Looking for an economical solution...

I took my truck out to the desert and jacked up the steering. Wheel is about 90* from where it should be when the tires are straight. Took it into a shop to get an estimate...they said I need new pitman arm, idler arm, upper ball joints, shocks and tie rod ends.

Shop also said they couldn't align my truck until those things were fixed. After all the mods I'm running low on cash and kind of sucks to have the truck down until whenever I can get it fixed. Any advice?

bump!

How bad did you mess it up? Do you have steering problems? Clunking? Vibration? have you got a second opinion? I mean kind of a general question.

Well if everything is worn then replace ball joints first, tie rod ends, steering arms then shocks. That is the way I would go about it.

when you move the centerlink it has about 3/4" - 1" of travel up and down. I know that's bad. Real newbie when it comes to suspension...

As for the steering problems didn't have any up until this point...had to drive it like 40 miles home in the condition it's in and oddly enough it drives fine but the tires straight means the wheel is at a 90* to where it should be. Only clunking is when I go over a dip in the road there's a hard clunk on the drivers side.

thanks for the quick reply and any future help lol

Ok yeah that means some work will need to be done lol.

Find out what you can afford right now and then do the work that you can.

Haha thanks man. Being stuck with a broken truck and limited knowledge of the suspensions on these trucks makes it hard. i'll have to get ahold of ball joints and tie rod ends to start

Basically as long as you can go down the road safely, that is the most important thing. A busted ball joint is not a good thing to deal with. You should replace everything if it is needed, if not then don't worry about it.

Cool man. I'm going to get the upper ball joints and the tie rod ends today hopefully.

Today bump...

got the pitman/idler, tie rod ends and upper ball joints. any advice?

It is confirmed that all of those parts need replacing?

Well with the tires on my pitman and idler have some play and because of that no shop I've gone to will align it. I replaced ball joints and tie rod ends yesterday alignment is close but not dead on though. Just don't want to have to do pitman and idler because the shop I talked to wanted 600 another wanted 750 for pitman/idler install and alignmnent

check out your idler arm bracket assembly too, the stock one is cast aluminum and might be cracked.. also look at the bracket welded to the frame that holds the bracket assembly, it might be bent in/up they like to do that

Might need to do wheel bearings to. Don't know how many miles on the truck or if they were done before.

Thanks guys I sucked it up and paid to get the idler Arm and bracket as well as pitman done. The way I look at it is ts better than waiting and having to replace tires alng with it. Truck has 61000 on it don't know if those have ever been done

Check the wheel bearings but leave that last because it is not an immediate issue, you have no real absolute danger with the wheel falling off. Get the steering arms replaced then see where your at and if you feel it needs more work get er done.