How to Replace Idler Arm Assembly 2000-06 GMC Yukon

You wanna keep in mind when you're doing this job, after you're done, you're gonna wanna go to a local garage and have the vehicle aligned so you don't have premature tire wear.

Just take this cover off. Use a 15-millimeter socket. There's two bolts on the bottom, two on top, sometimes there'll be a third. Slide it off. Take this cotter pin out. Just use some side cutters. And pull that out. Just gonna use a little rust penetrant, it's a little rusty. Take a 21-millimeter socket, take this nut off. Now I wanna separate the idler arm from the steering bar. I'm just gonna use a front-end [SP] tool. There's many different tools you could use to get this off. Just tighten this up. Put the nut on just so my tool doesn't slip off the stud. Just gonna use it as a guide. Another way you could try do this is use the pickle fork. There we go. Slide that out.

Gonna take these two bolts out. I'm gonna use a wrench, a 21-millimeter wrench backside to hold the nut. Use a 21-millimeter socket on the bolt. Take both of those out. Pull the bolts out. Just grab the whole idler arm assembly and just slide it out.

If you're gonna replace just the arm or just the assembly, you're gonna have to separate it. So use a 24-millimeter socket. It helps to put it in a vise. And then you can use a puller and separate these two. Just like that. And take the arm, put the new nut on. Just snug that up tight.

All right, just line this up. Gonna have to tap this in place. It's good.

Before you put the bolts through up top, just make sure it's going through this bar right here. We'll put the bolts in. Take the two nuts, get them on the backside. Now snug these up. Torque these bolts to 74-foot-pounds. And take the castle nut, install that there. Tighten it up. Then torque this to 46-foot-pounds. If the hole didn't line up you can just tighten it up a little bit more so you can put the cotter pin in. Slide the cotter pin in. And just bend one of the tabs over. And trim the excess. Take the shield, install it. Put the bolts back in. And tighten these up.