Replaces
Part Details
Product Features
TRQ drivetrain kits are manufactured using premium raw materials to restore original performance. Each TRQ drivetrain component is designed to be a direct, maintenance-free replacement to the stock unit. To extend the service life of your drivetrain, TRQ recommends replacing wheel hubs, bearings, and constant velocity (CV) drive axles at the same time to ensure even wear of components and improved ride comfort. All products are fit and road-tested in our Massachusetts R&D facility to ensure we deliver on our promise of Trusted Reliable Quality.
What are Tapered Bearings and Why Use Them? Tapered bearings use rollers shaped like flat-topped cones and two races angled from the outside in of the bearing. This angle makes the bearing better at handling forces exerted on the bearing during cornering (known as axial load) in trucks and large cars. Your model came from the factory with tapered bearings. Roller ball bearings work well for smaller cars, but replacing a tapered bearing with a roller ball bearing increases wear and failure.
Install Tip: When replacing steering components, have a professional alignment performed afterwards. This ensures proper tracking and even tire wear.
Our steering and suspension components are pre-greased and sealed for long life and do not require the extra maintenance typically required by greaseable versions.
Item Condition:
New
Attention California Customers:
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead and Lead Compounds, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.
Lifetime Warranty
This item is backed by our limited lifetime warranty. In the event that this item should fail due to manufacturing defects during intended use, we will replace the part free of charge. This warranty covers the cost of the part only.
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Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace an outer tie rod on this 2005 GMC Savana 2500. It's the same process on the Savanas from 2001 to 2006, as well as a large variety of GM trucks and vans. The tools you'll need are an adjustable wrench, a piece of pipe for leverage, a 7 millimeter and 21 millimeter socket and ratchet, a pair of pliers, jack and jack stands, a hammer, and a torque wrench.
Start by removing the wheel cover or whatever wheel trim you might have. This one has a chrome one. Pull that off, and then, just use your socket and pull or loosen the lug nut covers. Pull the center cap off. If you don't have the benefit of air tools, you'll want to loosen the lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground. Then, jack up and secure the vehicle and remove the lug nuts, wheel, and tire.
Now, what you want to do is angle the wheel so you can get back to the outer tie rod. Now, using an adjustable wrench and a piece of pipe, you want to loosen the tie rod. Using a 21 millimeter socket, you want to remove that castle nut at the top of the ball joint. This one didn't have a pin through it to secure it, but typically, they do. All you want to do is straighten out the pin and pry it out. Now, using a hammer, you just want to hit the knuckle. Just repeatedly hit it until that bolt loosens up and pull the tie rod free. Before you remove the tie rod, make sure you know what the length of it is. Just measure this distance. Now, you can spin the outer tie rod off.
The old one is on the right, with the new outer tie rod on the left from 1A Auto. You can see it's an exact match. It comes with everything you need for installation. Now, using a 7 millimeter socket and ratchet, you just want to make sure you tighten this up. Then, twist the outer tie rod back onto the inner tie rod. Now, you want to re-measure it and make sure it's the right distance. Then, you want to line up the knuckle with the bolt on the ball joint. Push it up through and replace your castle nut. Push the pin through the bolt and the castle nut. You just want to use pliers to pry the ends of the pin. Now using your adjustable wrench, just tighten that back up.
We'll just fast forward as he puts the wheel back on. You want to replace the lug nuts while it's up in the air. Tighten them. Lower the vehicle. Tighten them the rest of the way and then torque them to 100 foot-pounds. Then, you want to put back on your hubcap. Tighten the lug nut caps and replace your wheel cover.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
In this video, I'm going to replace an inner tie rod on this 2002 GMC Sierra. This procedure is the same for millions of GMC Sierra, Chevy Silverado, 1500 and 2500, 3500, pretty much all the same basic procedure. You'll need a couple of large adjustable wrenches. I found those work fine. You don't really need the exact size. Two large adjustable wrenches will work.You'll also need a tape measure and you'll need a grease gun with grease, and we do recommend that you have your vehicle aligned after a repair like this.
Here you can see, I have the vehicle up on a lift. Here is my inner tie rod running from here to here. This is the outer tie rod. You could see, I pull this boot down and I pull and what I'm looking at is basically the relationship of here to here and I can see some movement in here. I want to replace this. What I'm going to do is, I'm going to pull out, then I'm going to measure from there to there. Just a shade under ten inches, 9 and 15/16"?. Now, I'm going to pull it back in, and check here. It's about 9 and 7/8"?. When I put this back together, I'm going to set this right between 9 and 7/8"? and 9 and 15/16"?. I'm going to pull it apart. I'm just going to clean this off.
Take a nice big adjustable wrench. I'm loosening that up. On this end, I'm going to put a wrench on my outer tie rod just to hold it in place. We'll get that loosened up. I'm just going to speed up here. We loosened up the nut that's close to the center steering rack and then we loosened up the tie rod where it connects the outer tie rod. Take that nut off for the center steering first and then just turn the whole entire inner tie rod counter clockwise and take it out of the outer tie rod.
Here's a new tie rod from 1A Auto. It's always a good idea to put some thread lock on the inside. If you have your vehicle up on a lift, or a jack, you'll want to jack it up just to get, make sure your stabilizer bars up and out of the way. Thread it in and then use a wrench and tighten this. This should be tightened to 74 foot-pounds. Anywhere between 70 and 80 foot-pounds. In this shot, what I didn't explain very clearly, you can see where that red arrow is. I have a jack underneath the suspension. It just helps lift it up so that the stabilizer bar isn't in the way when you start the tie rod into the center steering link. With this wrench, just pull it nice and tight. Now I'm going to assemble the outer end. I'm going to put this nut on. Then to bring this down on my tire and in. Make sure it's going together straight. If you remember our measurement, basically, we want to be right at 9 and 31/32, so we've got a long way to go. I'm going to speed it up here as I keep using the wrench to turn the tie rod end into the outer tie rod end. I measured a couple of times just to see where I'm at. That is, it's just a little bit further than we want. Knock it off, right there. We've got our one wrench on here and then to tighten, hold on to the outer tie rod, taking that up nice and secure. Now make sure we grease the fitting. What I'm watching, I'm watching this boot here. Once that boot starts changing shape a little bit, I know the grease is in there. Then, while on here. I'm going to hit all my other grease spots as well.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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Brought to you by 1AAuto.com your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts, installed correctly that's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video, we're going to replace the sway bar links in this 2002 GMC 2500HD, basically the same as most '88 to '06 GM pickups, SUVs, vans; also the same as a couple of Ford applications. Tools you'll need are a jack and jack stands for some vehicles, 14 mm socket and ratchet or whatever is correct for your link, they could be different depending on application, an adjustable wrench, and some penetrating oil.
Your stabilizer link is right up underneath. This big bar here is your stabilizer bar, and then here is your control arm. It's connected by this, which is the stabilizer link right here. This can break. Also, these bushings, these rubber bushings can wear out, which will cause a rattling sometimes when you go over bumps. You have a good idea if it's the stabilizer link if, when you go around a turn, the rattling stops. I'm going to show you how to replace that.
On top, you're going to want to spray some penetrating fluid. This is a 14 mm bolt down here at the bottom. What you're going to want to do is put an adjustable wrench onto this side. This is an original link here, so the thing on top is kind of bolt-shaped. I've got that on there to hold it. Now I'm going to attempt to slowly unscrew it.
The bolt comes down, and that can come out. Then you can see, even though there's nothing too terribly wrong, you can see that this one is worn, right in here, so we'll replace it. On the original you can see this top nut has edges to it so you can get that wrench on there to hold it in place. We've gotten it out of there, but we still have this in place. Just pull that right out, like that. I'm going to take my new link and I'm going to put it up through. This bushing has the ridge up into the control arm. Then I'm going to take a bushing down and then a washer on top of that, then my spacer. Then I'm going to take a bushing and a washer, and now the step goes up into the sway bar. Then just push that.
In order to get this in, what I've done is this is a little jack. If you're doing this just on the ground, you can do the same thing. Put the jack in underneath the stabilizer bar here, lift it up, and create plenty of room to push that up through. Then you want to make sure these bushings all go right into the holes in the stabilizer bar, right there, and the control arm. This last bushing goes with the ridge down, then the washer on top. I'm going to put the jack right in underneath here, push this up in to get the nut on.
I've got this together and I've got the nut started on there. I'm going to replace the other side first before I tighten it up. I wouldn't take apart the other side here you can see, this is the one from the driver's side and this is the one from this side, so you can see this whole part was rough and it broke off. It's possible this link wasn't really doing anything anyways. This here that broke off of this one is stuck inside there. What I'm going to have to do is I'm going to have to actually cut this link with my Sawzall. I'm going to do that very carefully, because I don't want to contact the boot or anything else. I don't want to contact the CVs. I just want to cut through the link itself.
Now with the car on the ground, you want to tighten up the links. I'm just using an air ratchet. You can hand tools, obviously. Tighten up both sides and you're done.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com- your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the internet and in person.
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This video is brought to you by 1AAuto.com your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet.
Hi. I'm Mike Green. I am one of the owners of 1A AUTO. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I am going to use my 20 plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAUTO.com. The right parts installed correctly that is going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video we are going to show you how to replace the front axle on this 2002 GMC Sierra. It is pretty much the same as any Silverado Sierra and Suburban 2500. Tools you will need are 15mm, 22mm, and 35mm sockets, ratchet, breaker bar or pipe for some extra leverage, two inch extension to avoid damaging your CV boots, jack and jack stands and a hammer.
Start up by using a 21 mm socket and just loosening the plastic retainers and taking off the hubcap if you have the style wheels. You want to raise and secure the vehicle. If you are not working with air tools like I am, then loosen the lug nuts while the wheel is on the ground then raise it with a jack, support it with a jack stand and remove the lug nuts the rest of the way and remove the tire.
You want to remove the center dust cap. I started by using a smaller screwdriver and then using a larger screwdriver just working it in at kind of the four corners and opposite sides prying it out and eventually it came off. Now you want to remove the center hub nut. I have a benefit of air tools. If you don't have air tools you want to actually do this. You will probably put the wheel back on, put the truck back down on the ground and remove the hub nut with a big socket and breaker bar. Take a good size hammer. We are replacing the axle so we are not really that worried about it so you can just hit this right out. Basically you can give it one good wrap and just watch the axle in relation to the hub and if it moves then it is all broken free and it moved so this should come right out.
Next you want to unbolt the axle right here. Okay, 15mm socket, you wanted a small extension and then your ratchet. Your extension just keeps it away from the boot which is important when you put it back together. You don't want to ruin that boot. I am just going to take a screwdriver right here and that is how I am going to hold my wheel.
I am going to get some serious high speed here as I loosen up the bolts and remove them all. Now you want to take your axle and put it that way. Okay. Now, okay before you can get all the way out. We'll get a 9/16th wrench and take out this stabilizer link and get the axle right out. Okay. New axle from 1A Auto this is with a new locking nut and put it up in just how you took it on out. Just be careful not to damage these rubber boots at all and work it into your hub here. Push it directly. I am just going to take this and push it right up in there. All the way up.
Okay, really speed it up here. I start each one of the bolts first and then I just kind of preliminarily tighten them with my ratchet and then the next step is going to be to torque them up. I draw all my bolts in and they are tightened preliminarily. Use a torque wrench and I am going to torque these bolts to 60 foot-pounds and use my screwdriver again to hold. Let's use chalk to mark it so I know and then I like to go to the opposite one and pull this around. Okay so I just go to the opposite one and like I said I use a piece of chalk just to mark each one so I know it has been torqued and then I will spin it, and then you torque one then kind of torque the opposite one until you have got them all done.
Okay and kind of continuing the working at fast pace just put the stabilizer link back in. Just make sure you put it all back together with the sleeve in the middle and then when you tighten it up, I usually tighten up so there is about a half an inch of threads at the top showing and that is good enough and tight enough for the suspension. Okay so I am going to put the washer on and hub nut, okay. The hub nut that it came with is actually a 36mm and I don't have a socket that big so I am going to have to reuse my whole one.
Now what I am doing here is I am just tightening it preliminarily with the impact wrench. I am not tightening it all the way up yet. I want to torque it when it is on the ground. Okay, we will go back to speeding up here as we just put the tire on. I'm going to put the lug nuts on all by hand first and then again use our impact wrench just to tighten them preliminarily like the center nut. We are going to torque them when the vehicle is on the ground. Now my center nut I'm torqueing to 155 foot-pounds. I am going to pull it tighter and I'm backing off and I am going to re-torque. I take my wheel lug nuts to 120 foot-pounds.
Okay and we'll speed up here and you can see that I kind of cross and do the opposite lug nuts and then afterwards I actually go around one by one and just make sure they are all torqued. Continuing on, we put that center cap, the dust shield back on. Just tap it on with a hammer. That will be fine. I said I used the screwdriver and just kind of tap it on the edges a little more, and then you use your 21mm socket and replace your center cap.
We hope this helps you out, brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Please feel free to call us toll free 888-844-3393. We are the company that is here for you on the internet and in person.
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Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Don from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and the next time you need a part for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
Start off by loosening up these 22mm lug nut covers. We'll fast forward as Don does this. Once those are all loosened up, you can pull the hub cap free. Now, you want to loosen the lug nuts preliminarily, raise the vehicle and remove them the rest of the way, unless you have air powered tools.
You want to remove these two T55 Torx bolts. We'll fast forward as Don does this. Using a large C-clamp, just put it back behind the caliper here, and the other part right here on the brake pad, and just twist this in, and this going to push your caliper piston in and make it easier to pull the caliper off. Then, just remove the C-clamp, and lift your caliper up and off. Set it aside.
Now, using a flat blade screwdriver, just pry out your brake pad, and sometimes the pad is going to be stuck in there, you can use a flat blade screwdriver and hammer to pry it free. Now you want to remove these two 18mm bolts on your caliper bracket, and you can see, we use a piece of pipe for some extra leverage here. We'll just fast forward as he breaks the other one free and removes both of these bolts. Now, slide the rotor off. We'll fast-forward here as we just remove the clips that hold the ABS harness to the frame and steering spindle, and then there's a clip that holds the harness together, so just pull the clip back and disconnect it. Now, using a flat blade screwdriver and a hammer, just pry off your hub cap. You'll need to remove the center hub nut.
A few ways to do this: you can loosen this before you take your brakes apart, have somebody hold the brakes and do it that way, or you could use a large bar and put it between the lug studs to hold it, and then you could break the bar. If you have the benefit of air tools like we do you need an impact wrench to remove it. Then remove these tree 15mm bolts. You want to just use a 15mm wrench and another wrench for some extra leverage.
You just pry out, and once you've broken it free, you can just turn it out the rest of the way with the one wrench. We'll fast forward as Don does this to other two bolts and removes all three of them. Twist the hub nut back into place just a quarter of the way, and then hammer from the back of the hub to break it free. Then remove the hub nut and pull your hub out. On the left is the old hub; on the right is the new one from 1A Auto. You can see they're identical, and they'll fit exactly the same.
Put your backing plate on to your new hub, and then push the hub back into place. Then just put those bolts back in. You may need to hammer the first one to get started. We'll just fast-forward as Don replaces the other two and tightens up all three of those. Then you want to torque those three bolts to 75 foot-pounds each. Now, remove this clip if you left your old one in, and then feed your ABS harness back into place, putting the clips back where they belong and into those brackets. Then reconnect your harness and clip it back up into place.
Replace that washer and your hub nut, and just tighten it back up into place. Push your rotor back into place, and then twist on the lug nut, and this will just hold the rotor in place. Turn the wheel and put the caliper bracket back into place, and replace those two 18mm bolts. We'll fast-forward as Don does this and tightens both of those out. Now torque both of these to 75 foot-pounds.
Now replace your brake pads and use a hammer if necessary to lightly tap that into place. Grease up your caliper bolts. Put the caliper back into place, and slide those slide bolts back in. We'll just fast-forward as Don tightens those up. You want to tighten these to about 30 foot-pounds. Replace your wheel, replace those lug nuts, and tighten them preliminarily. Lower the vehicle and tighten them the rest of the way. Torque the lug nuts in a crossing pattern to 100 foot-pounds, and torque this hub nut to 125 foot-pounds. Put the cap back in place and put it back in. Take your hub cap and just tighten up those bolt caps. After doing work on your brakes, you want to pump the brake pedal until it firms out, and then try a stop test from 5 miles per hour and ten miles per hour. Then you're all set.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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Brought to you by 1A Auto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-something years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this, to show you the correct way to install parts from 1A Auto.com. The right parts, installed correctly, that's going to save you time and money. Thank you, and enjoy the video.
In this video I'm going to show you inner and outer tie rod replacement. This truck actually just needed the inner, but if you're replacing the inner, you might as well replace the outer as well. These tie rods fit this whole generation of GM trucks and SUV's - trucks from 98 - 06 and SUV's from 99 - 07.
The tools you'll need are a jack and jack stands, a 22 mm lug wrench or socket and ratchet. You'll need either a 35 mm wrench or a 12 inch adjustable wrench that can go to 35 mm and then you'll need a second adjustable wrench as well, a tie rod removal tool, a grease gun, torque wrench, and pliers.
The clunking noise was the inner tie rod. You can see here, when I shake the tire back and forth you'll see the inner tie rod move but that steering arm inside doesn't move, so you know there's play in there and it needs to be replaced.
Start out by raising and securing the vehicle on a jack stand and then remove your cap and wheel. We're going to remove this bolt. We've got a ratchet. If you don't have a breaker bar, use a ratchet and a piece of pipe. The bolt should come off pretty easily. Take the bolts off most of the way. I'm planning on replacing the outer tie rod as well, so I'm going to use a pickle fork to separate it. The best way to go about this is to get the wrench on it from underneath and push. That should break her free. I'm just going to speed up as I pull that out. You want to make sure that your outer tie rod spins with the wrench so the whole assembly spins and you don't shorten or lengthen the tie rod -- the inner and outer tie rod assembly.
There's your whole assembly out. If you can see here, I've got my old assembly, inner tie rod and outer tie rod, and I want to measure right from the edge of this surface here right to the end. I'm taking my new inner tie rod and outer tie rod and I put them together, just to compare. This will give you a good preliminary alignment. We'll put this nut a little closer. We can put it together now. It will be a good preliminary alignment until you can get your vehicle to a shop where you can get a real alignment.
I'm just leaving my nut right there and spinning my outer tie rod off. The nut marks the place where your tie rod was and then taking off that outer tie rod just makes it easier to get the inner one on. That allows me put my inner tie rod on. Speed it up here as I use the wrench to tighten the tie rod up. Then I can put my outer tie rod right back on and go right up to the nut. Then I'll just fast-forward here as I put that outer tie rod back on the inner tie rod. Now I'm just taking the nut or just getting the outer tie rod in place. Take the nut off the new tie rod, and I'm just going to get some of the debris off the steering knuckle there, and then you can push on the stud on the tie rod and get it lined up with the steering knuckle, and then push it up and in, and start your nut back on.
We'll tighten this up to 65 foot-pounds. Pull a little tighter here and we can get this cotter pin through. We'll fast-forward here as we install the cotter pin and bend the end over and then use a 7 mm wrench and install our grease fitting. We'll take a wrench screw up here. The other one holds the outer tie rod and just tighten up the block nut. Now you want to use a grease gun and grease both the joint for the outer tie rod and the inner tie rod.
Use some more fast-forward here. As you put the wheel and tire back on, start all the lug nuts one by one by hand first, then use your wrench to preliminary tighten them, then you can lower the vehicle back down on the ground, torque the lug nuts to 120 foot-pounds. I'm using a crossing pattern and then I do it one more time, go around all eight and make sure they're tight. Then you can put your center cap back on and you should be all set.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the internet and in person.
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Hi, I'm Mike from 1AAuto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years! We're dedicated to delivering quality auto parts, expert customer service, and fast and free shipping, all backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. We've created thousands of videos to help you install our parts with confidence. That saves you time and money, so visit us at 1AAuto.com, your trusted source for quality auto parts.
You can replace the idler arm bracket by itself. To find the idler arm on your truck, in this case it's on the passenger side, but another easy way is to start at the tie rod end and just follow the arm all the way to your inner tie rod, and then up to your idler arm.
The first step to removing the idler is to remove the cotter pin that holds the castle nut in place. I like to use a pair of cutters to grab it with. It's usually the easiest thing to do, although I may prove myself wrong. There we go. And then you can also use a pair of locking pliers to pull it from the other side. Then you'll take your 21mm socket with an extension, and I'm using a 1/2" ratchet, because it's going to be pretty tight, and we'll crack it loose.
Luckily it's greasy, so once you crack it loose, it usually spins right off. So, ideally you want to have a puller, which you can get from your local hardware store or auto part store. You can usually rent them. And you'll want to put it on like this. We're using a two jaw puller. It wraps up on both sides of the steering arm, and then the center bolt pushes right on the idler arm. Then, in our case, it's a 16mm right here, but depending on the puller, it could be a different size. And at that point, you want to just tighten up your puller until the idler arm breaks free. We're going to be pulling off the idler arm with the idler arm bracket, so we need to take out the lower nut right here, and then the upper one right up here.
In New England we like to spray everything with rust penetrant before we take it off, because it just makes life a lot easier. On the front side of the bracket, there's the actual heads of the bolt that we're going to put a socket on. Right here's the lower one, and then up here's the upper one. So, we're going to use a 21mm with an extension, and a little wobble adapter so that we can get on there. It's not the easiest thing to reach, but once you're on there, it should stay there. And then on the back side, we put a wrench to hold the nut in place, and hopefully turn it.
Now we're heading for the top bolt on the idler arm bracket. We have our 21mm wrench on the back side, and then 21mm socket and extension on the front. At this point, we'll be able to just pull the whole idler arm, and its bracket, right out of the truck.
We've cleaned up our idler arm and idler arm bracket. Both are well used. But we're going to show you how to separate the idler arm from the bracket itself. In our case, there's a 24mm nut on here. That may differ depending on if your car has a original OEM part or if it's been replaced before. In our case, it's 24mm. So we're going to throw it in the vise, and put our 24mm socket on with a 1/2" ratchet -- because you want plenty of torque -- and hopefully we can crack this loose. With the nut off, now we have to pull the idler arm off the idler arm bracket.
So once again, I'm going to reposition this in the vise. Get a puller, which you can rent from a local hardware store, or an auto parts store, or they're actually not too expensive if you just buy them and you think you might be doing this more than once. It might be worth buying a kit to do this. And then you'll tighten down the center bolt. In our case, we have a 16mm on the top of the puller, which we will, once again, use our 1/2" ratchet to tighten up. So, you always want to wear your safety glasses when you're doing these things, safety gloves, because things tend to spring off when you're least expecting it. Kind of like that. So now that it's broken loose, you can pull it right off.
Here you can see the old idler arm bracket and the new idler arm bracket. You can see, the old one is really easy to turn. That's how you know it's worn out, because the insides of it are actually worn out. My guess is that somebody didn't grease this appropriately on a regular basis, and that's something that you need to do if you want to keep these things to lasting a long time. The new one is nice and tight like it should be, and we'll obviously grease this when we install it on the car, and then keep up with the greasing.
You know, probably every oil change we'll put some grease in this and make sure it stays in good shape for a long time. You can see that the mounting brackets are exactly the same. You can line them up, they fit the same. It comes with a new seal on the end, and of course, a new nut. In our case, we're going to be replacing the idler arm bracket and the idler arm. And this is the same process, whether you're replacing one or the other, but we always recommend doing them both at the same time since you have them both out of the vehicle. It's just a really easy thing, and it doesn't cost a whole lot more money to swap them both at the same time.
So to do this, we'll put the idler arm bracket into the vise, and we'll slide the idler arm right onto the bracket. Put the nut on there. This happens to be a 24mm. Depending on what kind of part you have in your car, it may vary. The size may vary a little bit. And at this point, we can tighten this up. So we started tightening the nut, and we found that the whole thing was spinning, like you can see here. So that's why they put a hex on top of this, so that you can put a wrench here and a wrench on the bottom, and then you can tighten down the nut much easier.
While the idler arm bracket and idler arm are out of the vehicle, we're going to put the grease in them, that way it's a little bit easier on us once they're installed. Now we can slide the whole assembly right back in. There's one bolt in place. Now we'll do the lower bolt, which is a little trickier. All right. With the top ... or, with the idler arm bracket bolts in place, then you can push the idler arm into the steering, and tighten up the castle nut, or hand tighten the castle nut. Now we're going to take our 21mm socket and extension and place it on the upper bolt. Put a wrench on the back side. Of course, we want to turn the ratchet in the proper direction, then we'll start tightening up that bolt. And then we'll go for the lower one, which again, 21mm with a ratchet and extension, and a 21mm on the back. And now we have the 21mm idler arm nut that we are going to use a ratchet and extension and socket on.
We want to get it tight enough so that it is held in place, but we also want to line up the castle nut with the hole in the idler arm, so that we can get the cotter pin through. And now you can slide the cotter pin through the hole, and bend it over so that it stays in place.
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