Ok i go to get my new tires thrown on and alined, they tell me that both tie rods are shot and i need a new idler arm and pitman arm. They also quote me at 600 bucks. Now being the "do it yourselfer" how do i determine these things are accually bad and how hard is it to replace them. And if im going to be replaceing them, is there a better version than stock/napa parts that i should be looking into?
Thanks for any insight

 

bump no body has any input?

the smiles here sure beat the ones on honda-tech

 

With the right pullers it should be easy, most of the big auto parts stores loan out pullers for free. I'd get a second opinion, the pitman arms are very durable. What truck is it, and how old?

 

94 truck 4wd 22re
i played with the idler arm and it had some play, plus when i crank the wheel i hear a loud snaping noise

 

I took my 4runner to get aligned one day, and the guy said I needed a new pitman arm, and quoted me 300 bucks, but in reality the problem was just the idler arm bushings, an easy fix at four dollars. You should try replacing the bushings and see what that does, then decide...

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/idler/index.html

Simple, easy, bam! Back on the road.

 

I have 105,000 miles on my pitman arm an it's still solid as a rock. I have replaced my idler arm bushing though. I really doubt there is anything wrong with your pitman arm. Ask them why they think it is bad.

 

I just replaced the outer tie rods on my 4Runner and it was easy, about an hour and half to do both sides. The best $9 you'll spend is on a tie rod puller. Just tighten that baby on and the tie rod pops out. Unscrewing the tie rod from the sleeve took longer than getting the tie rod out. I used a tie rod puller, socket set, pliers, a large crescent wrench & lots of PB blaster to loosen everything up.

For parts, check out Jay Marks Toyota world; http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...?siteid=213747

Even with shipping, their Toyota parts are lots cheaper than my local dealer. I think you can order the whole inner/outer tie rod assembly and replace everything in one shot. I found that out too late, but maybe you can do that and save yourself some time.
Good luck!!

 

I just replaced my entire idler arm and man...what a difference it made.

I'm thinkin that I might need a new pitman arm too...not sure though.

Fink

 

i got some moog parts from carquest, they seem to be better than oem, they have grease fittings on all the joints where the oem seem to be sealed

 

The OEM ball joints have a bolt where the grease zert goes, just unscrew the bolt and replace with a 6mm grease zert. They only cost about 50 cents.