Sturmcrow

I read a bunch of posts about the things we should check up on our old trucks. I did two things recently that I do not remember reading about, but which made a huge difference.

The first one was to adjust the ride height by tightening the torsion bars. I had read about "cranking the t-bars" for a lift, but I had not read about using them to bring the ride height back to stock. I got the height measurements from the FSM (11.4" for me to the middle of the cam bolt). The difference was night and day. Now I can hit speed bumps at a reasonable speed (20MPH) and barely feel them from the front, though they do still jounce a bit from the rears. Before, the truck really hated any kind of bump. I think it was hitting the bump stops on the slightest obstacle. The lower bump stops had about half an inch gap between them and the lower control arms.

The second was to replace the steering damper. I am in awe of the difference. I thought that I needed to replace the front brakes because slightly applying the brakes at highway speed made the steering wheel bounce so much I thought I was gonna die. I replaced the steering damper with the $30 Monroe from O'Reilly's yesterday and am blown away by the difference. At highway speeds I can feel absolutely no oscillation in the steering wheel when hitting the brakes, though I do eventually feel some bucking from the truck due to the brakes being a bit warped. I am seriously considering sending back the Brembo blanks and Hawk LTS pads that I bought and putting that money towards some nice Bilsteins. I did already spend a lot of time and a little money tracking down all the gaskets, o-rings, and lock washers that I need to replace the rotors, so I might as well do it, but the priority of doing so has dropped dramatically.

GuitarMike

Good suggestions, Sturm! Another I'd add...something we all overlook when we get a new rig because it can suck to get in there....CHANGE THE FUEL FILTER!

My '93 was "ok", but not like my '88. I did plugs, wires, filters, PCV, all the usual tuneup items....but ignored the fuel filter. Changed that after 8 mos. of driving....WOW. Someone had it in BACKWARDS. You should see the junk that came out of that sucker!
Relocated it to the inner fender, back on in a flash.

NOW my '93 is like how my old '88 felt! MUCH more pep, as it was probably so fuel-starved I was losing 10 HP....should've nicknamed this one "Roadrunner"....

RobotMoose

iTrader: (1)

Transmission bearing seals, u-joints, wheel bearings, clutch slave and master cylinders. Brake master if it's been sitting for a while.

Edit:
None of these are really that small, my bad!
- U-jounts/driveline service
- Wheel bearings

beach_yota

front shocks made a night and day difference in my ride. before, I had 1 worn out oem shock in the front right. the other one had unbolted itself from the shock tower and siezed, so it was useless. I bought some pro comp 9000's for the front and man did it really tighten everything up

Sturmcrow

I changed my fuel filter too. That was much more of a PITA than I expected! I had to drop the crossmember to get a wrench on the forward fitting. How did you go about relocating it?

Sturmcrow

I repacked my front wheel bearings while changing out the brake rotors and pads. Considering the miles they have, that they are probably the originals, and knowing now what all it takes to get to them, I really should have just replaced them while I was there. I was turned off by the price of new bearings. On the other hand, I do have to admit that the old ones spin just fine and I only had to up the final torque on the inner spindle nut to about 25-30 ft-lbs to get the preload within spec.

FWIW, if your wheels have play and you suspect the balljoints, I'd suggest redoing the bearings first. That got rid of all detectable play for me.