After rebuilding just about everything on this brick I own and love, I finally got around to replacing my TRE's on the front suspension. Although the 20 year old rusty ones that were on there were still rather tight for all those years, and 180,000 miles of beating on them, they started to have an issue getting grease in them, and I knew it was just a matter of time.

Since the truck drove straight, and I had no noticeable drift / play or any steering issues, I wanted to keep the existing toe that I had on the truck as before I replaced the two TRE's. I thought I'd do what we contractors call a "story pole", and I call my "dummy stick" to ensure I did exactly that.....keep the existing distances / toe between the front tires that's there, and eventually, when I switch to my summer tires, have the Toe Checked professionally at a local shop. Hopefully I don't run into another one of the "professionals" who are on drugs that day.... (smile)

here's the dummy stick being made up. I took a tape measure and got the distance from inner rim edge to inner rim edge of 59 3/8". I cut my 5/4" x 3 strapping a hair longer than this as I wanted to shave it to ensure it was exactly the length it needed to be when I used it to set my toe again with the new TRE's. I cut the end so that I would have a smaller surface area which would provide me a greater accuracy with placing the stick against the rim.


Put the cut end up against the passenger rim at it's highest point I could fit it in there where it would be closest to the front of the vehicle.



I then marked the other side where it's to meet the outer rim edge and cut it to that length. I made sure the cut was accurate so that it fit just a bit snug from rim to rim. This ensured that I got the distances exactly the same as what was there previously (or at least really close) until I get to the alignment shop to get it done right.

 

I then removed the drivers side tire/ rim and popped the outer TRE out of the end of the spindle arm. I had to use my new tool as I bought an entire kit for front end servicing, and I've only used it twice including this time. I know I could have just smacked it with a hammer, but I wanted to at least pretend I was a professional for the day...



The TRE spun right out. After 20 years in there, it literally just came right out. I had two monkey wrenches on it, but after the initial break of the rust seal, it simply unscrewed and I got to install the new one. I measured approximately where it was supposed to be, then loosely fit the end into the spindle arm. I replaced the rim back on the truck, and used my dummy stick to readjust the positioning of the TRE where the stick fit as before. I removed the rim again, tightened everything up, and put the cotter pin in, and greased the drivers side of the truck with all the fittings being open for me to access.



After jacking the truck up, putting the tire back on, I did the other side TRE of the truck using the same method. Once the tires were back on, and everthing was back on the ground, I used my dummy stick to do a final check of the measurement, and tightened it all up. I used never-seize on the TRE, so if it ever needs adjustment, it's easily done as loosening both clamps, and spinning the bar as it should be. Here's the other side done....




I used Moog Problem Solver TRE's and I hope they are what they say that they are..... thereby I have no problems from here on out....

 

Nice!! I like your method of maintaining the same basic front end geometry.

I wish I could find another good tie rod bar....Mine was so rusty from the donor 93 that only one side spins nice and easy. The other requires almost super human effort to get it to move. And that was even after chasing the threads.

 

Thats not a dummy stick, thats a smart stick. The dummy stick is the suspension tech that comes back after ten minutes and says I had to reset the caster on your truck.