Recommended Tools for Knuckle Harvest

[Big T]

Headed out on a foad trip Friday to Reno with the wife up the 395. Or scenic route. I got her permission to stop at a bone yard in Hesperia on the way to harvest the steering knuckles off a 2003 Silverdao HD. Aside from a BFH, pickle fork. 1/2" socket wrench and metric sockets, is there anything else I'll need in the way of tools?

 

[WarWagon]

Good gloves will help your Knuckle's not be harvested during the work...

 

[Big T]

Good gloves will help your Knuckle's not be harvested during the work...

I've tried the glove thing and it's just not me.

Done this job already on three K2500 Suburbans and the hardest part was removing the bearing bolts. On the '99 it came from Illinois and it was near impossible to get those bolts out. I had to sacrifice the knuckles and found used replacement knuckles. On the other Suburbans, it was not much of a problem. I'm hoping that is the case with this specific 2003 Silverado 2500 HD. It's out in the desert and looks to have always been a California truck. I don't want the bearings, just the knuckles. I'm on a clock with the wife waiting while I do this. I told it would be about 1/2 hour.

 

[tanman_2006]

Shouldn't take much, bearings have been easy to pull on my gmt 800's, if you aren't saving parts then its easier

 

[Big T]

Shouldn't take much, bearings have been easy to pull on my gmt 800's, if you aren't saving parts then its easier

I don't want to pay for bearings off an old truck that was retired from commercial use. I will go with new Timken bearings. I'll keep the bearing bolts. Thought about grabbing the calipers for cores, but they want $25 each on them. I'm thinking that I will buy remans at NAPA and I will just return my old single piston calipers as the cores. No one will know the difference. Rotors I will go with new Raybestos Advanced Technology Slotted.

 

[Big T]

I don't want to pay for bearings off an old truck that was retired from commercial use. I will go with new Timken bearings. I'll keep the bearing bolts. Thought about grabbing the calipers for cores, but they want $25 each on them. I'm thinking that I will buy remans at NAPA and I will just return my old single piston calipers as the cores. No one will know the difference. Rotors I will go with new Raybestos Advanced Technology Slotted.

Alright got the knuckles. The 1/2" drive socket kit I brought did not have a 15mm socket, so I could not get the bearings off. I put a 15mm box wrench on the bolts and could break them free. Really needed the 15mm socket and my torque wrench. I took a whack at the 15mm box wrench with the BFH and the box end broke off the wrench. They ended up just charging me the $27 for the spindle and nothing for the bearings which were for a 2wd. I still needed all the bearing bolts.

Also got the caliper brackets ($7 per), but could only find 3 of the 4 mounting bolts. Crawled around the truck looking for it. Tried a mounting bolt from a 1500 Silverado next to it and though the bolt head was the same (10.9) the threads are smaller. Everything on the 1500 is smaller, including calipers and the bearings are mounted with 3 bolts.

Damage for everything was $84 including tax. First step on the way to GMT-800 brakes.

Now up 395 along the Eastern Sierra with my wife, headed to Reno to inspect some dirt.