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Keep eating front ends
Two years ago I had my ball joints, u-joints, bearings, needle bearings, steering gear and tie rods replaced. I went with the moog ball joints, Ford bearings, O'reilly cheapo brand tie rods and a cardone reman gearbox. I took her in for an alignment last month and was told my ball joints, tie rods and steering gear are all bad. I can visibly see my tie rods are bad and it would appear my gearbox is leaking (though I think its one of the B nut connectors that screws into it) and I guess my ball joints went out too.
Today it reached critical level on the highway as my truck started jerking left and right with no steering wheel input (my steering has ALWAYS been loose as long as I can remember). I pulled over to make sure my pitman arm wasn't about to break off again like I did a few years ago and while everything looks like it won't quite explode, the bushing on my passenger side tie rod end is completely gone and my entire tie rod rotates a lot along its axis before the steering wheel affects it. I'm worried my passenger side wheel is able to wander a bit and pull me around and I worry about that finally snapping catasrophically on the highway.
Unfortuantely I am living in a hotel temporarily and a long way away from all my tools. I will be putting her in the shop ASAP but I want to do it right. What brands of all these components would your recommend? I am NOT impressed with Moog since they went to Chinese parts. I want to get some beefy steering components. Would any of yall even recommend going with a different type of steering setup given my lift and 35" tires?
Thanks!
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