truck steering components questions.
 

ok, i got some great new tires on my 10 year old truck. (chev S10, ZR-2 package). bridgestones AT revos. i decided to take it in for an alignment. they called and said they couldnt do it due to: bad tie rod ends, bad pitman arm, bad idler arm, and crappy steering damper. they told me it would cost $1340 to fix. *****! i said no. is this right?:
steering box is connected to idler arm via the pitman arm. and the tie rods connected the idler arm to the spindles right? basically i dont know what each component is called. i want to DIY. and how do i check to see if each piece is bad? movement?

i am allergic to car payments, so i am hoping to fix this myself

Movement as you said. Jack up the front of the truck, and support it on the stands.

Wiggle the tire, left to right, and watch for movement in the joints, the parts should all move as one, there should be no play in any of the joints.

Normally pitman arms don't go bad, but yours mine have a balljoint type socket on it.

All the parts they told you were bad, are the part names, so you can go into an autoparts store and have them give you a price list. The only issue you'll have is with the tierod ends, did they tell you if it was inners, outers or both?

Everything mentioned can be replaced yourself, fairly inexpensively, you might as well add balljoints to that list too, just as preventative measure. For the tie rods, you'll want to measure the factory ones, and count the threads so that you can reinstall the new ones as close to what the old ones were, so that the wheels point straight enough to get the truck to the alignment shop.

I'd bet you've got close to $300-400 in parts alone, but tack on a $75 alignment, just to see how much you'd save.

Pitman arm is bolted to the steering box.

It's connected to a drag link or center bar.

The idler arm looks like the pitman arm, just mounted on the passenger side of the frame, and is also connected to the center link.

The inner tierod ends are connected to the center link, tierods are between the inner and outer tierod ends, and the outer tierod end is bolted to the steering knuckle(spindle).

Spindle rides on both an upper and lower balljoint, in a coil spring suspension vehicle.

You'd think that a truck with that much wrong with the front end would be undrivable, no? I'd look a little deeper or try another shop, sounds like they want to take you up on the lube rack.

Jack has you covered on the parts; that stuff's actually pretty simple to change, might have to buy or rent a pitman arm puller and a pickle fork if you don't have.

Damn S-10 and it's not uncommon to ball joints and bushings to fail at 50K. I know 3 guys with those rigs and all of 'em did what yours is doing. Didn't cost 'em $1300 to fix though. My cousin had his 94 S10 blazer redone for less than $600 at the Dealer.

Go elsewhere.

rjp

thanks jack! perfect.

randy, i actually got a good truck. not an ounce of trouble in 100k miles, cept the engine blowing up. but that was not my fault but the factory mechanic's. doing some warranty work, he had to change a gasket. (intake) the fool used a grinder with a wire brush. wires and greeck, got into the motor oil. it was horrific. i love the dialog.: "huh, mr law, you were right the motor is gone. did you recently have some work done?"
"yes"
" well, whoever did the work, messed up big time. we found metal wire fibers in the motor."
"really?, look in your records. a chev dealer did the work"
" new crate motor ok with you?"
"yes, thanks."

i have 45k on the motor.
if not for that, i would get a new tundra.

crap, tierod ends are $100 or so each. i counted 4 on my truck.