ok, was going over my truck today trying to figure out why i have so much play in steering and why the outsides of my tires are wearing faster than the inner....

I have found the the control arm bushings are real bad..dry cracked and falling apart...

Now is the the begining of the control arm (towards the rear) know as the upper or lower, and the front portion the oposite of whatever the rear is?

i found these...

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...mString=search

but it says upper and lower...not sure which one i need.

and how hard is it to replace these? any special tools required?



Also the shaft for the steering column has play up and down, left to right, where is exits the fire wall...the play is not to bad, but theres play....ive read about a bushing kit....can anyone find a write up for this?


thx

 

There are four control arms there. Two uppers (the ones on top) and two lowers. (the ones on the bottom) Gotta be careful when buying bushings, as the two wheel drives ALSO have upper and lower control arms. The energy suspension kit might be your best bet, comes with ALL the bushings. Will noticeably tighten up your front suspension, although, I have also heard tales of the holes in the poly bushings elongating....... not many, mind you..... maybe someone else can chime in on that?

Steering column bushing. There is also a link to a FAQ on that little feller.

 

I don't think those bushing are going to cause outside tire wear! That's a toe problem IMHO.

 

its funny you say that, after i replaced all my front end parts, i got an alignment, and it was only my toe-in that was off....if i remember correctly it was .05%, and needed to be at .10%, one side was a tad bit more than the other....

so what would cause the toe-in to go off again?