Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Finally got off my butt and worked on my front end yesterday. It's a 1996 2500 Club Cab Auto. It has D25 springs (2" lift). I replaced the ball joints and converted the Y to a T. After reading tons of scary stuff I was mentally prepared for the worst. But, the ball joints went pretty smooth. The T conversion did too. I used the OTC 7249 Ball joint tool.
Parts: I used Dana ball joints. For the Y to T conversion, I used
DS1456 -Long tie rod end (attaches to passenger knuckle has hole for drag link)
DS1459 - Drag link(attaches to passenger knuckle)
ES3496 - Left tie rod end(short end of tie rod, attaches to driver knuckle)
ES2012S - Small adjusting sleeve
ES3498S - Large adjusting sleeve(Tie rod end sleeve)
ES3497 - Drag link tie rod end(passenger inner, short end of the drag link, attaches to the pitman)
Results: Truck drives like new. Lower ball joints were really bad, top ones were just bad. Truck drives like a dream, and that's with a string alignment.
Lessons Learned: I could not use the 1996 Drag link Tie Rod End(ES3249RT), as suggested by some. It was too long, and so I had to go with the 1998/1999 version(ES3497). I stayed with my 1996 Pitman arm, and have good parallelism with the track bar.
Next: I also need to install my DSS, and steering box, and DT track bar replacement heim joints. I've been gathering parts for years to do this.
Thanks to all for the very helpful previous posts!
Rich
Parts: I used Dana ball joints. For the Y to T conversion, I used
DS1456 -Long tie rod end (attaches to passenger knuckle has hole for drag link)
DS1459 - Drag link(attaches to passenger knuckle)
ES3496 - Left tie rod end(short end of tie rod, attaches to driver knuckle)
ES2012S - Small adjusting sleeve
ES3498S - Large adjusting sleeve(Tie rod end sleeve)
ES3497 - Drag link tie rod end(passenger inner, short end of the drag link, attaches to the pitman)
Results: Truck drives like new. Lower ball joints were really bad, top ones were just bad. Truck drives like a dream, and that's with a string alignment.
Lessons Learned: I could not use the 1996 Drag link Tie Rod End(ES3249RT), as suggested by some. It was too long, and so I had to go with the 1998/1999 version(ES3497). I stayed with my 1996 Pitman arm, and have good parallelism with the track bar.
Next: I also need to install my DSS, and steering box, and DT track bar replacement heim joints. I've been gathering parts for years to do this.
Thanks to all for the very helpful previous posts!
Rich
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