Front suspension troubles

[Steve T.]

What is the proper way to check front suspension components ? i.e. pittman arm, idler arm, drag links, ball joints. All my repair manual tells me is how to replace parts. I want to know if they really need it first. I have an 89 K1500 1/2 ton 4wd Silverado. I know I have somthing wrong under there because my passanger side front tire is wearing bald on outside edge. Please advise. Thanks!

[mrjohnwayne]

jack up the passanger side and wiggle the tire back and forth and up and down and inspect for any loose play in the steering components. A second person would help.

[junior3382]

He has a great idea, it will wiggle if there is anything obviously out. but look at the components themselves, they will usually tell you right away. What i mean by that is if the ball joints are bad... look for leaks on the rubber boots. They will be noticable bad if the lubrication inside the boot is gone..... and they would be covered in grease. If the tirod is bad, there will be noticable play in the shaft, sometimes even if it is on th ground. If it is the iddler arm, then look at the stress points, they will show movement marks on the metal, wich you shouldn't see if they were good. but even after all of this, if there is no noticible wear, and the parts all look fine, it could be just a simple as it needs an allignment. And doesn't mean that anything is broken, with all those moving parts, sometimes they just slip out and need to be nudged back in. Just my opinion though.

[436'd skylark]

In order to properly check the balljoints you must unload the spindle. basically you have to jack the truck up by the lower control arm as close to the lower balljoint as possible. you probably have a bad upper.

As far as checking the pitman arm, keep the truck and the ground ad have a buddy wiggle the steering wheel. that would make any play evident. The steering link has to be loaded in order to properly check it. although a worn pitman arm will not throw your alignment off, it'll just give ya some slop in the wheel.

Tie rods and idler arm like mentioned before can be checked with both wheels off the ground, and the steering wheel unlocked. Tie rods will be obvious if worn, and the idler will move up and down.