92 Bravada front suspension

I'm about to tackle the worn front suspension on my 92, with a meager 170k on it, and need all the advise I can get. I've had it inspected twice, once when I bought it a couple of months ago and again when I got new tires. The consensus was that I need to replace the idler arm, king pin, bushings and tie rods.

The only thing the two mechanics disagreed on was the left front. The first one said I needed a new ball joint, the second one said I needed a new hub assembly. They both showed me a slight movement when wiggeling the tire while up on the rack. How do I know which is right, the hub assm. is very expensive. And can I do this myself?

Hey Eric, I can't find a Kingpin on my '92. Yours doesn't have one either. Kingpins are on Ford trucks with the Twin I-Beam suspension and very old cars and trucks with straight front axles...avoid Mr. Kingpin.
If you can grab the Idler arm and move it up and down 1/2 " freely, it might need to be replaced.
I just replaced my passenger side hub on the '97 because it was growling and vibrating...I could hear it and feel vibrations through the floor and steering wheel. There was no up and down wheel movement with my bad hub assembly. You might have some wear to your bottom ball joint(s).
The lower ball joint is inspected for wear by sight. Wear is indicated by the position of the nipple into which the grease fitting is threaded. This round nipple projects 1.27mm(.050") beyond the surface of the ball joint cover on a new unworn joint. Normal wear will result in the surface of this nipple retreating inward. If it's even or inward past the ball joint cover, replacement is in order. Scrape and clean these surfaces to make your inspection then YOU can SEE if your lower ball joint(s) need replacement.
You might get the front-end aligned then listen for new noises and watch your tire wear.
My '92 has 178K with a slight front end alignment 6 or 7 years ago...front tires are wearing fine.

wow, i have the printed estimate in front of me and it includes a kingpin. what a rip off. thanks Chris

the lower ball joints look good. no noticable noise or vibration from the hub. the only noise i get seems to be from the bushings, i can get them to squeak real loud by bouncing on the bumper or braking hard and they are really noticable when i go off road.

i'm gonna start by just replacing the idler arm and bushings. do you know of any good sources for high perfomance bushings?

I replaced the upper & lower A-frame bushings on my Vette with Moog replacement parts...the last ones were 30 years old and I think that's a pretty long life. I don't like polyurethane because I hear they are noisey and I don't know that they might be too stiff and not have enough give on very hard bumps.
For your squeaks, try spraying some tire sidewall dressing on your shock bushings and A-frame bushings. When I see torn rubber around the A-frame bushings, that's when I make plans on replacing them.
Use jack stands and be safe...you gotta get me more pictures of the mountains.