How long will this take?

TeamGreen · May 10, 2001

How long do you think it will take to change and idler arm and put on some upper ball joints? Ive never done it before and can't have my truck out of service for long.

76BBSub · May 10, 2001

Make sure you have a pickle fork (ball joint separator) and a small sledge hammer before you start. Auto Zone and other parts houses will loan you the suspension tool. Also make sure you have your grease gun locked and loaded to fill up your new parts. A spring compressor is nice, but most of the auto parts houses don't have them big enough for our springs, they're all for little car strut springs. Use a jack under the control arm to lower the control arm and release the tension from the spring. Do it slowly, this can be dangerous!

OK, back to your question. Idler arm, about an hour I would guess. Just remove the nut where it bolts to the steering arm and separate the two with the pickle fork. Then it's two bolts on the frame, then bolt the new one on, and bolt the steering arm back on. Could be 30 minutes if it knocks off the arm pretty easily. Make sure you have a torque wrench and torque all the bolts to spec, the torque spec should be in the instructions with the idler arm.

Upper ball joints are a little longer job. I would suggest putting the jack under the lower control arm, then loosen but don't remove the nut on the upper ball joint, run it down to where all the threads in the nut are engaged but the stud doesn't stick out the end. You want enough room to see when you have separated the ball joint from the spindle. Knock the ball joint loose from the steering spindle assembly. Lower the jack slowly to release the tension in the spring. This will also finish separating the upper control arm from the spindle. Unbolt the upper control arm from the frame, and drill, air chisel, or grind the rivets off the old ball joints. Bolt on the new ball joint, torque to spec, fill with grease. Installation is the reverse of removal.

You may need a front-end alignment. Just be sure to tape together and mark the shims from each control arm mounting stud and you should be pretty close to aligned when finished.

Time for uppers...if it goes pretty well...a couple of hours? Hard to say, I've always done more than just uppers when I was in there.

Are you sure only the uppers are bad? Normally on a GM front suspension the lower ball joints wear out WAY before the uppers. Have you replaced the lowers already? If not I would strongy suggest that you do both at the same time. This will take longer, because the lowers have to be pressed or pounded out, but you'll be back into the front end again soon if the lowers haven't been replaced.

Jeff

TeamGreen · May 10, 2001

Thanks for all the info. When I went to get my tires alined they said I needed a new idler arm and upper ball joints and wanted about ?. I just thought I should just do it myself.

76BBSub · May 11, 2001

When I went to have my Suburban aligned they wanted ? to replace the lower ball joint and idler arm, and align the front end. I now have urethane bushings, upper and lower ball joints, idler arm, all tie rod ends, and tie rods sleeves for less than their quote.

If you can do it, you will save alot of money and get more value from the deal. Post here if you have problems, we'll help you through it!

Jeff