MOAGGIE

Ok guys, I am going to have to break down soon and replace all the ball joints (wearing the inside of both front tires bad!) so what all else should I replace for the long run? I figure I am going to have to do the work myself except the alignment. I have time right now since I am not working The shop I had check my alignment wanted 800 to just do the ball joints and realignment! so figured if I bought a kit from Quad 4 x4 with tools I should be able to do it myself. Thanks for any input, and by the way this has no lift, I did alot of searching and most posts dealing with this stuff was with lifted trucks. Nothing againist lifted trucks, I just think my truck sits plenty high the way it does!

TIMMY22

definately the front axle u-joints and check the tie rods.

MOAGGIE

WOW!! I just got back from have another shop that I know several people there and here is what all they came up with:
Labor $135.00 that sounded good then it went bad!
Alignment $54.95
Trac Bar-$260.00
Ball Joints 2 x 99.09=198.18
Ball Joints 2 x 160.57=321.14
Tires 6 x 133.00=798.00
Total of $1,767.27 plus tax
Discount to $1650.00 plus tax all parts are MOOG and the tires are warrantied for 50,000 miles. All parts were quoted from a NAPA dealer right across the street. They claimed the tie rods were good. I was afraid to ask for their price!

At least they took me into the shop and show me everything wrong and explained it. the other place I went to wanted $800 just for ball joints and alignment! I think I might just buy all the parts and let them put them on and buy their tires.

Sadly I'm stuck driving the truck for @2 more weeks before I can afford to do any of this stuff!

SIXSLUG

Yeah I got a qoute similar to yours...about $1700 for everything and aligned. I'm not seeing any uneven wear on my tires yet so I'm gonna wait. Its a lot of dough for what seems like routine maintenance!

MOAGGIE

My big concern is why mark up the parts so much? I got the exact same MOOG parts priced at O'Reilys and the parts were $305.37 cheaper!!

SIXSLUG

Overhead, liability, advertising, the cost of doing business, probably some kind of warranty, maybe that new 3500 6.7 Cummins!

MOAGGIE

He even has a service truck the same year as mine, he told me he has the same issues with the service truck but they haven't fixed it yet!

NMCTD

Ok lets see if we can shave this down some for you first off they are quoting napa prices wich are going to be higher than O'riellys. Next:

Labor $135.00---good price

Alignment 54.95---good price

track bar 260.00---you can get the same one for $150, but I highly recommend you upgrade to something better, the factory type ones are junk and you'll be replaceing it every 20k. Either a solidsteel 03 conversion, Thuren or DT profab. Any of those are going to be close to $400 but will be the last time you mess with them. You should be able to put this on yourself with basic tools.

Ball Joints 2 x 99.09=198.18 Ball Joints 2 x 160.57=321.14----I bet just your lowers are bad. jack the truck up off the ground and grab the tire on the top and bottom and push and pull to feel for play, it should be obvious if both are bad or just the lowers, then repeat on the other side of the truck. Checker has McQuay-Norris wich is built by moog all joints are $35 Then either replace them yourself or take them with you when you get it aligned.

Tires 6 x 133.00=798.00 isin't a bad price as long as they're good tires


So lets see what we have now. Not including labor for ball joints.

upgraded track bar-400.00
lower ball joints-----70.00
6 Tires------------798.00
alignment-----------54.95
1322.95

or with all 4 ball joints, standard track bar and labor to install

regular track bar 150.00
all ball joints 140.00
6 tires 798.00
labor 135.00
alignment 54.95
1277.95

Your biggest thing is the ball joints and track bar. I would get the joints somewhere else and buy the ball joint press to install them myself, or pull the knucke of and take it somewhere to have the lowers pressed out and in. Then I can't stress enough about upgrading the track bar over just the standard replacment!!!! Do a search on here for "track bar" and you'll see what I'm talking about. Next make sure the alignment tech set the caster to atlest 3.5 degrees, alot of shops don't even mess with the caster on these trucks and that is what causes "death wobble".

Sorry for dragging this out so far, if you have any questions feel free to PM me, I have done a ton of work on the front of these trucks

MOAGGIE

Thanks for the info. I will search for info on the upgraded track bar.

NMCTD

here this will get you started

http://solidsteel.biz/index.htm
http://thurenfabrication.com/index.html
http://www.dtprofab.com