Advice on front end rebuild

[88yota]

I recently purchased a 1987 sr5. 4runner. I just ordered bj spacers and 33x10.50 km2's. I have a set of 4.88's that will be going in as we'll. for piece of mind I am planning on putting new ball joints in with the spacers. Both of my cv boots are torn so I was going to pop in new axles while the diff was out. Is there any reason to replace any of the tie rods of idler pitman arms? FYI, there is little to no play in the steering wheel. This will be a DD and family camping rig so I want it to be road worth and dependable

 

[BoatRacer]

I tend to overdue things sometimes, but I would recommend replacing them if your already going to have most of the front end apart anyway. Your going to want to have an alignment done after the lift and it would suck to have to pay for another one if you decided to replace the tie rods later on. If not, just inspect them closely and make sure the zerk fittings are good and they get greased every once in a while.

 

[KidVermicious]

I tend to overdue things sometimes, but I would recommend replacing them if your already going to have most of the front end apart anyway. Your going to want to have an alignment done after the lift and it would suck to have to pay for another one if you decided to replace the tie rods later on. If not, just inspect them closely and make sure the zerk fittings are good and they get greased every once in a while.

x2

Consider an Autozone idler and the bronze idler bushings from SDORI. Larger tires tend to kill the idler pretty quick on these trucks.

 

[88yota]

In looking at cost of the cv axles, is the trouble of just replacing the boot worth the savings in $$? The easiest thing to do is switch out the axle of course, but not the cheapest either.

 

[77'911]

I rebuilt the front end on our 1990 4runner without doing the tie rod ends, but they were in good shape at the time. The center drag link was also replaced under warranty. I changed out both upper and lower ball joints and installed urethane a-frame bushings. The truck also got Sway-a-Ways 25mm torsion bars and new Toyota adjustment hardware. The result, the truck was much higher (even with a factory alignment) and front end is very tight.
Check the idler, rod ends, drag link, and steering shock(if any), replace if needed. You would be surprised though how bad things get over time. Our suspension was in great need of a rebuild after 70k miles and multiple years.
regards