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Originally Posted by 2500HD4x4
My 1998 2500 4x4 has a decent amount of slop in the steering. I jacked up one side of the vehicle, leaving the other side on the ground. Locked the steering wheel in place. Then grabbing the front and rear of the wheel in the air, and rotated it back and forth to see how much play was in it. The repair manual said to start inspecting and replacing things if the play was more than 0.10 inches. I have roughly an inch or so of play (10 times the specified amount!).
When rotating the wheel back and forth, I can see movement in the ball studs on the relay rod. One at each connection of the tie rod to the relay rod, one from the idler arm to the relay rod, and one from the pitman arm to the relay rod. Chevy says they will only sell entire pieces w/ new ball studs in them, i.e. whole pitman arm, or whole idler arm, etc. That is more money than I would like to spend.
Do any of y'all know if I can only buy the ball studs? Would I need more than a 2-3 jaw puller to get the job done?
Also for future reference, how difficult is it to replace the ball joints in this truck?
Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks!
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You need to replace the part (or parts) that are bad. This includes idler arm, pitman arm, tie rod ends and center link. You can buy these from any major auto parts store.
I like to use a pickle fork to break the idler arm and tie rod ends loose. They do make a puller. The Pitman arm comes off easier with a pitman arm puller (although, I have seen people beat it off).
The ball joints are rivoted so you will need to drill out the old rivots to replace them.
Many front end shops will do a front end inspection and it might be a good idea to get one to see what parts they say are worn out.
//2000CAYukon