I did a search and found limited info on if anyone makes a complete kit for bushings replacement. I've held off as long as possible and now its popping and creaking when i turn lol, a lot of the bushings look dry rotted, so its about that time.

Who makes an entire bushing kit for my truck (i can find kits for a 2wd no problem, but none for a 4wd). will the 2wd kit work on the 4wd trucks?

also as far as bilstein HD shocks, what p/n should i be ordering? No lift or anything, just want to replace the worn out OEM ones. (320,000 miles on OEM equip lol)


Thanks a ton guys!

Nate.

 

lol i woulda had better luck finding osama bin laden pre 2011 apparently

 

The Bilstein shocks are horrible on the torsion bar suspension trucks, unless you like your truck to feel like it does not have any shocks on it.

 

which bushings are you looking for? Just the top stud-mount bushings? Or those that are pressed into the control arms?

 

Mine rode great when I was at stock height, and still aren't so bad since I lowered it. The red factory Tenneco Z71 shocks were crap for sure though. The Bilsteins are very responsive and not harsh at all IMO

 

after searching numerous truck boards, I got the same response as you budhayes, almost everyone said they are an excellent top of the line model to go with.


I emailed a number of poly manufacturers with my question and decided the first one to respond would get my business. Here's what I got:

I'm ordering the kit as I type this now Hopefully this will shed some light on a full kit for the early new body style model trucks, complete bushing kit

thanks for the input guys!

Nate.

 

pretty much all of em, or as many as possible, its an 11 year old truck with 320,000 miles now haha


i'd imagine Control arms, pitman, body, swaybar, etc-the kit looks pretty extensive!

something like this:

 

Cool deal Nate, I was pretty sure that Energy Suspension would have what you're looking for, as I mentioned in the PM I've bought stuff from them in the past and been very happy with their product. I'd imagine that kit would include sway bar bushings and end links, body mounts, control arm bushings, and probably leaf spring bushings also. I see that you mentioned "pitman", but there isn't any bushing there...it's pressed and bolted on to the gear box and has a greasable joint where it's attached to the center link.

Shocks and their responsiveness can be pretty subjective, but when I bought my Bilsteins, I did the same as you and asked around on some forums and was very happy with the results. I've always used KYB's prior to this truck and had great results with them also...from what I've heard, their NBS truck shocks are also excellent. IIRC, I bought my Bilsteins from the OffRoad Warehouse way back when. We have a sponsor that specializes in shocks (the shock guys, or something like that?). Compare prices between them, as well as Amazon.com...I've had great luck finding parts on the cheap on Amazon

 

ah ok. Well I can see in that kit, it has exactly what bud just listed, and no more.

I used some poly body mounts from Prothane on my Sierra and I am very happy with them so far. I ended up using moog control arm bushings (which look a lot different than those energy suspension ones pictured...).



...that reminds me, back in the 90's I ordered a bushing kit from energy for a daily driver compact car I had, and it ended up coming with EVERYTHING you could possibly replace, from motor and trans mounts to all suspension, and everything! I ended up only using about a third of the kit as I wasn't tearing into the car that far to get to everything at the time!