It's time for Redrover to get its track rod and drag link replaced. From all I've read I don't need to go with heavy duty parts unless I'm planning some serious rock crawling, and even then it seems to me some underside armor would be a better choice. That said, the HD parts aren't much more expensive.

• If I go with standard parts I haven't found anything to indicate one brand or vendor is better than another.

• If I go with HD the Rovers North house-brand setup seems like a good choice.

I'm inclined to do the job myself, with the help of my son. (Steering knuckle ball joints would be another story.) I've read some threads about it being difficult to separate the joints from the tapers but if that becomes a problem I could always throw in the towel and drive it to a local shop.

And yes, I understand I should get a front end alignment done regardless of whether or not I replace the parts myself.

Your thoughts?

 

Get the HD setup from lucky 8. Bars are very heavy and the joints are quality. Price is, as you said, not much more than a set of factory bars. And frankly the factory bars are comically weak.

Separating the ends from the knuckles is easy. One or two whacks with a 3-5lb sledge hammer on the ear will make the tapers just fall out.

 

Yep, it's a pretty simple job all around. Separating the ball joints wasn't difficult at all.
I went with the Lucky 8 ones. They come with some useless plastic covers over the ball joints, but those crack and fall apart immediately. Don't worry about them.
One of mine was also missing one of the thread lock nuts. I just took one from the old set.

 

Haha, those plastic pieces are for shipping. Aren't supposed to install them. Classic

 

^oh..my...lord

 

You can do the alignment yourself pretty easy on the Disco with a tape measure and a couple of jack stands. Jack it up, set a jack stand under each end of the axle, let her back down so the front is compressed like its sitting on the ground. Loosten the adjusters and then set it to be toed out 1/8" in the front. Tighten back up and viola. There's no caster or camber adjustment. You'll also want to adjust your steering wheel the same way, but no tape measure required. Just eyeball it.

 

The only HD bars I see at Lucky8 are the Terrafirma. Rovers North sells the TF bars but also offers their own brand.

 

Did I say that I tried to install them? I did not. I said not to worry about them.

 

Maybe you didn't, but it sure seemed like you did.

 

​​​​you say tomato, I say it sounds like you tried to install them. Lol