Front suspension rebuild on 87 gmc r1500

[cjthompson]

250k on my dad's old truck, and have been slowly upgrading to be a long haul driver. Ive finally finished up refreshing the rear portion of the truck, and its as good as new (ish). Im ready to move onto the front end before i start a 5.3 swap. All the bushings and ball joints in the front end are cracked and sloppy, and in need of some tlc. Any suggestions from anyone on what kit/components to go with?

Ps... would like to go polyurethane, but not sure if the kits are worth a crap. Truck is a 5/7 drop, so looking for shock suggestions also.

Thanks in advance.

[bluex]

I went with energy suspension bushings on the control arms and sway bar when I redid my front end. I'm very happy with them, its been about two years now and no issues or crazy squeaking. I used the black ones which are graphite impregnated and that is supposed to help with that issue.

As for ball joints and everything else I went with all Moog on that stuff along with a set of solid billet adjusters. There isnt necessarly a kit to get Moog that I know of but for front end components they are pretty much the best you can get imo. You can find everything you need from Rock Auto or Amazon though.

For shocks I have been using KBY GR2 for a while and I like how they perfrom My truck was dropped with 2.5" spindles and 1 coil cut from the stock springs and I still ran a stock replacement part number shock with no issues. It wouldnt hurt to use a shock relocation bracket from CPP or others that takes the top mount and moves it up to the top of the frame.

[cjthompson]

I run stock replacement shocks on the front now, and there's an area near my house where the truck gets to bouncing and I scrape the crossmember. Was hoping a set of belltechs or something may remove the issue. Any idea?