It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me.
Last week, I replaced the upper ball joints that came installed in the Ready Lift upper control arms. The boots split open and the grease was leaking out.
Also, the passenger side strut was leaking so I replaced both sides with OEM struts. When I installed the Ready Lift 4” level kit, I didn’t plan on having to replace the struts but had to go buy some at a local parts store in a hurry. All that was available were Monroe ready struts (complete assembly) They’re junk and lasted a year like I hesitantly expected.
Then, I took it to the dealer for an alignment.
This past weekend, I scraped all the rust off that was all over my Westin step bars. I contacted Westin to try to get them replaced under warranty but all I got from them was crickets. The rust was bubbling up under the paint and all around the welds. I also ordered a new hardware & bracket kit because the old ones looked like they came off the Titanic.
I’m no genius, but the extent of the rust under the paint and around the welds tells me it was a defective paint job. I have to assume they’re using cheap Chinese steel to make their stuff also. If they had been damaged and paint was scraped off, etc then I’d expect them to get some rust on them. But, that wasn’t the case. Anyway, I took it upon myself to scrape & sand and coat them heavily with Rustoleum Rust Reformer. After the coats dried, I sprayed a top coat of Rustoleum Bed Liner spray. They turned out pretty good I think. Hopefully it holds up. I also coated the new brackets in Rust Reformer as a preventative measure.
After that, I replaced the front 4WD actuator. 4 low was a no-go. It would shift into 4WD lock fine, but not 4 low. All
fixed now. While I was under there, I think I discovered that either my power steering lines are leaking, or, the rack & pinion is leaking. Sigh. I’ll take a closer look this weekend.
No rest for the wicked.
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