My 1998 B1500 has been making a "clunking" noise over bumps and the steering is really sloppy. I crawled under it and found excessive play in the Idler arm, so it needs to be replaced. In fact it moves about 6". I'm planning on replacing it in the next coupla days and was wondering if there is anything that I should look out for, or if there are any tricks to make the job easier. I haven't worked on the steering/suspension components before and my Haynes manual only has about a paragraph of directions.....

 

It's a pretty straightforward repair. Just have at least one wheel off the ground and the steering wheel unlocked so you can move things around.

 

My '89 has 2 idler arms despite the guy in the store insisting I only had one. Turns out the store only had one, and I had to drive across town to their other store for the other one.

They were from discount auto parts and had to be replaced with 15 months. The replacements were more pricey but obviously built better. If they come with thick washers you must align with the shaft the bolt goes through and then align them into the chassis receptacle pass on them, or it, if indeed the newer models only have one.

If your need a pickle fork to separate the old one don't make my mistake in having nothing but a framing hammer handy. The neighbors thought the devil himself were cursing and hammering away under my Van and felt they had to flee the area.

 

Just a side note...you can't remove the Idler arm from the tie rod without a small puller. I asked the guy at Autozone if there were anu tricks to it, ans he said "a 98 van has Idler arms?" I pounded on it, cursed at it, tried a pickle fork, and then went to Advance autoprts and got the loan a tool puller kit. I took some serious doing, but the arm and the tie rod FINALLY seperated.

 

I had problems with removing the idler arm for my car.. is there any particular trick to it? what tools would i need?