K1500 upper ball joint?

You don't have to. You can swing the upper arms up to get to the ball joints. The uppers are bolt in units. You drill out the old rivets. Remove the old joint and install the new one.

OR since the bushings are likely shot as well you can get NEW upper arms with new bushings and ball joint for about 150 bucks a side.

It isn't real hard to do the work but you do need to have a few tools that are not common. You can usually borrow them easy enough.

If the OP isn't particularly well experienced, (s)he'll likely find the rivets alone very, VERY difficult to extract, and would accordingly not recommend that such a person attempt this repair without assistance.

Why would the manual say you have to remove the driveaxle on a 4x4? I like your idea on the control arm but I assume you have to replace the lower ball joint as well.

To do the job by the book you pull the axle to get extra room.

BUT the removal isn't as tough as it sounds. Basically it means you pull off the axle nut, then use a hammer and wood block to knock the splined section loose from the hub. The half shaft will collapse in some. Then you pop the ball joint out of the knuckle and replace whatever, then reverse the process to put it back together.

I would replace the uppers, lowers, bushings, rod ends and steering pieces.

On the uppers I would opt for the replacement arms simply for the easier and faster repair. I'd also add the adjustable hardware for alignment.

For the lowers it gets more complicated. They are also attached to the torsion bars.

Parts wise you're looking at:

Upper ball joints - $30.00 Lower ball joints - $28.00 Upper arm bushings - $53.00 Kit Lower arm bushings - $34.50 Problem solvers Outer tie rod ends - $42.00 Inner tie rod ends - $60.00 Tie rod adjusting sleeves - $10.00 Idler arm - $46.00 Problem solvers Idler arm pivot - $29.00 Pitman arm - $33.00

These parts will need to come loose/off to do all the above, If they are OEM they are worn out. Stabilizer bar bushings - $6.00 End link kit - $17.00 Shocks - $30.00

Total of $418.00

Thanks so much. So removing the drive axle is not that complicated? ALso , after reading last night, it says you have to loosen the torsion bar. I hav e never worked with one. Apparently there is an adjusting screw on the back . You count the number of threads exposed so you can but it back where it w as before. Is it hard to mess with the torsion bars?

I will say the truck does not have stock shocks, but they are probably 110,

000 miles old.

Is it hard to replace the control arm upper and lower bushings?

After doing all this will I be able to get it aligned enough at home to dri ve it somewhere to have it professionally aligned?

don't mess with the torsion bars. as you were told previously, borrow/rent a press tool and do the joint in situ. assuming of course that the joints don't simply unbolt as is the case with many.

irrelevant.

it's not hard if you have the tools and know what you're doing. see below.

of course.

before you start on this though, you have to ask yourself two questions:

1. have you called around enough for independent repairer quotes to get a better price?

1. can you afford to have a disabled truck towed to a shop if you screw it up? [because towing something that won't roll is more expensive.]

if you don't have good answers to *both* these questions, you shouldn't be starting this job yourself. particularly as you don't seem to have the tools/experience. if you still want to have a go, at least find someone who has done this stuff before and get them round to help/guide you.

one last thing. if you're going cheap [and it sounds like you are], make sure the new joints you're using are properly lubed. some do /not/ come pre-lubed, so make sure they're full of moly-sulfide grease before you're done.

and one more last thing: don't just do one side, do both. particularly at your mileage. it's extremely rare for just one side to be out unless its due to a torn rubber. and you should have spotted that ages ago because you inspect this vehicle regularly, right???

e to remove the driveaxle, and loosen the adjusting nut on the torsion bar as far as it will go without removing it. It says to also count the threads to make sure it is tighnted up to where it was.

Why would having a press negate having to loosen the torsion bar? I am just going off the directions in the Haynes Manual I have for my truck.

Of course it does, they are telling you the BOOK method. You don't need to do that unless your planning on replacing the lower A arm bushings as well. Then you have to pull the torsion bar because it runs through one of them.

First off that Haynes manual is CRAP. They write them to cover more than one model year (say 1990 - 2000 or whatever) The problem with that is that GM may have changed 20 different things through those years. Haynes covers that with the "others similar) phrase. For instance your truck was available with 4 different engines and three different transmissions just for your model year.

Haynes is telling you that you have to loosen the torsion bar because they expect you to remove the lower control arm so the ball joint can be pressed out in a common shop press. You don't have to do that. You can borrow/rent a unit that allows you to press out the joint with all of the parts attached to the truck. (saves time and money in a busy shop to cut out unneeded steps like that).

This is what they expect you to use :

This is what you can use to remove it: (Note these are just to show you the type of tool, not an endorsement of HF) You can rent/borrow the portable unit at most auto parts places.

Uppers are easy. Remove the nut on the ball joint. Pop the joint free. Remove the two bolts through the bushings/frame and remove the arm. Reverse to install the new one.

Lower bushings are more complex and you will need either the same type of tool used for ball joints OR a shop press. For those you will need to pull the torsion bars.

As long as you put the parts back to the same places they were YES. You want to measure things VERY well to get it as close as possible. BUT remember that it currently is out of whack so you probably won't get it exactly correct, unless you spend some time and have a few tools. You can do a complete alignment on a flat LEVEL surface with simple tools but it takes practice and knowing how the suspension is supposed to work.

So, using the press you indicated, can I get away from removing the drive axle as well?

Are you saying the bushings for the upper control arm just pull out and not press is needed to replace the bushings in the upper control arm?

So, if just replacing upper and lower ball joints and control arm bushings, you dont have to worry about mis alignment issues? (All I want to be able to do is drive it to the alignment shop once done.)

The guy at the shop that qoted 900 bucks said the steering gear had to be removed?

Anyway I am sorry for the questions but appreciate the help!

I have read you can do an alignment at home. How flat does the floor need to be? I have a 30x30 garage with a concrete floor, but there is a gently slop toward the center becasue I have a floor drain in the middle.

If you use the portable press you don't have to remove the axle, (In reality you are NOT removing the axle. You are simply disconnecting the outboard end from the hub, you don't pull the inboard end out of the front differential)

The bushings in BOTH control arms press in/out. BUT if you buy the replacement upper arms you get new arms, new ball joints and new bushings, you simply remove the old one and bolt in the new one, using a new set of bolts/cams.

You will still need to do an alignment BUT if you measure the location of the parts before hand and pay attention putting in the new ones the difference will be small enough that it shouldn't be a problem. The BIG one to watch is the toe setting. That you can check with a simple tape measure.

That depends on what he's talking about. If the pitman arm is bad then you MAY have to pull the box to remove it IF you cannot use a puller to get it apart. OR maybe they are thinking the box itself is worn. Without seeing it myself I don't know for sure.

No slope allowed PERIOD. That is why most shops use a rack. You install the rack and level it completely, then check it every couple of weeks just to be sure it hasn't moved.

You're dealing with measurements in the 10th of a degree on some vehicles. ANY floor variation will throw it off, because of the angles and because of the weight shift in the vehicle itself. When you do a good alignment, you put the vehicle on a rack. Then check the air pressure and adjust them all equal, then the tire size to see if you need to use different numbers due to different tires/rims. Next you bounce the vehicle a couple times to settle it. Then you check the ride height against factory spec. This one can be fun with older vehicles because the springs and such do lose strength over time and things settle. Worn/broken parts mean it gets fixed before you even try to align it. Now you can actually start the process of measuring. You start with thrust angle, then IF that is OK you do caster/camber and toe all at the same time because they all interact as you change them. This is where it gets fun...

NOT easy to DIY. BUT you can easily check the toe which is what will eat up the tires fast on your way to the alignment shop. Set it to 0 on most trucks of that vintage.

Well, local autozone does not have control arms. I can get them online but pretty expensive. The bushing are just 6 bucks a piece. My manual does not cover bushing replacment. Is this hard to do if I have acess to a press or vice?

Good press and the correct information = not hard to do IF you have any mechanical skill.

Vice and a Haynes manual = Buy the complete arms and have the job done faster and better.

For your parts look at RockAuto.com, any don't shop by price alone if you don't want to do the entire mess over in a couple years!

Auto Zone used to sell two tiers of parts, The better grade was reasonably good. The lower grade was one step above rubber bands...