1995-02 Chevrolet Astro GMC Safari Front 17 Piece Steering, Suspension, & Drivetrain Kit TRQ PSA59609

Safely raise and support your vehicle on the frame so your suspension can hang. Now that we've safely raised the vehicle, let's remove this by using a small pry bar right in this little slot.

Now you can see your 22-millimeter lug nuts; remove those.

And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. Let's get this little plastic cover out of here. To get out the sway bar links, more than likely, you're gonna have to drop your sway bar. To do that, I would spray right inside this hole right here, try to spray the top area of that bolt, and then from the other side, spray this side as well. While you're at it, why don't you do the other side of the vehicle at the same time?
To get this one out, obviously, it's going to be a little bit difficult. You have minimal room here. Go and try to use some sort of pivoting extension or whatever you might have to get up in there. You could also use a 10-millimeter wrench if you have all day.

Let's do the same to the other side. I'm just gonna use a swivel socket to come through this hole. I want to try to find the bolt under there. I'm gonna hold that and then I'm gonna remove the nut on the top.

Okay, so that one broke. So now we're just gonna get the bar off of here. We can move this, try to get this separated real quick.
So now we have the sheath. This is a metal sheath that goes over this metal part of the bolt. Odds are that's gonna be completely rotted together. The best thing to do here would be to cut it. If you were to look right down along here, you can see exactly what I'm talking about. They left plenty of room for moisture to get in there. Let's carefully heat up the area. You obviously want to be careful for any rubber such as your axle boot, or even your ABS wire.

Now we have that nice and warm, let's go ahead and hit it was some penetrant spray. Let's clear the area, let that dissipate for a minute.

Let's get the rest of this off of there.
It doesn't look like the bushing wants to be coming out at the same time here. Get this out here, get that out of there.

Now when you're replacing the sway bar links or just the bushings, you want to obviously do those as a pair and when they're apart is the best time to do it. So now when we're getting ready to put this on, it's important to make sure you have the smaller bushing on the bottom side, that's going to make it much easier to get up through the hole in the bottom of the control arm.

Get that and the bushing right up in there. Now we're gonna go with the other bushing that has the washer on it like that. Slide it down, get your shank, slide that on there, you've got your other washer, a little thing on there. Slide that like that. This is gonna go through the bar. Now we'll grab our bushing with the washer, slide that right on there and get our locking nut, make sure you put that on as well, obviously.

Now we're gonna do the same to the other side and then we'll jump into putting back on the bushings. Now we're gonna take our 13-millimeter wrench, come through the bottom of that control arm right through the hole and try to hold the bolt. And we'll come up here with our socket and we're gonna snug this up and pay attention to the bushings for how much they try to squish down.

I'm just going to analyze these bushings real quick. What you want to look for is to make sure that they're actually touching up against the bar. They have no room for movement, and you also want to make sure that they're not necessarily squished down like a pancake. If you've done that, you're probably going to damage the bushing. All you want it to be is enough so it touches here, here, here, and then if you could see in there, of course it's touching as well. We'll do the same to the other side. Let's start all of our bolts in here that hold the sway bar bushings in.

We're gonna snug these right up. All right, make sure those are nice and tight and then do the same to the other side of the vehicle.

Time to get the wheel up on here. Start on one of those lug nuts. Now we're just gonna start on all the lug nuts. We'll bottom them out, and then we'll torque them to 120 foot-pounds.Torque these to 120 foot-pounds. It's torqued. We'll get our cover on here. Awesome. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side.

Once you have your vehicle safely raised and supported, we're gonna remove this center cover right here. This will expose those lug nuts. You can see six lug nuts. We're gonna remove all six of them using a 22-millimeter socket. Just gonna take one lug nut, leave it on there, just so the wheel can't fall off on me. Remove the wheel. So, now that we can see everything, we're just gonna hit this with some penetrant right down along here. I like to get up along the top, and right along in here. Obviously, we're gonna be removing the outer tie rod end from the knuckle here, because we're gonna have to remove the knuckle. Anytime you're doing front-end work, you're gonna have to get an alignment. So this is gonna be where your adjustment is for your toe. We need to spray down this whole area. This is gonna help the alignment person down the line. Awesome.

Now I'm just gonna turn the wheel a little bit here, and that's so I can get to this slider pin and this one right here, because we're gonna remove the caliper and hang it safely. Use your 3/8 socket. It's an Allen head. Slide the caliper off of here. And now we're gonna hang it from something, using something as simple as a bungee cord, or a hanger, or whatever you have, just as long as you're not putting any pressure on this rubber flex hose. Just put some penetrant on this area. And then I'm gonna put that nut on there, just a couple threads. That's because next, I'm gonna take my little hammer here, I'm gonna give this a couple bonks. When it comes down, I wanna make sure that nut catches it, and keeps me from potentially getting hurt.

So now, right along here, you're gonna notice there should be some push clips. This one's actually missing, but theoretically, you would probably pull that out of the way. And then you can see right here where your ABS wire is gonna connect in. You need to disconnect that by pulling right here. Slide that up and away. Next, we're gonna get this out of its holding spot, take out this bolt right here, pull all these out, and remove that as well. So now, we're gonna use a little forky tool, or you can even try to stick a screwdriver or pry bar behind here, and we're just gonna try to pull this off of the frame. This is what's holding it in. Remove this mounting bolt. Now let's grab this cable. Carefully pull it off these clips. Now we're gonna remove this nut. The bolt comes through from the bottom, so you're gonna have to hold the bolt head, and then remove this nut. Let's get this rotor off of here.

Next thing we're gonna do is remove this 36-millimeter axle nut. Behind there, there's a little washer. Get that off of there as well. The next thing you wanna do is spray this area. Let that seep in there, and then you're gonna take a punch and your hammer, and go right in the center, and give this a couple bonks until it breaks free. I can see it moving. That means I'm good. You definitely don't wanna use the hammer right on the axle, just in case you damage the threads. Let's just wrap this up so it's not hanging and potentially getting damaged.

The next thing we wanna do is come down to the lower ball joint, and you're gonna see this little cotter pin right here. It's kind of just a locking mechanism. It keeps the nut from turning. Remove it. Now we're gonna remove that nut. Just put that back on there, a few threads. Now it's time to remove the upper ball joint nut. We're gonna do the same thing with that cotter pin, get it out of there, and then remove the nut. So, now we're just gonna turn the knuckle all the way to the right. I'm gonna come through here with my wrench, and see if I can get this nut to break free. Nice. We're gonna remove this one completely. The next thing I'm gonna do is take my hammer and I'm gonna carefully try to bonk right here on the knuckle. Okay, this whole area right here is the knuckle, but I wanna get as close to the ball joint stud as possible so hopefully, it will break free and drop down a little bit. There we are we are. I'm just gonna press through this axle a little bit. Awesome.

So now, for this next part, it's super important to make sure that your ball joint nut is on there a few good threads. You wanna make sure that there's no way that this can fall down or come off on its own, because the next step is actually gonna be one of two things. You can either bonk directly on the knuckle, like we did with the upper, and hope that it vibrates free from the stud right here, or, of course, you can go with a pickle fork. The reason why I didn't use this pickle fork up top was because obviously, I'm not replacing that ball joint. If I use this, it's gonna damage the ball joint, and you have to replace it at that point. Okay. So, that broke free. This is looking great. I'm gonna hold this up. Remove the nut. And now I'll just carefully slide this right off of here. The next thing we're gonna do is take our wrench and hold under here on the nut side, and then we're gonna use the 18-millimeter socket up on top, and we're gonna remove the bolt side. Now I'm just gonna use a piece of scrap that I happened to find laying around, just so I can hold this axle up and out of my way. Remove all these bolts. We'll recycle these. Remove the lower ball joint.

Now it's gonna be time to install our lower ball joint here. It's gonna slide right inside there. If you wanted to use some Never-Seez, you could, but it's not necessarily needed. When you slide it through, you're gonna line up all those holes, and then you can take your bolts and your locking nuts. These are locking nuts. You can tell because they're oblong. Slide it right up and through. We're gonna do the same to all. So now, we're gonna use our wrench. Hold the bolt on the bottom side and we'll snug up these nuts. Just gonna bottom it out. Now we're just gonna make sure these are tight. I like to tighten them to approximately 100 foot-pounds.

Now it's gonna be time to get the knuckle back up on here. Just gonna start it into the bearing. Slide it over the stud on the lower ball joint. I'm gonna lift it up, and then I'm gonna start on the nut for the lower ball joint. That should hold it so it can't fall down. Take a break. Now we're just gonna bottom out this lower ball joint nut. This should wanna slide up, and the axle should slide through the wheel bearing. Now we're gonna go ahead and put this down through, and we're gonna start the upper ball joint nut. Let's put a bar over the top of the control arm and under the frame, so that way there, we can press down on this control arm. Start it right in there. Now I'm gonna take that upper ball joint nut, gonna start it right on that stud. Now we'll use our wrench and we'll tighten it up. So now, we're gonna turn this till it bottoms out. Okay. That's pretty good right there. Let's move back down to the lower ball joint nut here. We're gonna torque that to 94 foot-pounds. Now that's torqued.

The next thing you wanna do is pay attention to the castle nut slots, and you also wanna look at the stud of the ball joint to find where that cotter pin hole is. You line up the slot with the hole, which if you were to come over here, you'd be able to see. If you look right here, you can tell that it's almost lined up. The problem is, is to torque it to where it was supposed to be, it went a little bit past. So, the next thing you have to remember is you definitely don't wanna loosen, because then it will be under torqued. What you actually wanna do is continue tightening until it lines up with the next slot. Little bit more. That looks great. Let's grab our cotter pin and put it through there. Now, these are locking pins. It's super important to make sure you have it bent over completely. That way there, you're 100% sure there's no way this nut can come free. So, the next thing we would do is torque this upper ball joint nut. The torque for it is 74 foot-pounds, but as you can tell, the axle's kind of in the way. I'm just gonna use my wrench. I'm gonna make it nice and tight, and make sure the slot lines up with the hole.

Yeah. That's nice and tight. I'm gonna look for the slot. Okay. Looks like it comes through for me, and it comes through in that direction. Make sure that there's no way that this locking clip cotter pin can come out. Next, we're gonna get this ABS wire off of here. This part's gonna go right under here. Runs up along these. And then, of course, you have the mounting area, and then where it clicks in. Let's make sure we get all that together. Your little push tab. You definitely wanna make sure your ABS wire is secured, because if it's moving around in any way, there's a potential for it to get damaged, and you definitely don't want that.

Now, be careful when you're tightening this, because it will wanna turn, and if it turns too far, you could potentially put a tug on your wires. The wire's not rubbing on anything. This looks good. There we go. Make sure all the push clips are in. This looks great. The next thing you wanna do is make sure that your mating surface between your hub and your rotor is clean. Once it is, go ahead and put that rotor on there. I like to start on one of the lug nuts so the rotor can't move around, potentially fall off. It also helps keep rust from getting in there. Let's get our caliper up on here. Push those sliders. You should feel them kind of wanna latch into where the hole is. We're gonna start them both in before we fully tighten either of them up. Okay. I bottomed out. Tighten a bit more. Let's get the tie rod end in here.

Now we're gonna bottom this out, but don't tighten it too much, because the torque is only 40 foot-pounds. Okay, so we torqued it to 40 foot-pounds. The next thing you wanna look at is the slotted area to the hole, and make sure you line those up in a tightening manner. You definitely don't wanna loosen, once again. Next, you're gonna put your washer on the axle and then, of course, the nut. Let's bottom this out. You don't wanna over-tighten this, because you'll mess up the bearing, so we're just gonna bottom it out, and then we'll torque it to manufacturer specifications.

Okay, so the next thing we need to do is torque this axle nut. But a great way to do that is to grab the wheel, put it back on here. We're gonna put on all the lug nuts, and then we'll get it down so it's touching up against the ground. We'll torque the lug nuts and the axle nut at the same time. Now we're gonna torque the axle nut to 165 foot-pounds. Torqued. Torque your lug nuts to 120 foot-pounds. Torqued. Let's grab that center cover. Make sure you line up the holes with the lug nuts, or else you're gonna know it when you go to bonk it on.

Safely raise and support your vehicle on the frame so your suspension can hang. Now that we've safely raised the vehicle, let's remove this by using a small pry bar right in this little slot. Now you can see your 22-millimeter lug nuts, remove those. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. It's a great idea to spray down the area. We're going to let that sit. Obviously, if your tie rod ends look like this around the adjustment area, you're going to want to do the whole thing. If for some reason you aren't, you're going to remove these two bolts and then you'll turn this out and that will break this free.

So now that I know that I am replacing the assembly as a whole, I'm going to turn the wheel all the way to the left. That's going to give me the most area to get to that inner tie rod and stud. To start, I'm going to use my 18-millimeter half-inch drive, come right up here on the outer tie rod end nut, if you need to give it a couple of bonks, make sure you get it on there. Let's loosen this up. I'm just going to take that nut and put it back on there, just a few threads to keep myself safe.

So now we're going to break the outer tie rod end free from the knuckle right here, you can use a large hammer. You could also use a pickle fork with a hammer. If you're going to go with the hammer method, just go right here on the knuckle, it should want to break free. Make sure you have the nut on there and your safety glasses. All right, that broke free, awesome. Let's remove that inner tie right end nut. For this part right here, we're going to use one of these pickle forks. Come right in through in between the inner tie rod end and this right here, going to hammer it in. Start that on just a couple threads here. Okay, that's separated. Let's start the removal process here. Now we can move along to the next step.

So one of the first things we need to do when we get to the bench is, of course, we'll put a little bit of copper Never-Seez on our threaded area, you can go right on the tie rod ends, and maybe inside the sleeve if you wanted to. Once you have done that and you have those prepped, we're going to take a measuring tape and we're going to measure from one end of this all the way to the other end. Take a quick measurement here, and take note, looks like for me it is 16 and seven-eighths. So, what I am going to do now is I'm going to get this started onto both these tie rod ends at the same time, that is called timing the tie rod ends. We'll screw it in, and then we'll keep measuring until we get to 16 and seven-eighths, which is my measurement.

Start this on, just a couple of threads here, okay. Now I am going to do the same thing for this one, just grabbing the first thread is the hardest part usually. Now that I have both those started, I'm going to try to screw this on. Okay. So that looks pretty decent. At this point, what I want to do is make sure that I have the inner tie rod end lined up with the new inner tie rod end. That looks good, and I am going to make sure that this is aiming up in the same direction as the other one. Just like that.

And the next thing that we want to do is get these bolts so they are lined up just like that. So you can see where the open area is, that is exactly where you want the bolt to be when you crimp this down. That's how it is going to hold the threads the best. Just snug this up, and we're not going to completely tighten this up yet because, of course, we're still going to have to give it a little twist when we get in the vehicle. I just want to kind of make it so it can't flop around on me. That's pretty decent. Just snug, time to get that started in there, it's important to pay attention to your inner tie rod end which has this little blank area of the shanked end, then you have the outer tie rod end that has the threaded area pretty much the whole way. Started. Start in the outer as well, let's go ahead and bottom these out. Let's torque both these nuts to 40 foot-pounds.

So now you are going to look for your cotter pin hole. And that should be a hole that goes through the stud. It needs to line up with the castle nut here. I'm going to take one of my cotter pins and just feel around, that feels like it is almost about to go through. Something that's important to remember is if the cotter pin does not go through, or it is not lined up, you don't want to loosen it so you can put the cotter pin through. You just want to tighten to the point that you can get the cotter pin locked in. Do the same to the other one, that one I can see that it is not lined up. Just going to give it a teeny bit more. Put the cotter pin through, of course, lock it down.

The next thing you want to do is make sure that your tie rods are straight so when you're looking at 'em, you want the stud to look like it's coming straight out. If it isn't, just go ahead and give it a little twist, and then double-check the other side to make sure that that one is good. If for some reason when you have one straight and the other one is turned completely like that, that's going to cause premature wear of the tie rod ends. Make sure they are both straight, and then you can torque these down to 14 foot-pounds. We're just going to double-check the tie rods now that those are snug. That looks straight, this looks straight, perfect. Let's get the wheel on, and get it to the alignment shop.

Time to get the wheel up on here. Start on one of those lug nuts. Now we're just going to start on all the lug nuts, we'll bottom them out and then we'll torque them to 120 foot-pounds. Torque these to 120 foot-pounds. That's torqued. We'll get our cover on here, awesome. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. The next thing you would want to do is go ahead and get yourself an alignment.