This weekend was a big weekend for the Franken-truck as we've started calling it. I have a 95 2 door Hoe. Needed new front suspension/steering, so I start gathering parts a few weeks out. I have the hubby check my lower control arms, they are stamped, so that means pressed balljoints. Nope. Not really. We get it on the lift at the shop and well, well, well, one side has been redone so the rivets are gone on the lower left. Not touched on the right side. Upper ball joints haven't been done either. To replace the idle arm and relay and pittman arm, the center link and steering box had to come out. The upper ball joints on the right came right out after grinding off the top rivet them just punched them through with an awl and hammer. The lowers required a chisel, hammer, drill and just an hour of time. The upper left side required the same as the lower right but the bottom left only required one bolt to be cut off. Tie rods went better than expected. And there is still a ton of red clay under that truck, even after scraping/blowing more off. We also changed out the rear transfer case output shaft seal, that plugs up a leak. The VSS is definitely shot, have one coming from Rock Auto. Oh and at the top of the t-case, found a plug and half of a sensor. It was sheared off somehow. I believe it is the transfer case switch sensor which if I read it right, only lights up a light on the dash when you put it in 4WD. It is a manual shift t-case. I'm convinced that it is a half year model and they just threw leftover parts on it when they built the damn thing. The only thing that went well was replacing the CV axle on the left side.
