My Crimson Cruiser - 1996 GMC 1500 Project

[fancyTBI]

I’ve seen people do it with a ball joint press. It’s tricky. You need a piece to keep the ears from collapsing. My photo.

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Which bushings did you get? If you got poly then a BJ press might work to get the rubber and inner sleeve out. If you got new bushings with an outer sleeve… good luck pressing that in with a BJ press. I couldn’t do it, I’m sure others have.

You can burn the bushings out if you have a torch. Propane works, takes forever.

Any other non-chain tire stores? Know of a leaf spring shop? Chevy dealer?

 

[aldang25879]

I found a classic car shop with a hydraulic press and every adapter you can imagine. Dude said he’d get it done for me.

I should’ve just done that to begin with instead of looking at alignment shops, lol. Just a lack of experience as I’ve only ever had to go to alignment shops and I know they do suspension work.

 

[Orpedcrow]

I found a classic car shop with a hydraulic press and every adapter you can imagine. Dude said he’d get it done for me.

Good deal, they aren’t fun to do. Hopefully they’ll take care of you without much fuss.

 

[df2x4]

I should’ve just done that to begin with instead of looking at alignment shops, lol.

Chain tire shops in general really. I've had a bad experience at every one I've ever been to, including Plaza Tire. I avoid them entirely now in favor of local mom & pop shops, I buy all my tires from TireRack.com.

IMO Plaza Tire did you a favor by turning the job down, I'd consider yourself lucky they didn't mess with this.

 

[aldang25879]

IMO Plaza Tire did you a favor by turning the job down, I'd consider yourself lucky they didn't mess with this.

Yeah pretty much every time besides when my dad helped me do my f150 (I learned some but he did the entire front end for me), they say they have to fix something before they can align my car.

Last time it was my 1990 civic, that was the one I did my own tie rods control arms and brakes, much smaller car. They said something was wrong with the passenger rear end and with their quote, it literally would have costed less to just do a rear disc swap on both sides. They also asked if I was sure I wasn’t shopping for trailer tires because the wheels on it were like 15’s with not much width.

This shop I’m going to is local and, check out some of the stuff he’s worked on. He said it would just cost the labor of how long it takes him to do it.

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[df2x4]

Yeah pretty much every time besides when my dad helped me do my f150 (I learned some but he did the entire front end for me), they say they have to fix something before they can align my car.

A Firestone employee once told my dad they needed to replace the idler and pitman arms on his 3500 before they could align it. Quoted him over $600 with the parts marked up more than triple actual cost. We took it to our usual mechanic who's been a family friend for many years and there was nothing wrong with anything.

 

[aldang25879]

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This bolt holding the fender guard on was really messing with me. It ended up being a 6.5 mm. Why?? I’m not putting this back on because that’s a stupid size. Took me like 20 mins going through my whole toolbox and garage and calling it a break to figure it out lmao.

Reason I’m taking it off is because this is giving me troubles:

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Driver side upper control arm right side bolt

 

[aldang25879]

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Much better. I hope some of yall find amusement in the difficulty I run into as a first timer on this platform just jumping into it

 

[aldang25879]

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Everything so far laid out!

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Passenger side

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Drivers side.

Unfortunately I’m gonna have to cut it short today. Only because I work extra hours this morning for overtime and i need to go to sleep really early.

but I made the progress I needed to get my control arms sent to the shop.

Next steps are:
-take control arms to the shop on Friday morning
-work on removing lower/idmt steering shaft and steering box.
-work on removing pitman and idler arm, idler arm bracket.

For installation:
-start with steering shaft
-hook steering box and pitman arm to steering shaft
-hook up idler arm and bracket
-put control arms back on
-reattach shocks and springs
-put new ball joints in and attach the spindles
-put on sway bar link
-attach tie rods
-calipers and wheels back on

 

[Orpedcrow]

Take a bungee cord or something and tie your steering wheel in it’s centered and straight position to the seat before you start taking the steering shafts out. There is a clock spring in the steering wheel and you can break it by spinning the wheel to far one way or the other.