Anybody have an opinion or experience with an IFS rebuild kit offerred on ebay? They are selling a complete set of tie rod ends, ball joints, and both idler and pitman arms for $220 plus s/h... is it worthy?

 

linky? and no, Im not going to buy it, worry not.

 

Did you stop at a local parts store or dealership and see what those parts would cost? If a part goes bad is there a warranty?
If I need brake, steering or suspension parts I feel better buying from the dealership, NAPA, Autozone, or a reputable online company (I found alot from this site).

 

think he means this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ball-...spagenameZWDVW

 

Their ad says all you need to know:

 

the ad has a link http://stores.ebay.com/Arm-Can-Auto-...nd-Prices.html that pretty much explains the difference in quality "levels" of chassis parts. It's a pretty good description of the various differences in quality between different manufaturers and the corresponding different prices of repair parts for someone who doesn't already know this. I say try em. Its a real good price if you don't have the money for oem. But first go to http://www.1sttoyotaparts.com and check out their prices. They are VERY good guys and have great prices. Good luck.
Jason

 

If you do any off-roading there is no way I'd put a cheap aftermarket pitman arm on. It's a huge PITA to get a truck with a broken pitman arm off a trail. You can't pull it out with a tow strap because the front wheels just flop around from lock to lock. The OEM pitman arms are very strong, are you sure you even need a new one?

 

sorry for not adding the link... 89dlx found it though...
I took your advice and compared prices from both Autozone($396) and Toyota($572). With that kind of price difference I'm forced to think that you get what you pay for. I took the middle road and went with Autozone. Lifetime on the T rod ends and availability sealed the deal. I went ahead and ordered all poly bushings also. Figured I might as well since I'll already have the front end apart.

 

Yeah, without steering your pretty much SOL! Good call man, I think I'll inspect the oem pitman a little closer and possibly get my $44.99 back. My idler has been bad for a minit and it doesn't take long for those 33's to reek havok on the rest of the steering.

 

That looks like the guy I bought from. Had a very long email discussion with him, both before and after purchase. The parts are "white box" parts and DO NOT come with the extras like nuts and bolts for the ball joints. It does include cotter pins and grease fittings, which you must install yourself.

White box or not, the price is reasonable and delivery was fast. My mechanic said they were about mid-grade, with OEM being the best choice and most expensive. No troubles with the install and I'm happy with the quality thus far (3 months). The guy (Ara) does stand behind the product and the warranty is good for 1 year. As I say, I'm happy with them at this point and I have already laid a beating on them off-road and on for about 15,000 kilometers with no issues.

Are they OEM-quality...no. But they are not OEM priced, either. I kept all the parts that came off, as I really didn't HAVE to replace the Pitmman or Idler arm, but if anything goes wrong, I've still got the OEM as a spare.

 

I carry inner and outer tie-rods and adjusting sleeve and a pitman arm as spares.
mt_goat sounds like he's been there. It is a PITA if one breaks on the trail.
BEEN THERE. LOL

 

I know this is an old thread. I'm going to bring it back up because I'm trying to decide the same thing from the same Ebay seller.
The link's at http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=330139720589
The store's name is "Arm-Can".
Have anyone ever had any experience with them since this thread died out? I'm replacing all these parts at once so need them all. There's other Ebay's at 1/2 the price but that makes me kind of leary.
My truck doesn't see anything but the mud out here in the country & under 5K miles a year, no off-roading. It's got 250K miles on it and NONE of these things have ever been replaced if that tells you anything about my driving habits, they don't even look too bad but will be replaced.
It comes with:
2 Lower Ball Joints
2 Upper Ball Joints
2 Inner Tie Rod Ends
2 Outer Tie Rod Ends
2 Adjusting Sleeves
1 Pitman Arm
1 Idler Arm
for $250 total w/shipping.
Any comments?
Mitzi
PS I read somewhere on his info pages that his parts have a 1 yr warrenty

 

subscribed!

 

I have these ball joints in my truck. I wheel off-road maybe twice a month on some pretty good trails and have not had any problems yet. Ball joints in for over a year so far.

 

I bought the kit about a year ago from the same dealer. Shipping was fast and all the parts were top quality. I've done mild offroading a couple times every month and everything has held up great. For the price you just can't beat it. My steering tightened up just like new. I recommend buying it!

 

Thanks to you all!
That's where I'll get them then. It's handy because he's got everything all in one auction. I can only imagine what the dealership charges. You know-the dealership wanted $450 dollars for body mount bushings :-O I got them from 4Crawler for $100, and they're better bushings!
Mitzi

 

Looks like a pretty good deal for sure...

I'm also in the market for all of that stuff and was really dreading buying it. For as much as I use my truck I'm sure all of that will probably be sufficient for my needs too.

Also on the dealer, 8500+ feedback and he's 100%. That says something too. And he's shipping from Canada even.

I'll probably order a set next week...

Thanks for the link.

 

You won't regret it. If you plan on doing the install yourself, go ahead and start soaking them bolts down with PB blaster. Mine were pretty much rusted on their. Make sure you have a mini sledge handy. Took me two good swings of a mini sledge to bust the ball joints loose with the pickle fork.

 

I called O'Reilly's (the only place I'll go) and priced these parts (each one part by part) through them and it's only $300. Their house brand is Moog-but in an O'Reilly's box. Each part comes with the same *lifetime* guarantee as the Moog boxed parts. I like that part :-) Lifetime guarantee. And I know O'Reilly's is awesome about replacing parts if needed. Plus they're 5 miles away from me. The Ebay stores guarantee for 12-15 months (depending on the store). But......it's a major pain and lots of paperwork and downtime for your truck if one of the parts fails in the 1st yr. After that you're just screwed.
I'm definitely going with O'Reilly's. Lifetime warranty that I know for a fact they'll honor plus they're so close, good name brand and if for some reason I had to replace something, my truck would only be down for an hour.
That's my update in case it helps anyone else.

 

I don't have an O'Reilly's around here anywhere and I can tell you from having to buy one a few months ago that Balljoints are $49 each at the dealer and $39 each for aftermarket. TRE's are around $35 each. That would put me in for about $300 just for bj's and tre's for junk no better than what's in the kit.