[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by jasoncooperpcola

I replace pitman and idler arms in my GMC every year. Make sure you buy a lifetime warranty product. My truck is a 2wd and has hardly been offroad since I quit hunting three years ago and still eats front end parts. I know dads F150 has been very reliable. Both are good trucks and I would not hesitate to buy either. But I do not need or want a newer truck.

you get what you pay for, and those lifetime guaranteed parts from AZ and ADVANCE are just the warranty your paying for and some cheap chinese junk. I do quite a few of these, and the cheapos we get today are junk. Buy MOOG and you won't have to do the job for another 100K miles, or go with the ones with a lifetimne warranty and spend a lifetime replacing them. And I reccomended a 99-06 which is a COMPLETELY different front end from your 96. I know somebody with well over 300K miles on his 05 3500, and the only front end work done to it was a hub bearing at 85K miles. This trucks list of repairs in the 300K miles has been 1 water pump, 2 alternators, 1 hub bearing, blower motor resistor and plug, 3 sets of plugs, 2 sets of plug wires, 2 sets of front brakes, trans service every 75K miles, oil changes every 5K miles, and a couple of air filters. It does now need the guage cluster repaired, but for 300K miles it has been a SOLID truck with very few repairs. And this has pretty much been the norm with the newer trucks instead of the oddball.