Have a friend that said his pitman and idler just sheared off (???) He's in Fl so I haven't seen it. What parts ,either OE or aftermarket, will I need to set it back to stock height?
Does this lift use the oe upper arms?

First off, I highly doubt the lift is the sole cause of the arms failure. May want to check into that first. Were the arms OEM or aftermarket?

For the suspension, you will need stock steering knuckles, cognito differential ear replacement bracket, you will have to fab up a new rear lower front diff mount. Stock sway bar end links, stock u bolts, stock shocks. I believe that is all but I'm just running this off the top of my head quickly. Plus some stock mounting hardware for different parts. I can help with the Cognito bracket, sway bar end links, shocks, u bolts probably, etc. Let me know if you have any more questions too bud.

First off, I highly doubt the lift is the sole cause of the arms failure. May want to check into that first. Were the arms OEM or aftermarket?

For the suspension, you will need stock steering knuckles, cognito differential ear replacement bracket, you will have to fab up a new rear lower front diff mount. Stock sway bar end links, stock u bolts, stock shocks. I believe that is all but I'm just running this off the top of my head quickly. Plus some stock mounting hardware for different parts. I can help with the Cognito bracket, sway bar end links, shocks, u bolts probably, etc. Let me know if you have any more questions too bud.

x2, is the sheering of the idler/pitman arm the reason he wants to remove it?

he will need everything as stated above except the sway bar end links unless he bought some after market one. fabtech uses the factory setup otherwise.

UCA can be factory or a fabtech one depending on what he bought. 8" kit has to have the UCA replaced with a fabtech one

Have a friend that said his pitman and idler just sheared off (???) He's in Fl so I haven't seen it. What parts ,either OE or aftermarket, will I need to set it back to stock height?
Does this lift use the oe upper arms?

BOTH just sheared off? Did he get into an accident? Was there damage to any other parts?

sorry, I know it doesn't answer your ?? but, wow, that must have been quite the experience...

Thank you Chevy1925, I wasn't sure on the sway bar end links if they flipped the sway bar and reused the factory endlinks or if they used taller replacement end links. I do not use Fabtech kits too often here and it's been a bit since I've had one here in the shop.

He said if he can make what broke strong enough to be safe he'll just fix that. Other than Cognito braces and idler pivot I'm not sure what to get for him. It was OE P/A arms

BOTH just sheared off? Did he get into an accident? Was there damage to any other parts?
That's how it was described to me. He's in Tallahassee so I haven't seen it. Said he lost control of the steering completely. No accident. He'd really like to keep the lift but he travels across the county pipelining w/ his family so he needs it to be safe/ reliable.

Mileage on the arms? how long has the lift been on? Tire and wheel specs?

Not sure sure on the mileage on the arms. Lift has been on for a couple years I think. Tires are 35/12.50 mud grapplers on 20x10 mazzi's

Something just doesn't sound right, but without looking at it...it's difficult to say. If the arms were totally wore out, I could possibly see it happening. Personally I would replace and upgrade the steering parts first and give it another try before removing the lift. I don't think the lift is too blame. Is his front suspension cranked way too high or something. Something is just off it seems. Pics would help if you could get any from him! Just trying to help you out bud!

said it is 30 1/2" from bottom of flare to wheel center. 24 1/2" stock. i think. I need the idler pivot and pitman idler braces right? I'll call you today if I ge t a min

Something just doesn't sound right, but without looking at it...it's difficult to say. If the arms were totally wore out, I could possibly see it happening. Personally I would replace and upgrade the steering parts first and give it another try before removing the lift. I don't think the lift is too blame. Is his front suspension cranked way too high or something. Something is just off it seems. Pics would help if you could get any from him! Just trying to help you out bud!

nope, its jsut a typical fabtech and probably a lack of checking the ilder/pitman arms for wear. fabtech puts alot of steering angle on the tie rods which induces alot of leverage on the drag link to twist and wears the idelr/pitman arm quickly compared to other kits.

said it is 30 1/2" from bottom of flare to wheel center. 24 1/2" stock. i think. I need the idler pivot and pitman idler braces right? I'll call you today if I ge t a min

how much room is there between the upper control arm and the upper control arm bumpstop (not the yellow bumpstop)? sounds like hes at 6" but you never know, this will give me a better idea if you measure what i stated above. The idler/pitman arm braace from cognito is a good fix for those who mainly street drive their trucks. if he does any kind of off roading where 4wd is used with a heavy foot on that fabteck kit i recommend a different kit bu tis more expensive. the cognito braces flex a good amount off road/racing and still allow the idler/pitman arm to wear out quick.

If you overcrank you could have some issues too with the fabtech kits. Alignment gets weird and then it could introduce some more stress on the already stressed suspension. But sometimes manufacturing isn't perfect and you can get metal parts that fail however it is very unlikely but a possibility.

i was also thinkin. he wouldnt happen to have had the old fabtech idler/pitman arm on there would he? they had a big recall on those cause they would break very easily even with normal street driving

yeah on the older kits they had issues with the steering arms.

So the early kits came with replacement arms? Pretty sure he had OE arms. I go in for some surgery tomorrow so it'll be a couple days before I talk to him again . I'll see about the droop stop measurement then. Pretty sure it's all pavement miles.

They had a problem with the pitman/idler arms in their molding process. Somehow it wasn't strong enough.