Ok, time for an update!
I took the truck in for the body lift inspection today, and it passed everything except the rear brake test. Hand brake and front brakes work fine. I'm suspecting some air in the line at the rear, and I'm gonna bleed and flush the lines tomorrow arvo if I can. (this ties in later in the story)
For a while now I've know that the front UCA bushes have been pretty rooted (see attached pic for example) so I decided to take a bit of a gamble, bite the bullet and install my pretty blue SnakeRacing UCA's. The first step was to paint them black so they dont stand like dogs balls. Once I had the old arms out, you could definitely see that the bushes were rooted, the rear side of ALL the bushes on both arms were completely worn away, which would be consistent with the rear brakes not doing their part in bring my truck to a screeching halt when I punch the "oh sh*t" pedal, which mean that I definitely need to get the brakes looked at.
First thing I did was paint them black so they don't stand out like dogs balls. Then while they were hanging to dry, I prepped the car (drove it into the garage), checked the shop manual for torque values of link bolts and castle nut, and had a drink of water (hydration is important you know!) I chocked the back wheels, jacked the side of the car up and put a stand under the chassis near the front, it was high enough so I could get wheel off, but not before checking my wheel bearings. I then used the jack to jack up the lower control arm. THIS IS IMPORTANT because you need to get the stock ball joint to be sitting even so you can get the separator in properly.
Drat, the preload needed adjusting! So half an hour later I have the bearings tightened. The first UCA took me about 2 hours to do; I didn't really know what I was doing, or how to properly go about it, so I was learning. The second UCA took me about an hour from jacking it up and doing the change, to taking the car off the jack. I won't go into too much detail about how I went about doing it. But I'll tell you what I learnt from the experience!
First things first, BUY 2 BALL JOINT SEPARATORS! I did, and I'm so glad because I broke the first one while doing the second ball joint. Oh yeah, when the ball joints do finally pop out... HOLY CRAP!
Mark the location/setting of your alignment bolts of the UCA. This helps immensely to getting your vehicle driveable after the works, that being said, book an alignment BEFORE you hangs your UCA's and do the swap just before the appointment.
GREASE EVERYTHING! Slap some grease onto everything you put in, especially the bushes and it's that move! Do this BEFORE you assemble the UCA to put it in. And obviously pump the nipples full of grease after you install the arms.
That's about all really. I need to grind a slot into the screws for the locking ring of the wheel bearing preload nuts, one of them is completely burred out, so I can't tighten my preload on the passenger side!
I only gained about 25mm of down travel with the new UCA's, which out me at 660mm from centre of hub to guard at full down travel. And i sit at 580mm on flat ground.
I'll post some photos tomorrow, it's well past my bed time and I'm completely shagged!