Front-end questions - '93 SE

[deanpence]

I did a look-see yesterday to see if I could identify any front-end suspension/driveaxle or steering issues that would be obvious enough for me to see. Mostly I just inspected the bearings and dust covers I could see or feel. I was hunting for causes of my front-end squeaking but found a few other things.

 

First, do people generally just call dust covers bushings? I don't recall hearing/reading about them, but Haynes seems to distinguish.

 

Second, what is considered a "bad" bushing? Bushings everywhere ranged from flexible to completely rigid but seemed otherwise to be intact.

 

The worst thing I found (I think) is a busted CV boot (wheel-side) on the driver's side, which, I understand, just puts me driving on borrowed time. What, in particular, is likely to break here? Is it the driveaxle itself? Since it's on the wheel side, the joint itself doesn't seem to be in immediate danger. Am I wrong here?

 

The lower balljoints on both sides had busted dust covers, which I presume calls for urgent replacement of those balljoints. What could go wrong here in the meantime?

 

I also had a busted dust cover on the passenger torsion bar right next to the anchor arm and another on the joint between the cross rod and the idler arm.

[Slartibartfast]

Bushings and dust covers are different. Dust covers just keep dust out, bushings hold something that turns or pivots or whatever. So, if there's load on it, it's a bushing. If it's just keeping road crud out, it's a dust cover/boot.

 

Bushings wear out eventually. This usually means wearing oversized, giving the part it's supposed to be holding solid too much room to shift around. When this happens in the rear axle links, the truck wanders on bumps. The bushing in the upper driver's side hinge on my Pathy is long dead, and the door doesn't always shut quite right.

 

A bad CV boot lets dust/grit get into the CV. The grit mixes with the grease, forming a paste abrasive (think sand and vaseline). The joint gets abrasive in it and grinds itself to death. If it's not too bad you may be able to just clean out the dirty grease and replace the boot, but with the effort to get to the boots, you might as well do the CV while you're in there.

 

I wouldn't worry about the t-bar boots (mine aren't great either, leaving them for when I mess with the t-bars), but the ball joints probably do merit attention. Worn out ball joints will make it wander, shift around, and generally feel loose.

[sewebster]

Cleaning the CV joints and replacing the boots is more work than just replacing the CV itself, because you need to remove the CV to rebuild it. Rebuilding is cheaper than replacing because the boots are cheap. However, if the joint is damaged due to dirt inside then you probably just want to replace. It COULD be worth doing the rebuild for more reasons than just saving money if you believe that your CV is a high quality OEM one and the replacement is a cheap piece of junk. It's probably hard to tell how good the replacement is...

 

Usually you can tell if a bushing is bad by grabbing whatever is connected to it and seeing if you can wiggle it. If you can it's bad. Also, if bushings are all cracked then they are usually bad. Certain bushings it can be hard to tell their condition if they are under a lot of preload and you might only notice when driving, or if you take things apart (compression rod bushings possibly).

 

T-bar boots aren't a big deal IMHO. The ball joint dust covers being broken will certainly accelerate the death of your ball joints, but if there is no play in your ball joints currently (jack truck, try to wiggle wheel) then replacing them isn't going to change anything in the short term, but you should do it before they get too bad.