I have a 1996 3500 cc 4wd.Front end is shot. I dont think anything has ever been done to it. Stabilizer shock is mia. Want to rebuild using the best combination of upgraded parts ( best meaning cost efficent and how good it works) .Probably will by piece by piece. Wanting to get some ideas on what to buy and what order to start with. Thanks Allen

 

for starters.

thuren trackbar, moog ball joints, and bilstein shocks are all top of the line..

start with the thuren and dont look back

 

no moogs did them 10k ago and they are junk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Personally, I wouldn't bother with replacing that stuff piece by piece. You'll have to get an alignment every time you replace something. Either get the full steering linkage set up from a 1998 or 1999 truck or get the Thuren Crossover steering system.

John

 

I just replaced all my steering components last weekend. Spent over $1000 in parts and about 18 hours of my time. I used Moog. They have a lifetime warranty and greasable. I hope I can get another 100,000 out of them. I was surprised there weren't any front axle seals in this truck. No wonder my rims are always soaked in oil.

 

There are axle seals, they are inside the diff, under the cover and from what I hear they are not fun to change.

John

 

good luck with that 100k on the moogs. i went with them before because of the name and am regretting it now literaly 10k and the have been greased prob 5 times in that 10k and my truck is not off roaded of abused its a tar baby.

 

Yeh that's pretty discouraging news. I thought Moog was a high shelf product. If not Moog then what is good?

 

It appears that Moog isn't what they used to be. Search around, and most folks are getting XRF's.

 

A year ago I'd have said go with Spicer but it appears that their front end parts are now being sold under the "Raybestos" name and I don't know if the quality is the same. Unfortunately lifetime warranty on a part that fails every year or two doesn't mean a **** thing IMHO. Especially when its a critical part like for your steering. I posted a thread asking for input from Thuren Crossover owners that have but some miles on their kit in the hopes of getting some good info. The price difference between the Thuren and the Raybestos is about $100. If the Thuren really does last for 75-100,000 miles then I'd have no second thoughts about going with that. Heck, even if it lasts 50,000 miles I'd feel justified in spending the extra money. I found the XRD stuff on www.thetireclub.com and all the total for all the linkages was $300 which is about $80 less than the Moog and RB stuff I've found. Again, if that stuff wears out in 20,000 miles its not worth the work for the money you save if the Thuren stuff really does last. Does anyone know where the XRF stuff is made? If its China (like most suspension parts are nowadays) then its probably no better than any of the other Chinese stuff out there.

John

 

Go with TRW joints- both Moog and TRW owned by same company but TRW is the top end stuff now- Moog lifetime warranty is 1 replacement. I have something like 25K miles on the TRW joints I put in mine. Never heard of XRF, unless they are US made I would pass.
FWIW Raybestos is part of Affinia group (as is Wix)


agreed, don;t do piece meal- do it in large sections or all at once- otherwise you will be seeing too much of the alignment shop and unbolting things you already either unbolted once or could have just as easily when you where doing another part change.

 

Check out www.xrfchassis.com. It looks like they have a million mile warranty.

 

I got a reply from the people at XRF today:

If I'm going to buy "Made In China" tie rods again, I'll just go down to AutoZone and get Duralast which also has a lifetime warranty and I can stop in and exchange the parts with no questions asked anytime I need to.

John