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I have some wandering in my truck when the crown of the road changes. I have isolated it down to the idler arm having some side to side movement.

In searching through past threads, I am seeing that Charles Talbert has welded them up to remove the slop and fix the problem long term.

Has anyone else done that style of repair? I'm not doubting Charles in what he suggest to do, I am uncertain that I have the resources to accomplish that level of work locally.

I'm thinking that repairing the idler are probably is not that difficult, and getting the ends milled may not be hard. Not sure how a machine shop, or individual would manage to weld and mill the bracket.

What are your thoughts on preparing the idler arm and bracket, can it be done?

You can buy all new parts from John at Midwest Military:

https://shop.midwestmilitary.com/produc ... 37/page/2/

That is probably the best, easiest and cheapest solution, as well as the fastest.

And maybe hitting it with grease or synthetic grease weekly will reduct the long term wear?

At the moment I am putting 1000-1500 miles a year, and plowing snow in the winter accounts for 1/4 of that. I guess a new one will last a while, and if need be I can get this one repaired when the new one develops play. I think my truck had 13000 miles indicated when I bought it, although the speedo cable was broken, so maybe it had been broken a long time.

In my experience the side to side play in the idler is not that big a deal if the bushing is a good fit on the shaft. It would be nice to have no slop, but if it's not crazy it really doesn't make that much difference. What does make a huge difference is the left front leaf spring bushing & pin. If they are loosey goosey you're going to have a poor handling truck. All of the steering forces are passed through this bushing & pin and once it's sloppy so is your steering. The axle will start moving around when you turn the steering wheel !

Check the play in that leaf spring bushing.

Andy

ashyers wrote: ↑Sat Apr 08, 2023 8:58 am
Check the play in that leaf spring bushing.

Andy

Thanks Andy, I will have a look ago all the bushings and spring pins on the front end.