Hey guys,

Just a quick question. I took my truck to the dealer today to check out a couple problems. The steering is fairly sloppy around center, the wipers were acting up and the mileage seemed a bit low(17ish). The motor checks out fine, the wiper controller was shot, and the idler arm and center link need to be replaced. I had them fix the wipers, but I'd like to do the idler and center link myself. They wanted $660 to do it. I found the parts in town for $130 (Moog no less).

My question is will I need any special tools to remov ethe idler arm? What size socket will I need? I have a impact wrench to remove the nut and a torque wrench to reinstall it. I also have a ball link or tie rod seperator.

Thanks in advance,



Chris

 

Sounds like you should have everything you need to replace them. You will have to get an alignment afterwords, but you probably already knew that. Aside from getting under my neighbors Blazer, I can't help on the sizes, but they are pretty common and mostlikely will be metric.

I do not follow why the centerlink would need to be replaced... Is it bent? The centerlink just gets things bolted onto it and really has no wearable parts in the typical sense. How does the pitman arm feel? Does it have any play in it to the steering box shaft?

 

For some reason I had the pitman arm on the brain. I know the nut on the steering output shaft is fairly large.

I looked at it myself a while back. Pulling on the center link would produce a clunking noise from the idler bushing area. I think the idler and center link bushings are worn. It pretty sad, hte truck only has 60k on it. I'll double check the pitman before I replace anything.

Thanks!

 

No problem! That's what we're here for!!

If the noise is only from the idler arm, then these are fairly simple to replace, but you'll need a pickle fork to get the idler arm free of the centerlink. It then just bolts to the frame up front.

A worn idler arm can definitely make the steering feel loose, but I would make sure to really look close at the pitman arm as well.

Good luck and let us know how things turn out!!


*EDIT* - Oh yeah, I'll have to let someone else that has a 2nd Gen S-Blazer answer the question on the size of the pitman arm nut. I don't have one of those in my driveway anymore or else I would go out and measure it for ya.

 

Well, the idler was definately worn out. The center link was fine as was the Pitman arm.

There were two problems. #1 all of the nuts were 18mm and of course my wrench and socket sets had 17 and 19. #2 I couldn't get my impact on one of the nuts that holds it to the frame. Wound up having to use a wrench and a cheater pipe to crack it loose.

It did tighten up the steering quite a bit. It isn't as tight as my wifes Sienna, but I think that's the difference between rack and pinion and gear box steering.

Now it's on to an alignment and new tires...

 

Sounds Great! Glad you were able to get it all repaired!!

And yeah, there is definitely a difference between rack-n-pinion vs standard steering box & centerlink setup.