Durability of Mid 90's K1500 Components

[ed1948]

Sorry for the non G Body queries. I'm considering buying a 96 K1500 without a recent service history and I have some questions for K1500 owners..
1996 K 1500, approx 120K miles, minimal rust due to spending time on a golf course. Engine does not smoke and is quiet and smooth. No driveline clunking. Unfortnately it has a working electronic 4 wd shift. I'm wondering about the durability of the wear and tear items.
-play in the steering, no wheel bearing noise while driving, greaseable items show oily seepage, steering parts appear original, engine oil fairly clean.Trans oil dirty
There are no service records showing any parts replacements or any maintenance but it does appear to be neglected
At 120K miles which OEM components are ready to be changed or ready to fail soon. Truck was not used for offroading and appears accident free with original paint
I suspect the pitman and idler arms, tie rod ends and possibly steering box adjustments. Which parts generally last past 160K miles?
Thanks

 

[DRIVEN]

Deja vu?

 

[joesregalproject]

I believe I already answered some of your questions in one of your previous threads. If you suspect that a component might be bad, just assume it is. But even still, if you are iffy about buying this truck, pass on it. GMT400 trucks are a dime a dozen. There is literally tons of them out there. You'll find another.

 

[DRIVEN]

It's a 22 year old truck. In that time I've worked on possibly hundreds of them. Lots of pitman and idler arms. Lots of transmissions. Lots of wiper motor circuit boards. Lots of fuel pumps. Quite a few spider assemblies on the earlier ones. Lots of oil cooler hoses. A few rearends. Front avle stub seals always weep but don't often leak profusely.
Electrical problems were pretty infrequent. Engines are pretty durable. Don't remember ever having a transfer case problem. They also prefer Delco caps and rotors. Most aftermarket tend to fail sooner.

I guess you'll need to use your best judgement.

 

[joesregalproject]

I think Driven pretty much summarized it. I had to replace the transmission in my 96 K1500, and I had to fix the TCC valve in my 99 Suburban. I bought the 96 with a shot rear end. I bought MOOG suspension kits for the front ends of both of them and completely rebuilt them. The Suburban had the electronic 4x4. It worked fine for me. I had to do a water pump on the Suburban. I replaced the distributor on the 96 K1500, but I can't remember why. The spider injector assembly got replaced on the Suburban. I replaced catalytic converters and O2 sensors on both trucks. I know I did lots of other work on them but I can't remember exactly what. The Suburban had 160,000 miles on it when I got rid of it, and the pickup had 195,000 miles when I sold it.

Also make sure the truck wasn't plowed with, I've seen a couple K1500s with cracked frames from plowing.

 

[ed1948]

Thanks. Questions answered. Lets close this one down.