Alright, so a few days ago I went to the local Big O tire store to get an alignment after installing ball joint spacers. The guys proceeded to tell me that they could not perform the alignment because my steering was too damaged. They said that I would need to replace my pitman arm, idler arm, both control arm bushings, and new tie rod ends. I just want to make sure that I'm actually going to have to replace this stuff and that they're not full of BS. Here is what they showed me. Click the pictures for the video to be played. They said it was all too "loose." Any comments and input would be appreciated.


Passenger side



Driver side

Theses are taken with the front end sitting on jack stands.

 

If you think there wrong take it somewhere else and get a second opinion.

 

That is definitely in need of replacement, mainly the steering linkage. I cannot tell anything from vid. For the bushings aside from tire wear.

 

Which I didn't see.

 

Yeesh! If I had that much play, I'd replace those components no matter what Big O said. I'd also check the ball joints very carefully. (I can't see anything about the ball joints in the tiny videos, but that front end has really taken a beating sometime in its life.)

 

It's kind of hard to tell in those videos. What I could see that definitely need to be replaced was the idler arm. The pitman arm and the right side inner tie rod also seem a bit sloppy.

I agree with ksti. You should get a second opinion.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the help. I think I'll just go ahead and replace it all. Should i replace my ball joints while I'm at it?

thanks

 

cheaper to replace everything then replace one at a time, plus its easier since everything will be torn apart

 

To test for worn ball joints, jack the truck up an hold the tire at the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions and try to rock the tire up and down. If there is a lot of play, you need new ball joints. Chances are if they are the factory ball joints, they need to be replaced.

 

Toyota gives a procedure to test ball joints on the truck:

 

^Ah...forgot about that. But that looks like it's in the FSM. Maybe he doesn't have an FSM.

The way I said is the way someone else told me to do it. I was just relaying information

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the info. I get off work tomorrow morning and I'll definitely check and see what all needs to be done.

 

Almost 30 year old truck and my bet all that is original steering.

:wabbit2: