Spring Bushings

Steer tire wear can certainly be caused from everything your mechanic said. As far as cost, we need more detail. Year, model of your truck, and type of suspension. Not every truck is the same. Some brands of suspension are more labor intensive to rebush than others. Just because the bearings in the front were just done means nothing. If there is play, then there is play. You have to be careful when checking. The play can be caused from king pin wear as well. Bearing play vs kingpin play does show movement in different places obviously, so a second person needs to be watching the wheel from the inside to where the play is. The bearings may simply need to be readjusted, no big deal. For rear suspension work I recommend a good spring shop that has all the right tools for pressing in and out bushings. Where it can get expensive is if you go to a shop that doesn't really have the right tools, but can do the job, so they are messing around with hamming out bushings the hard way, taking more time, therefor more money for you. I always recommend to take your truck somewhere, have them look at it and give you a quote. Try to go to a few different places. Trust your gut. If someone rubs you the wrong way with their attitude, or just looks unprofessional, do not use them. Go to the place you are most happy with.

 

Alignment issues can be a huge pain. There is so much bad information out there & so many people doing it that don't really know what they're doing. If you want to learn more go to this web page; http://www.mdalign.com/products.html

Scroll down & check out the book & video. I've bought the book, I think it was about $20 & well worth it. It will teach you do your own alignments at home if you want to, or at least properly diagnose your problems before you go to an alignment shop.

 

If you have regular Freightliner air ride type of suspension, bushing replacement isn't that bad. Two basic ways of doing bushings. Unbolt the spring from the hanger on both side and drop the axle down enough for the bushing to clear the hanger and hammer them out. This is can be more labor intensive as most shops do not have a press to push them out with the spring still in chassis, so they hammer them out the old fashion way. Or, bolts and ubolts are cut with a torch, undo the shocks and have the spring on the floor in 10 mins and use a press with the proper bushing driver to press in and out the bushings without the use of the a sledge hammer that may do more damage than good anyway. If your truck has original or really old ubolts, it would be a good idea to install new. Same goes for the drive shocks. This would be a great time to cover all your bases to secure your drive axles from shifting around and bad road contact due to weak shocks. No point in doing bushings to only have old ubolts come loose later down the road. All new hardware and you have nothing to worry about. Then get your alignment, which will go easier because the bushing bolts are new too.