I just discovered last night that the rubber grease boot on one of my tie rod ends is ripped, and all the others on the steering linkages are badly cracked. I also did some more checking and noticed that a radius arm bushing is shot on one side (other side was replaced ~5 yrs ago).

1) Do the ripped/cracked boots in the steering linkage necessarily indicate and/or require replacing tie rod ends, etc. Or ... just replacing the boots. Obviously depends on wear in the joint. Steering still seems pretty tight.

2) Replacing RA bushing will require pulling the front end on one side at least. Given the time since the last one was replaced, should I do both?

3) At that point ... would I be wise to consider replacing all of the ball joints? Now we're really talking $$!!

My rig's got 161K miles on it. Makes me think the BJ's might be ready to be replaced, but I haven't actually "checked" them yet. I'm a grad student on a limited budget. I'd like to keep the repair bill down, but would also like my rig to last as long as possible. Thanks for any input

 

The ball joints I wouldn't mess with unless they're loose. If they're still tight leave them be and just grease them. As far as the radius arms it could go either way on replacing them. From the factory the crossmember is riveted in, but most times when the bushings get replaced you cut off the rivets and replace them with bolts. If this has already been done then its just a matter of unbolting the crossmember, throwing in the new bushings, and then bolting it back in. Bushings for those are sold as pairs (at least mine were) so you might as well replace them both since the crossmember will be coming out anyhow. The steering will depend on the play in the ends so you might end up just greasing those if they are still tight. The other thing to check will be the pivot arm bushing. Most people don't check those and they go out.