Duramax front end. Someome shoot me.!!

kushKrawlin · Mar 4, 2015

Ok. So I may be in over my head. But I just recently realized that if I want Somthing bad enough I can figure out how to build it. Well, although I love Workin on my rig, I HATE workin on my DD.. But I also know I'll get raped if I take it somewhere to have all this done.. So far I'm Goin to replace idler arm, pitman, tie rods.. And balljoints? I'm gonna get all parts from napa. Anyone have any experience on this ****? This may be the only time I envy a ford. Fawkin IFS bkows. Any tips or tricks would be awesome. I'm just gonna read and hope for the best. My buddy that owns napa just told me he has the standard parts in stock. He would have to order the good ****, that it's made by Dana , any advice? I'm Thinkin order the good ****. But hell I know NOTHING about all this. If I had to guess who did know it would be mr TBITOY. :smoke:
God this is gonna really suck. Thanks for any advice, as this is all new to me.
I'll also need a front axle, mine slung the grease out again. :

Truck is 2007 Chevy duramax.

bad80cj · Mar 4, 2015

http://dmaxstore.com/products/?route=product/product&product_id=64

pholmann · Mar 4, 2015

order the good ****!! There is a huge difference between the parts they keep in stock and factory dana spicer ****. U joints tell everything needed to know. Run a house brand ujoint and run a spicer and see the strength difference. Its easier (and cheaper) to do it right the first time.

matth_85 · Mar 4, 2015

I would upgrade the TRE's and put the Cognito uppers on it while you are in there. JMO.

And, I don't really know why Chevy gets labeled as junk for the IFS wearing out. A Ford or ESPECIALLY a Dodge with over 100K that's been well used is going to need ball joints and TRE's also. When I was selling cars I think I had 5-6 higher mile Dodge trucks come back with death wobble from TRE/balljoint/trac bar issues. Fords with miles on them typically have the clunk from the sway bar bushings. These trucks are heavy and wear.

Jacksonwolf39 · Mar 4, 2015

matth_85 said:
I would upgrade the TRE's and put the Cognito uppers on it while you are in there. JMO.

X2 def upgrade your tie rods even if you jus put the 35 dollar sleeves on them. I've seen many stock ones break cuz there like pencils :****: and the cognitive control arms are a awsome upgrade I would do if your gonna tear into the front end. Fab tech are also good ones. But if you buy from dmax store they sell front end upgrade kits you should look into also

wap13 · Mar 4, 2015

Dont know much about chevy IFS but I know enough about napa brand parts to tell you to order the good parts unless you want to be doing this again in a year or 2. Order the spicer parts, you will be money and time ahead in the long run.

Brock · Mar 4, 2015

kushKrawlin said:
Ok. So I may be in over my head. But I just recently realized that if I want Somthing bad enough I can figure out how to build it. Well, although I love Workin on my rig, I HATE workin on my DD.. But I also know I'll get raped if I take it somewhere to have all this done.. So far I'm Goin to replace idler arm, pitman, tie rods.. And balljoints? I'm gonna get all parts from napa. Anyone have any experience on this ****? This may be the only time I envy a ford. Fawkin IFS bkows. Any tips or tricks would be awesome. I'm just gonna read and hope for the best. My buddy that owns napa just told me he has the standard parts in stock. He would have to order the good ****, that it's made by Dana , any advice? I'm Thinkin order the good ****. But hell I know NOTHING about all this. If I had to guess who did know it would be mr TBITOY. :smoke:
God this is gonna really suck. Thanks for any advice, as this is all new to me.
I'll also need a front axle, mine slung the grease out again. :Truck is 2007 Chevy duramax.

I order the Moog replacements from amazon. duramaxforum and dieselplace are great forums with detailed writeups. I've been slowly replacing everything in my 2004 2500HD. Two really good writeups

http://www.duramaxforum.com/forum/how-tos-diy-write-ups/81783-how-complete-front-end-steering-component-replacement.html

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/71-information-place/19-do-yourself-useful-articles-product-reviews/71798-how-replace-front-wheel-bearing-assy-2500hd-3500srw-dually-similiar.html

TBItoy · Mar 4, 2015

Re:

I put cognito braces on mine at 60k miles and grease all 11 grease points every time I change the oil. 240k on it now and the steering is still fine and tight

Neal3000 · Mar 4, 2015

anything your unsure how to do, search on youtube and you'll probably find a detailed tutorial by a master mechanic on how to do it :****:

cmoultrie · Mar 4, 2015

Re:

TBItoy said:
I put cognito braces on mine at 60k miles and grease all 11 grease points every time I change the oil. 240k on it now and the steering is still fine and tight

Cognito is a must on these trucks. Also the only parts of put in there is moog or oem. The pitman arm was terrible to get off my 06 ended up cutting it off after my 1" impact wouldn't budge it. Now is a good time to replace the unit bearings in it as well. They go out often on those trucks and will make you chase all kinds of steering problems.

3j7 · Mar 4, 2015

x2 on cutting the pitman arm, don't even bother with a "puller"...

pholmann · Mar 4, 2015

Anyone ever has a unit bearing fail all of a sudden like? ****in scary!!!!

grcthird · Mar 4, 2015

First question, why do you need to rebuild the entire front end? Does anything have slack in it or wearing the tires unevenly? Do you have that stupid knocking in the steering wheel from the steering intermediate shaft? That's a lot of time, effort, energy, money, ect to replace stuff that may be just fine.

Get a good pitman arm puller, like one from Mac tools that goes halfway around the arm and pulls it off. The cheap 2 arm pullers are an accident waiting to happen and don't pull anything off. Actually nevermind if you are replacing and not reusing it, just cut it off. Get a good ball joint press kit and make sure the grease fittings are pointing where you can access them later before you press them in. Harbor freight has good axle nut sockets that are stupid cheap. You may be able to rent all this from the parts store, but don't be surprised if it tears up on you halfway through the job. Put the wife in the truck to mash the brakes while you use a breaker bar to loosen the axle nut if your impact won't take it off.

Let the shop that does your alignment put the tie rods on, unless you live down the street from them. I've seen tape measure alignments destroy a set of perfectly good tires just so somebody could save $50. :

And yes you need a good alignment, don't believe all the "I did it in the driveway with a tape measure so it has to be good" BS floating around.

Use moog or good aftermarket parts, the house brand napa **** is garbage. Sometimes I think napa has turned into the old autozone with their cheap crappy parts, but that's another thread. Rock auto is usually the cheapest on the same parts that stores have.

TBItoy · Mar 4, 2015

If you get NAPA parts, check what's actually IN the box.

USUALLY the MasterRide brand is the cheap stuff... Unless it's for a Toyota... Then it's 555 OEM Japan stuff. :****:

and USUALLY the NCP (Napa Chassis Parts) more expensive stuff is OEM Spicer ball joints and such.

At a lot of stores, the parts counter monkey won't even ask which one you want, they just price the cheaper one and hope to get the sale.

I'd order all of it off of Rock Auto and use the pirate 5% off code anyway. I have an account at Napa and get Auto Care pricing and 90% of the time, Rock Auto is cheaper for the same or better parts.

Bumpers · Mar 4, 2015

Re:

If your idler and pitman arms arent completely shot you can still install the cognito supports and take slack out of them unless they are gone.

I dont see why everyone hates the ifs so much. Rides better and with alittle money spent they hold up well to normal truck use. All the ppl I see act like straight axle trucks never have wear parts or failures

EddieHall · Mar 5, 2015

kushKrawlin said:
Ok. So I may be in over my head. But I just recently realized that if I want Somthing bad enough I can figure out how to build it. Well, although I love Workin on my rig, I HATE workin on my DD.. But I also know I'll get raped if I take it somewhere to have all this done.. So far I'm Goin to replace idler arm, pitman, tie rods.. And balljoints? I'm gonna get all parts from napa. Anyone have any experience on this ****? This may be the only time I envy a ford. Fawkin IFS bkows. Any tips or tricks would be awesome. I'm just gonna read and hope for the best. My buddy that owns napa just told me he has the standard parts in stock. He would have to order the good ****, that it's made by Dana , any advice? I'm Thinkin order the good ****. But hell I know NOTHING about all this. If I had to guess who did know it would be mr TBITOY. :smoke:
God this is gonna really suck. Thanks for any advice, as this is all new to me.
I'll also need a front axle, mine slung the grease out again. :Truck is 2007 Chevy duramax. Drive it to Pensacola and ill put u a solid axle in it for u this one i jus did is unreal, the ride will blow ur mind
[/qua

Brock · Mar 5, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyuILDkZ25s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyt0CJ10w34

kushKrawlin · Mar 5, 2015

grcthird said:
First question, why do you need to rebuild the entire front end? Does anything have slack in it or wearing the tires unevenly? Do you have that stupid knocking in the steering wheel from the steering intermediate shaft? That's a lot of time, effort, energy, money, ect to replace stuff that may be just fine.

Get a good pitman arm puller, like one from Mac tools that goes halfway around the arm and pulls it off. The cheap 2 arm pullers are an accident waiting to happen and don't pull anything off. Actually nevermind if you are replacing and not reusing it, just cut it off. Get a good ball joint press kit and make sure the grease fittings are pointing where you can access them later before you press them in. Harbor freight has good axle nut sockets that are stupid cheap. You may be able to rent all this from the parts store, but don't be surprised if it tears up on you halfway through the job. Put the wife in the truck to mash the brakes while you use a breaker bar to loosen the axle nut if your impact won't take it off.

Let the shop that does your alignment put the tie rods on, unless you live down the street from them. I've seen tape measure alignments destroy a set of perfectly good tires just so somebody could save $50. : And yes you need a good alignment, don't believe all the "I did it in the driveway with a tape measure so it has to be good" BS floating around.

Use moog or good aftermarket parts, the house brand napa **** is garbage. Sometimes I think napa has turned into the old autozone with their cheap crappy parts, but that's another thread. Rock auto is usually the cheapest on the same parts that stores have.

Truck has been driving like **** and wandering all over the place.. I jacked the truck up and the front tires moved Prob bout 5 inches left and right... And I could see all the steering components moving in ways that didn't look normal.. And I did some research, apparently it's kind of a common thing with Chevys. Honestly I have no ****ing clue. Dont know what to do, don't have a buddy that knows **** and I have to dam read about every dam thing I do. I'm thinkin bout hittin the boat ramp at the lake out here at about 70 mph. :****: I can only imagine what a shop would charge. Fuk that! I will sink it before that happens.

Neal3000 said:
anything your unsure how to do, search on youtube and you'll probably find a detailed tutorial by a master mechanic on how to do it :****:

Neil that's how I learned to do everything I've done so far. No ****.

EddieHall · Mar 5, 2015

SAS swap...is starting to sound good

TBItoy · Mar 5, 2015

If you don't have the center link braces, the tires will move a LOT when you jack it up because the center link can rotate up and down... Even when they are brand new.

Have you adjusted your torsion bars and not got the truck aligned?