Rebuiding my front end - upgrades?

[tRidiot]

So I'm considering doing an entire front end rebuild - front hubs and bearings, upper and lower control arms or at LEAST ball joints, sway bar and links, pittman and idler arms. I may do the late-model Silverado brake upgrade while I'm at it - why not, right?

So my question is, can I replace all these parts from my regular Tahoe with the equivalent parts from the 2500 Suburban? I've upgraded to the 6.0LQ9 engine, so I just thought, "What the hell, why not?" I would ASSUME they are all bolt-on same/same, and watching some videos, I don't see why not. Also would ASSUME that the 2500 parts would be slightly more durable for the long term. With a newly rebuilt 6.0 and 4l60e trans, I guess I need to count on keeping this thing for a while. Figuring on maybe $1500 or so worth of parts (guesstimate), I won't do GM OEM, but AC Delco and Moog (the higher line) for most, I think. Also all new bushings, probably Energy Suspension - from what I've read, they're nice. I'll eventually also likely upgrade all the body bushings.

This a reasonable start to rebuilding the drivability, stability, longevity and enjoyment of my 2004 Tahoe LE?

 

[Joseph Garcia]

How many miles on the truck, and have any suspension parts already been replaced?

Regarding replacing stock Tahoe parts with 2500 Suburban parts, my first guess would be no, but that is just a guess, and other folks more knowledgeable than me will chime in.

 

[tRidiot]

About 280k miles - no suspension work that I know of unless it was done prior to my purchase with 80k in 2009. I think I replaced a bearing once a number of years ago. I took it to a tire/shop a couple of months ago, they recommended $1500 worth of front end work. That was only for I think 3 ball joints and one wheel bearing. I took it to my mechanic, he checked it out and said he felt everything was fine. I assumed they really torqued on things to try to get some flex, he didn't feel anything was really out of whack. I had asked them to look at the alignment because I felt it was pulling left a bit - their answer wasn't to align it, it was to do $1500 worth of work.

Since then, The Wife got hit in the front right wheel by another car, low-speed. It didn't really damage anything major, but since then I continue to notice the pulling left, I've heard some clunking underneath at times. Makes me wonder if something got damaged, but with the weather and timing and snow and my job I haven't had time to crawl under and look at things. I also don't have a rack or a way to lift it up. I have a jack and stands, but my driveway is sloped and my garage won't allow me to get it inside to lift it up right now. And probably won't for a few more months until we can offload some of the crap inside.

So with that kind of mileage, I thought a front end rebuild certainly wouldn't be a BAD thing to do, if I had the money to spare and wanted to do something meaningful on the truck.

 

[BossGunner]

Im Interested in how this goes for you. I've been wanting to do some similar work but for both the front end and rear end. I've got an 04 5.3 LT all stock with 215k miles and I've notice little things here and there while alone dont seem like much but together makes me want to replace/upgrade. Hoping to make this thing outlast me.

 

[ivin74]

About 280k miles - no suspension work that I know of unless it was done prior to my purchase with 80k in 2009.

If you got 280k miles out of the original 1500 parts why would you wanna put parts from a 2500?

 

[tRidiot]

If you got 280k miles out of the original 1500 parts why would you wanna put parts from a 2500?

Why not?

 

[1badjimmy]

The 2500 series parts will not work. I have a 2005 Suburban 2500 and it’s parts are the same as my 2005 3500 Dually.

Hub bearings are 4 bolt on them versus 3 bolt for my 2004 Tahoe. Also 8 lug instead of 6 lug. Even the 1500HD trucks had 8 lug hubs.

The lower shock mount is completely different. 2500/3500 has no bushing in the control arm like the Tahoe.

Save yourself the headache and get the good stuff from a trusted supplier. Just don’t buy the stuff I’m looking at.


Please.

 

[tRidiot]

There we go... that's the information I was looking for. I guess I should have known about the hubs, that makes sense with 6-lug vs 8-lug wheels.

I just crawled under mine to look for what is making noise - I really couldn't see anything out of whack. Maybe I won't bother rebuilding, just get it aligned and see if I'm happier with it. It's definitely pulling left and sometimes seems to wander, but I could be a bit hypervigilant, I dunno.

 

[1badjimmy]

$1500 for three ball joints and a hub bearing seems a bit much to me. Then again I do all of my own work except alignments.

Where does the clunk seem like it’s coming from? The intermediate steering shaft is a known issue that makes a clunk on all of my gmt800.

If you have the torsion bar front suspension the torsion bar mount bushings could be bad and also making the clunk.

Honestly with almost 300k on it I would replace everything. I’m in the process of doing just that with my 04 because the poor thing has been abused it’s whole life.

 

[tRidiot]

Clunk seems to be coming from front drivers side suspension. Like I said, nothing looks bent or broken, doesn't look suspiciously worn out. My mechanic got it up on a lift and pulled and yanked on everything less than 2500 miles ago and said he thought it was all good.

The clunking is more when hitting small bumps driving than when turning, if that means anything. And it's pulling left. Not bad bad, but notably so.

I was concerned about the shocks... I did these about 4 1/2 years ago, but only probably 20k miles. I was worried after seeing this:




But the passenger's side look the same, so I guess it's nothing to worry about.