New rims and tires

[RustyPW]

You have to change the lower arms too. The new arms you got are a 1/2" longer. That's for both upper and lower arms. If you don't change the lower arms. Your caster will be way negative.

[verdesardog]

Darn, you are correct,I was thinking positive caster was front lean but it is rear leaning of the suspension. I could only get 2* caster with the arms that were on the truck now it's probably close to zero
Funny, I did a reference tilt measurement on the knuckle with one of those little magnetic tilt gauge before I started and again when done and it did increase the reading. I must have been seeing a negative reading that I increased. The truck does drive much better and the steering does return to center nicely. Well back to work! I need a bigger cutoff wheel, the 4 1/2" ones were just barely adequate to get into the space to cut the uppers.
At least I know how to do it now. I should be able to get it done in half a day.

[verdesardog]

OK after more research I finding different info some say pos caster is forward leaning some say rear leaning. So confused.
More research is needed!
I remember now, the arms on this truck were not OEM, the Thurens are just a tad shorter so the axle did rotate back a degree or two. Just got back from a 50 mile drive, soooo much better than before, goes straight, wheels return to center perfect, very little wandering. Now time for the lower steering shaft.

[DamageWagon]

Do all the arms. The biggest reason to replace them is to get the wonderful poly bearings in the thuren arms. You’ll like them.

I cut my caster bolts off with an angle grinder, cutting through the control arm sleeve like Rusty did. Remember to only cut one arm at a time and replace it unless you want to die.

I also benefitted from a mini sledge and a drift.

[RustyPW]

Negative caster is to the front. Positive caster is to the rear. I used to do alignments.

If you have a sawzall. It will reach better then a 4.5" diameter cut-off wheel.

[verdesardog]

Well I did the complete front end and didn't die! I will just leave the lowers till they go bad. I'm tired of working on the blue beast.

[verdesardog]

I am going to cut the lower control arms off and install the lower thuren's to match the uppers already installed.

Rusty, what kind of blade did you use in your sawsall? Aren't those hardened bolts and sleeves? I think i can get 5" wheels for my angle grinder which should make fast work of it.

[DamageWagon]

I tried sawzall and got tired of killing blades. A 6” grinder did it quick. Believe I had to cut them into 3 pieces

[RustyPW]

I used a fine tooth blade, 18 TPI. I started off with a 4.5 cut wheel, then switched to the sawzall. I made 2 cut per bracket. One cut on each side of the arm, inside of the bracket. Then the bolt head and nut fell off, and the arm dropped out.

[verdesardog]

All done! I only had to cut one front lower bolt, I used a 6" cutoff wheel.

[RustyPW]

Did you anti-seize the chit out of it?

[verdesardog]

of course!!!!!

[RustyPW]

of course!!!!!

[SimonandSimonBeast]

I didn't have so much problem removing the arms on my '13 PW. They weren't so rusty. But, this does remind me of the time I helped my brother put a leaf spring lift on his YJ Jeep. Fought us every bit of the way. Man those eye bolts were seized to the sleeves. Tons of WD-40. Into the night heating the bolts with a torch while the other was using a mini sledge against a sacraficial ratchet extension. We pounded them out (all eight of them), switching on and off who was hammering and who was torching. Bushings catching fire...that's good for the lungs. Neighbors must have been like WTF. We made a sh*t ton of noise.

I still have that ratchet extension just in case.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[verdesardog]

I wonder if all that heat effected the springs? I would have just cut them all off with much less hassle....

[SimonandSimonBeast]

I wonder if all that heat effected the springs? I would have just cut them all off with much less hassle....

We were replacing the leaf springs with lift springs at all 4 corners, so we weren't worried about them. It was in the "heat" of the moment and that's what we came up with. In hindsight, since we were replacing everything cutting may have been less effort. But, it was definitely a learning lesson what a little bit of heat and expansion can do to free something up.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk