JG2020 Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 Welp, I still have my truck ha ha. Every time I take it for a drive I think " I can't sell this truck" I am going to attempt to drive it to my house where I have a garage it can stay in and I can work on it in a better environment than outdoors in the winter. It's about a 300 mile trip. My front end wanders a bit over bumps and my tie rod end bushings look a little beat. I got a quote from a local garage for the tie rod ends and alignment. $600??? Seems like a lot. Might just drive it as is. I can post some pics later to see if anyone has a more educated opinion. Hope everyone is doing well out there! Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 Replacing the tie rod ends is a bit interesting, the outers are pretty straight forward, inners are essentially the bulk of the tie rod. They are not impossible to do by yourself with a separation tool and if you carefully measure the length and count the number of turns to remove the ends it will be close. Alignment, if you have a ball joint front end there are offset bushings for setting caster and camber within a moderate range, if you have the kingpin front end as I do, the only way to set caster and camber is by bending the beams. Most shops will not touch these as a result, however, if you have a shop that will and they do it right, the alignment will hold up extremely well. Darth last had a full alignment in 1994, my front tires wear completely evenly across. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratdude747 Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 Replacing the tie rod ends is a bit interesting, the outers are pretty straight forward, inners are essentially the bulk of the tie rod. They are not impossible to do by yourself with a separation tool and if you carefully measure the length and count the number of turns to remove the ends it will be close. Alignment, if you have a ball joint front end there are offset bushings for setting caster and camber within a moderate range, if you have the kingpin front end as I do, the only way to set caster and camber is by bending the beams. Most shops will not touch these as a result, however, if you have a shop that will and they do it right, the alignment will hold up extremely well. Darth last had a full alignment in 1994, my front tires wear completely evenly across. Part of the estimate may also be predicting seized tie rod adjusters... took a couple tries to get mine aligned due to it seizing on the rack (I freed them up with liquid wrench and a pry bar and returned the following week). Honestly for the work involved, it may be worth doing all 4 tie rod segments... align once, cry once. I didn't follow my own advice through and only half my joints are recent (one outer, one inner, opposite sides); there isn't a hard/fast rule. Not that this is good practice, but if memory serves I didn't even jack my truck when I did the tie rods... just set the parking brake, popped out the old, popped in the new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gsmblue Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 Part of the estimate may also be predicting seized tie rod adjusters... took a couple tries to get mine aligned due to it seizing on the rack (I freed them up with liquid wrench and a pry bar and returned the following week). Honestly for the work involved, it may be worth doing all 4 tie rod segments... align once, cry once. I didn't follow my own advice through and only half my joints are recent (one outer, one inner, opposite sides); there isn't a hard/fast rule. Not that this is good practice, but if memory serves I didn't even jack my truck when I did the tie rods... just set the parking brake, popped out the old, popped in the new. This is on my list. I am going to do the same thing and replace everything and then go for an alignment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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