Best place for stock steering parts?

[twinmill28]

As much as I'd love to drop $1200 into the steering upgrades for my truck, reality has it that I'll be rebuilding with what I hope to be the best lowest cost parts I can get ahold of; thanks assclowns in Washington-----

I got under and checked all the steering stuff and yup, it's shot. So I'm looking for idler and pitman, two inners and one outer tie rod. The other TR is my new MOOG trail spare. I'd like to do all MOOG, but the one TR I've got came from old Checker Auto parts in Utah.
Also, the one that's got me scratching my head head is the ilder arm support--I'm going to assume it doesn't need to be replaced, though I've got to crawl back under and see if I can move it around. I don't think it will, but I didn't realize that's the one that had the shaft for the idler.
Lastly, how are you folks getting the pitman off the steering box shaft? There's no room for a regular puller and while I've got no problem beating on things with a mallet, I don't think the steering box will appreciate it.

 

[Zach]

Pitman takes a special tool. Send me a pm and I'll quote you on OE. Slightly more expensive but have had better luck with OE. Might want to look into the cognito support kit for the idler and pitman. It works great. Idler arm support comes with the idler arm

 

[twinmill28]

No additional cash right now for the support kits--barely scraping it together for the replacement steering stuff as it is.
Forgot to ask about getting the idler arm off--do I need to remove that "support bracket" with the shaft for better access to remove idler or is there another tool for removing it in place?

 

[Zach]

That support for the idler comes with it. Will check on the tool tomorrow for you. Shouldn't be a problem

 

[GreyGhost]

Maybe check rockauto.com ? As for the pitman arm on a cold day I've used a butane torch and gently heated the arm "on a different truck" but same concept and the slight expansion from the heat was enuff to break it free and remove.

 

[twinmill28]

Just priced out Rock Auto and two inner tie rods, one outer tie rod, an idler and a pitman come in at $246 shipped 4-6 days delivery. These are all MOOG parts, I'm good with that.
I'm not sure on the pitman as there is a 3 or 4 spline listed though?

 

[GreyGhost]

That's sounds like a good price and moog to boot! You may have to remind me about rockauto if I make the same post in the future. Lol

 

[tomp]

rockauto moog parts have lifetime warranty and they make it easy for returns and credit back. Moog Idler part number is K6535 and Pitman is K6654. Borrow free Pitman loaner tool from Autozone to remove Pitman arm. Remove large bolts under fender well to free up steering box, but leave u-joint connected. This will allow you to move box around so you can get the tool on the pitman arm. New Autozone tool has new design that will only allow open end of wrench to fit, so remove large threaded bolt from tool and place the closed end of the wrench on there. You will understand what I mean once you see what the tool looks like. You should replace Idler pivot assembly at same time as Idler arm. Go ahead and borrow all of AutoZone's pickle forks too while you are there as you will need them to remove arms from sway bar. When installing Idler arm, mount new arm onto pivot before installing both back into H2.Plan on spending several hours under there, take your time, do it right, and it will drive like new when done and don't forget to have alignment appointment setup about 4 hours afterwards

 

[twinmill28]

Cool, thanks Tom, I was hoping you'd post up and not be tired of rewriting your posts on the same topics every couple months (unless you just cut and paste all the repetitive stuff now!)

Last time I was in Autozone they were dicks about the free loaner tool as I wasn't buying any parts from them--I needed a large tap and they wanted some crazy money for the loaner cost--which was the entire tap and die kit, not just the one I needed. Unless they miraculously have any Moog stuff there, I imagine it'll be the same way; oh yeah, only one Autozone in this town.

Got any input on the green key discussion? I haven't had time to check that post since I found one of your other posts saying the green keys really only work ideally with the Cognito UCA"s. At least I think that was one of your posts. I was going to just order green keys and do a very small lift, say 1" or so.

As for the idler support bracket thing, as I was looking online for parts last night I found some of the Moog brackets now come with a grease fitting relocation hose to make lubing them accessible without removing the skid plate. From the write-up I read it says that zirk fitting usually gets missed in the normal round of greasing everything up. I crawled under the truck to have a look, and sure enough, that sucker was bone dry and doesn't look like it's gotten any love for a long time. So yeah, I'll go ahead and replace it as well.

 

[tomp]

I run the green keys myself, they work great and cheap too. It's of my opinion that raising IFS by turning/raising with keys only is a bad idea in the long term as the angles of shafts and tie rods gets increased and even the smallest amount of increase causes parts to wear quicker. Heck, even mud tires causes more vibration and more oil leaks. T-bone had the right idea of having two sets of wheels and tires... I think the moral of my story is to "perform mods wisely/mildly and only do them for the caliber of wheeling that you plan to do for the majority of the time".