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83 K5 sloppy steering with videos

What a day! Everything seemed to go smoothly. Spindles each came off with two whacks with a sledge hammer and 2x4, right knuckle took some persuading. But the left one, unreal. We forked it top and bottom, whacked on the castle nut until it started to strip, luckily we got it off, we hammered the threaded portion of the ball joint. We took the yellow propane torch to it, re hammered, reformed, finally after almost 2 hours, it fell loose, but by then, we had hit the top of the ball joint so much it had mushroomed and would not slide through the axle housing. We ended up taking the top of the mushroomed threads off with an angle grinder. Sparks and stinky fumes everywhere.
 
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So I am ready to start shopping. What are recommendations on brands for the following:

Ball Joints:

Tie rod ends:

U-joints front axle:

Drag link ends:

Gearbox:

Sway bar bushings:

Leaf spring bushings:

Wheel bearings (I/O):

Anything else I missed:


Also, any brands to steer clear of (no pun intended!):
 
Moog and trw are good quality brands for ball joints and tie/drag ends.
Spring eye bushing my preference is ORD kevlar, but energy suspension is acceptable.

Spicer u joints. Unless you want heavy duty, then Yukon very $$$.

Timkin, National, BCA, AC Delco, or koyo.
Same brands for the seals.

I try to avoid AutoZone and O'Reilly's brand bearings almost guaranteed to be made in China. I have seen more Chinese bearings fail than the listed brand.
Gear box is tough one to call for me. Others have more recent experience with gear box.
Sway bar bushings can use energy suspension, Moog trw
 
I see there is also a bearing inside the spindle. It doesn’t look easy to get out. Does it go bad often?
 
yes it is not easy to get out, I am doing this now. If there is no rust and all the rollers are there, clean and grease it.
 
Thanks for the recommendations.

So I asked Advance Auto about the following set. It is $259 and if returned within 45 days, you get a full refund. But I asked if something breaks, and they said now I own it. Is it a good set? I can get it on Amazon for 211 with a return in 30 days. And they would likely accept a return if broken.

Advance Auto Press
 
Harbor freight would $100 for that set, it is 2 kits thou. IDK if they would take a return if used. Looks to be same quality. OTC last I check for the complete kit was close to $400.00 - would be the only brand I would spend that kind of money on.
 
While I’ve got the whole thing taken apart, I was considering changing from auto lock hubs to manual. Recommended? If yes, which brands (part number if known)?

Edit: we don’t go off road, but can get ice and snow where we live.
 
Wes Harden said:
Warn standard, Mile Marker, Yukon.

Example be sure to double check will work on your truck
WARN 9790 Standard Manual Hub https://a.co/d/86lKpTk

I do not benefit from that link.
Just helping out
Click to expand...
It states Dana 44, but I think I have a 10Bolt. The axle shaft has 28 splines where it enters the differential and 19 splines where it enters the spindle.

Will it make a difference?



2440C75E-DAA1-4481-B9CE-B83DDA920FB3.jpeg
7DA6091C-E606-484D-BEB5-57F36489A099.jpegDC041EDB-6E67-40A0-8EE9-291BB4C4C957.jpeg
 
hubs out the 10 and d44 are the same the locks will work. My D44 is 30 inner and 19 outer.
 
Is that picture your axle ? If so be gentle installing them there are seals at the pumpkin end of the tubes. Try to keep the axle in the center while inserting, pry bar should help.
 
Wes Harden said:
Is that picture your axle ? If so be gentle installing them there are seals at the pumpkin end of the tubes. Try to keep the axle in the center while inserting, pry bar should help.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is the axle. Funny thing was, when I carefully slid out the passenger side axle, there’s was red thread wrapped around the end that fit into the diff.
 
I feel horrible with all the questions.

When pressing the ball joints back into the knuckle, 1) which do you do first, the top or the bottom (I think I heard bottom before), 2) should I put lubricant or anti-sieze on the ball joint where it presses into the knuckle and 3) is it OK to remove the boot on the lower ball joint (since the top one comes with it off (they are MOOGs)?
 
Aviodont said:
I feel horrible with all the questions.

When pressing the ball joints back into the knuckle, 1) which do you do first, the top or the bottom (I think I heard bottom before), 2) should I put lubricant or anti-sieze on the ball joint where it presses into the knuckle and 3) is it OK to remove the boot on the lower ball joint (since the top one comes with it off (they are MOOGs)?
Click to expand...
You do the bottom first, then you do top one and tighten the castle nut to pick up the slack
 
when installing the ball joints into the knuckle do the top one first, then the lower. When in stalling the knuckle to the axle "C" leave the upper bushing loose, put the castle nut on the top ball joint, tighten, this will pull the the lower ball joint stud into the "C" taper. I like to use the old nut, if threads aren't damaged, to tighten lower ball joint taper, then remove and install the new nut. Torque the upper ball joint bushing down to 50 foot pounds, top caslte nut is 132 foot pounds. Always tighten to line up cotter key slot, never loosen. Lower nut is 80 foot pounds. Do Not just anti size on the ball joint tapers, you want tight.
Yes you can remove the boots to install the joints, if they just slide off. I had a Moog problem solver, that had the boot crimped to the joint, didn't interfere with my install, was a lower.
Just finished mine last week this is driver side upper going back in.

IMG_20230615_154208.jpg

IMG_20230615_154212.jpg

IMG_20230615_154509.jpg
 
Finally had a “cool” day to be able to work on the truck. It was only 91 today!

We removed two U joints that had likely never been replaced.

We removed the gearbox and fortunately there was no crack in the gram under any of the bolts.

Before we took it off, I thought it might be a good idea to mark off in chalk the position of the pitman arm to the gearbox to the rag joint/shaft relative to each other with the steering wheel centered. With the knuckles off as well as the drag link and tie rod, I figured the only way I can find things centered would be to turn the steering wheel from extreme left to extreme right and count turns and divide by two. What I found was starting from the extreme left, the steering wheel was pointing 90 degrees left. I was able to turn it 3.5 turns until it stopped pointing 90 degrees right. So 1.75 turns back to the center left me with the steering wheel upside down.

Any problems?
 
I never found them to exactly 3.5 turns. But not necessarily any problem. The wheel can be removed and installed correctly.
It may have miss installed before. Once you are sure you have the gear box centered and wheel where you want it, drive it, fine tune the straightness of the wheel with drag link adjustment
 
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