Thought I'd share some work on the H2
I'm not a big fan of Dorman products for the most part but been wanting to give their RD (Rugged Duty) suspension parts a shot and see how it goes.
Idler and pitman arms both had up and down movement at the *****, both inner tie rods have torn boots and some play, the outer tie rods feel good but one has a torn boot so will be ordering new outer tie rods soon. While looking things over I found grease on the inner fender well and brake caliper, CV shaft boot was torn so replaced it while in there (not with Dorman).

I got new inner tie rods, pitman arm, idler arm and idler arm mount.

The Dorman parts look very good and were well packaged,

New Parts

CV Shaft and tie rods are out

driver side CV shaft

Inner tie rod boot

Idler arm

pitman arm

New idler and pitman arm installed

 

I am not a Dorman fan either but those parts do look good, be nice to hear a report on how they are holding up in a year or so. Looks like you need to tackle the oil cooler lines next, so glad I deleted mine.

 

Those oil cooler lines are aggravating little buggers, I have tried multiple different manufactures and they all seem to last about a year then start leaking. The power steering line above the cooler lines is also leaking, will be the next project after brake pads and outer tie rods.

Neal

 

Thanks, for posting this thread and giving us a visualization of what's going on. Thankfully, I had most of my front-end replaced when my 09 H2 was professionally lifted. Everything came about to about 12k, including wheels


and tires, but I thought it was worth it.

 

Nice H2

Neal

 

Well, got the new outer tie rods in and installed along with new Bendix brake pads,
This looks to be Dorman's fleet product line, the corrosion coating is better than their normal parts

Straight out the box with the boot protector on it

RD tie rod laying next to the tie rod I replaced

for comparison

RD has a slot ground in the end for holding it in place when removing it. It's 90 degrees from the cotter pin hole which gives you a reference when tightening the nut

installed and ready for the cotter pin

Neal

 

Looks great, whats next? Ball joints, A arm bushings. Love the Quick Lift you don't see alot of them anymore!

 

installed Cognito uppers a year or so back so good there and the lowers are in good shape so everything up front is good,
I'm going to have to replace the power steering hoses and possibly the engine oil cooler lines, I think the power steering line is leaking down onto the oil cooler lines so got to clean it all up and watch to see where it starts.

not sure about the quick lift reference, its sitting on a 4-post lift.

Neal

 

Great Neal, A arms are no fun, getting the torsion bars unloaded, making the A arm change, reloading, setting Z vehicle height, well you know and then front end alignment.

Onto the cooler lines, these are a major pain, I ended up using a moto tool to slice off the crimp cutting about 1/2 inch off the hose and then putting it back on with I then used a combination of a oteker clamps and Ideal clamp around the hose and barb. This worked great, I still have a new GM hose in my parts storage in case it begins to fail. I can tell you replacing it is a major pain. I think Gavin did this some time back and did it with the radiator out which I think helped, perhaps he will see this an chime in.

I think most people today just remove the line and block it off. I guess unless your towing you probably don't need it anyway and its just another possible failure point inside the radiator that can trash your engine.

When looking at you pictures I thought you had a quick lift, these were neat, it had 2 fixed towers at one end and a lifting jack on the other, you just set them in place, drove up the ramps then used a jack to lift the back. Best of all they were portable and you could move them anywhere you had the space, no power required just brute strength to move them where you wanted and set them up. Real old school, I had these in my garage in Florida, simple and worked great! lol

 

this summer I may pull the front end apart and clean it all up and re-paint everything, just have to see how much time I can carve out to do it.

I think if I have to change the oil cooler lines again, I'm going with AN fittings and matching hose all the way, get rid of the crimp all together. I prefer to keep the cooler in place, knowing I have the extra cooling capacity when needed.

The guy's over on the Corvette Forum us the Quick Lift a good bit, the ones I've seen have a power unit and hydraulic cylinder for lifting.

Neal