My 2005 Yukon XL

[DieselSlug]

Been hearing a bit of a clunk on the Yukon over the last couple days. Finally did some inspections and I have a loose ball-joint on the upper passenger side. Racking my brain, I've been there before, actually on March 30th, 2023 (post #329). Unfortunately I was in a bind, the night before leaving for our 1.2k-mile trip with store shelf options....... Napa quality for you.

I've got a TTX joint on the way from RA, paid extra to ship it quicker as we are going out of town this weekend. It should arrive tomorrow. I need to check and grease the others too. I was looking hard at the Napa Fleet (been discussed here too back in mid-late 2023), but it was nearly 3x the price (2x the price even with 2-day shipping) opposed to the puke green TTX from RA. I'll put all the puke green parts on my rig for that kind of price difference.

So far I am running a TTX pitman arm, and both front hub assemblies with no regrets to date.

 

[ak diesel driver]

My ttx outer tie rod end didn't last long and the replacement is already got a stiff spot

 

[DieselSlug]

My ttx outer tie rod end didn't last long and the replacement is already got a stiff spot

I remember you having issues with some TTX parts. What have you been using for replacement stuff now?

 

[ak diesel driver]

Pretty much have tried a lot of 5 aftermarket stuff, which is all greaseable. Next thing I'm going to try and find some sealed ones. I had my wife's acura apart here awhile ago and the lube in the sealed joint was more of an oil. Thought about trying like gear oil instead of grease in the greaseable ones

 

[DieselSlug]

Finally got the CB radio coax crimped and soldered. I've got a issue somewhere, SWR is not happy. Need to test the antenna and coax first for proper grounding.

 

[DieselSlug]

I think I got the SWR issue figured out. For some reason the kit i bought (from Amazon) didn't identify or come with the upper nylon spacer. So essentially the antenna was grounding out. Luckily I had an ancient one kicking around form the high school/college days:


Got the passenger upper joint swapped. The old (merely 2-3 years) one felt HORRIBLE, notchy and gritty.



Got the knuckle all cleaned up and new unit pressed in with corresponding directional dot pointing out. All went well. One comment I have was once fully seated on the top, I installed the circlip below and noticed a little more gap in there than I would prefer. Id say over 1/16-inch closer to 1/8-inch to the eye. Hope that doesn't come back to haunt me.


All fittings greased on the passenger side and I also checked the drivers side and find a really small amount of play in the upper ball joint. I plan to replace that before the trip as well. Really contemplating an alignment as well.