REPAIRS?

[iviper123]

i took my truck in today, 4 alighment& brake inspection. estimites

front brake pads,rotors,shoes,
axle seals,idler arm,pitman arm---are these regular wear items that go bad, what goes wrong with the pitman and ideler arems??

are the hard to replace myself

 

[chrisk1500]

Those are all common repairs (even the pitman arm if not properly serviced)...

Pitman arm is the most difficult of the above repairs...

 

[DEERE3594]

They arnt to bad to do on your own..
Did they give you an estimate to have them do the work?

 

[Turbine Doc]

Depending on your mech aptitude all are doable by yourself, wear in those items is the "knuckle/ball joint" in them if not graesed or a OEM non greaseable style on there, grease dries out and metal on metal wears out eventually, there are some imports that are okay, but I like MOOG parts, with grease fittings.

You didn't mention them but have a look at ball joints & tie rod ends as well, when one piece starts going bad others are soon to follow (kind of weak link in chain broke just enough to make rest of chain pull double duty and wear also), factory ball joints are sometimes riveted in place, grind off heads with a dremel and finish rest of it by drilling if it won't drive out with punch (hard bit, slow to medium speed-plenty of cutting lube).

Last year I rebuilt the front end on my burb, was about $400 in parts, mostly my labor and $50 to realign and when I took it for realign, I supplied the new pitman arm and let them put it on for another $50, they broke 2 pullers getting my old one off. Pitman can be a bear if it has never been off

Before removing old tie rod ends measure & record how many threads exposed on old ones, run in new ones to same length this will be close enough to get you somewhere that can do a proper alignment setting for you,

 

[iviper123]

they said the tie rods and that are good,
the estimate is about $950 for all the work $500 or so parts $400 labor

 

[Turbine Doc]

Rest is good eh, odd when I lived in Va. every vehicle I ever owned "needed an idler or pitman" inspection station was a garage also, good revenue generator those idlers or pitmans, as I said before if those are bad rest has wear as well. trust your shop ???, mite be worth a 2nd opinion, brakes are stuff you can do.

 

[dur0maxx]

I would def get a second opinion. I don't trust shops at all. I used to work in one and I know how they work. A buddy of mine took his explorer in to get brakes done. They told him he needed front rotors and brake pads all around. They wanted over $500 to do it. He brought it by my house and I looked and all he needed was front pads. We ended up puting front and rear pads on it and everything is fine. Rotors were perfect by the way, not a groove, nothin.

TD, I grew up in Va and it seemed everytime I took a car/truck in for an alignment I always needed a tie rod. Kinda wierd huh?

 

[iviper123]

how can you tell if the idler/pitman are bad so i can check them myself

 

[SnowDrift]

None of what you mentioned would bother me to do, but I payed to have a pitman replaced on either my wife's Burban or my truck - can't remember which. Not sure if I have the tools to do it or not - can it be removed without taking off the gear box?

 

[chrisk1500]

Have someone turn the wheel and you watch the pitman arm for 'slop'....

The pitman arm is worth getting done at a shop....

 

[Dieseldad97]

IMO I would replace tie-rods if your going to do the idler and pitman. This way it's all new. The shop will be able to get the front end aligned properly and you should be good to go for another 75k miles or whatever.
Been there and done that, and was not sorry for going wheel to wheel with new stuff.

 

[Matt Bachand]

What you need to do is jack up one side from the control arm and grab the tire at 9 and 3 o'clock and wiggle back and forth. should be no chunk-chunk movent.Grab tire at 12 and 6 and wiggle hard to check movement in balljoints, Should be no Chunk-chunk movement. Grab a long bar and put it under the tire and lift with that for leverage)

Tire should be 2-3 inches off the ground as you are testing. If you find looseness have someone else do it while you crawl underneath and find the worn part.

all parts are fairly easy to DIY except Pitman arm. BTW I just replaced mine last year. It develops slop. when tire jacked up there is a fair amount of slop while wiggling, not quite a chunk-chunk but a sloppy slop

 

[Pillow]

When we bought the Burb the potman arm was so worn it could barely drive in a straight line! The parts and labor at the shop to fix it were very reasonable IMO.

if your truck drives true w/o slop then you are probably in good shape.

 

[iviper123]

i dont get to drive my truck much anymore its our only vechicle,(i walk to work most of the time) it seems like i have a lot of play in my steering from what i rember:mad2: