to fit might not have been the best idea. I might never know for sure, and this might have just happened anyway. Perhaps one of these days I'll get up the courage to ask someone. :)