Seems like an easy job and I don't really need any special tools (or even that fork tool I think).

Remove wheel.
-undo pins
-remove castle nut
-pop outer rod loose
-loosen nut at sleeve
-turn outer rod, counting rotations, to remove

. . . I'm a little less clear on getting the sleeves and inner rods off, but I'm open to suggestions.

The reason I ask, is because I'm getting quoted $380 for labor alone to do the inner and out rods.

 

I bought a whole kit from 1aauto when i did mine.
http://www.1aauto.com/1982-92-suspen...t/i/1asfk00002

and to answer your questions.
The sleeves have two bolts that hold them in place and the you can twist them off. The inner tie rods are connected to the center link and theyre just held on by one nut each and maybe a pin.

 

Easiest thing to do is to replace THE ENTIRE thing, all at once.

Get new idler arm, center link, inner & outer tie rod ends, and sleeves.

Mark your old idler arm position on the frame so you can put the new one back EXACTLY where the old one was. Reason being, it must be placed such that its joint with the CL is EXACTLY level with the joint between the CL and Pitman arm, and its axis is EXACTLY parallel with the Pitman shaft.

Remove the nuts holding the 2 rod ends to the spindles, the CL to the PA, and the bolts holding the IA to the frame.

Lay all that on the ground. Assemble the new parts, matching the sleeve adjustment as close as practical.

Install new assy, as described above.

Drive to alignment shop. Be sure to tell them you moved the idler arm.

The reason they quote ridiculous figures like that is, they look it up in "the" "book". Which will say something like, 45 min to change this tie rod end, 45 min to change that tie rod end, and so on. Which in turn is based on whatever the procedure calls for, for each one individually and then added up; as in, "drive the car into the shop, place on rack, remove wheels, change part blah blah blah, lube all grease fittings, reinstall wheels, perform alignment.... 45 min", multiplied by 4. Problem is, you end up getting charged 4 times for driving the car in, 4 times for putting on the rack, 4 times for wheel R&R, 4 alignments, 4 chassis lubes, and so forth; not, just 1 each of those, plus the actual parts swappage.

 

The rest of the suspension is fine. Really, only one outer tie rod needs to be replaced, I just figured I would do all of them for uniformity's sake and upgrade them to Proforged stuff.

 

The center link is the piece that wears out the most. Idler arm is next. If either has more than 20k miles or so on it, might as well put it out of your misery.

Do what I said, ONCE; drive the car with no further maintenance required (besides the occasional lube of course) for MANY YEARS. As opposed to, "I just need to change this one thing", then next week, "well it's still not quite right now I can tell the so-and-so is bad too", then 2 months later, "now the such-and-such has failed" over and over again, then about the time you chang eout the last of all those pieces, the first one wears out all over again, and you repeat the endless cycle. Makes no sense. That's WORK, which is a filthy-mouthed 4-letter word in most people's vocabulary.

None of that stuff is really "suspension". It's "steering". Closely related but not the same. Both part of "chassis" in the big picture, but 2 separate subsystems, just like "engine" and "transmission" are separate things while still part of "drive train".

 

Well the front steering was replaced with Moog stuff probably about 7 years ago, but I would venture to say the car hasn't seen 700 miles in time frame. The bushing on the one outer tie rod just broke from sitting too long I would imagine. The rest of the stuff just needs some grease in it. It was garage kept while it was sitting.