I am about to by a 1988 chevy cheynee its going to be my work truck, hog hunting truck, Its going to be just the beat around truck to do what i dont wanna do with my duramax my question is it is a 4x4 are tierod a big factor in these truck as my duramax just want to make sure because if it is i will go ahead and buy the sleeves now until i save the money for some billet ones

Nope, the tie rods will be fine, but be carefull with the front half shafts. If you do alot of mud'n, where you are at full throttle and the wheel is ****ed to one side or another, don't expect the halfshafts to stay in tact for long.

Front axle actuator, is the only 'problem' on those. GM has an updated electronic one over the older thermostatic ones, or you can get a cable type one, if you like everything manual.

Rttoys, I just checked out your garage. I you definitely don't have enough lights on your truck! :)

):h That's what happens when you have a welder, scrap steel and spare time on your hands.:D

Half shafts can u tell me more i want to have this truck fixed up so when i get in a little mud or something i dont have to worry about breaking stuff is there a differnt name 4 it rather then a half shaft?? That i will no it by?

cv shaft. basicly your front axle shafts, connect the front differential to the wheel.

the cable operated 4x4 actuator is called a posi-lok, the stock actuator is known to be a problem.

make sure you also have spare upper and lower ball joints they tend to break in some situations

Half shafts can u tell me more i want to have this truck fixed up so when i get in a little mud or something i dont have to worry about breaking stuff is there a differnt name 4 it rather then a half shaft?? That i will no it by?

Half shaft, cv joints, ft axle I think that's all the common names. It's the part that comes off the front diff and connects to the wheel hub. What I would do is go buy a half shaft assembly (it's the whole shaft, left and right shaft are identical) and keep it in a convienant place, cost about $80-100 if you look around. By the time you buy a cv joint, pull it apart and repair the shaft, it's cheeper and less hastle to just replace the whole shaft and go down the road.

Here is a quick website I found to give you a visual on what I'm talking about http://www2.partstrain.com/products/Engine/Driveshaft_&_Axle/Axle_Shaft/1989~CHEVROLET~K1500~8~5-dot-7~K15P--003.html

I have nothing to do with them, it was just a quick search on 'chevy 4wd parts'.

You'll never really know when a cv joint is ready to give. Let's put it this way, our '89 K1500 is in 4x4 more than it is 4x2 and we broke 2 CVs in 4 years. First one was my fault, I rebuilt the engine and hopped it up a little, found some mud on the farm, spun a few doughnuts at full throttle and whamm-o.:eek: :D But it was a very old shaft/joint. The second, the neighbor's boy was driving it and a ball joint just gave loose:rolleyes: trashing everything on the pass side.

Make a good check on the suspension parts, upper ball joints could be a little more stout than they are.

thanks for the info i no what u are talking about if yall would of sad front axle unstead of half shaft