i need a step by step process if anyone is looking to give it to me, i do have a haynes manual... but its lacking in pics and real detail

i was planning on doing this is my driveway... hopefully

i also searched but yet no avail

my trucks a 99' fronty V6 4x4

I didn't take pictures that day but what I remember about the procedure is -

Loosen your front lug nuts a bit first then get the front end up on jackstands - put them under the frame rails, not the LCAs.

Pull the front wheels.

Unwind your torsion bar adjusters all the way and either pull the torsion bars out or undo the front anchor bolts and slide the torsion bar and anchor back a little. (The mount on the rear of the LCA is splined and the torsion bar anchor rides on it so you have to take the load off the torsion bar to get the anchor off.)

Then do one LCA at a time.

If all you're replacing is the LCAs then jack up the LCA a bit, undo the lower shock mount and take the nut off the bottom of the lower ball joint.

Loosen but don't remove the nuts on the bolts holding the LCA to the frame.

Get a block or a jackstand or something to hold the knuckle up after you get the lower ball joint loose. The knuckle will be a wobbly son of a gun while held only by the UCA, the tie rod and the CV axle once the LCA is loose. Wiring or tying it up might help but I couldn't find anything to tie it to so I used a metal bucket sitting on a couple of bricks.

So now we're ready to beat that ball joint loose. If beating the knuckle with the BFH perpendicular to the bolt doesn't knock it loose you can pickle fork it out.

Once the ball joint is loose, lift the knuckle a tick and pull it outward a bit so the LCA can swing down. Get your bucket or whatever in place to hold the knuckle steady while you swap the LCA. Pull the bolts that hold the LCA to the frame out and pry the LCA out/off. Depending on whether you've beaten up those LCAs you might have a fight. I was surprised how easily mine came out and then went back in though.

Push the new LCA up into place on the frame side, slide the bolts in, get the nuts started, and swing the LCA up and get the ball joint stud into the knuckle. Get that nut started.

Put the torsion bar anchor back in place and get those nuts started. It may take a little wiggling and fiddling to get the splines into the anchor and the anchor bolt holes lined up properly.

At this point everything should be loosely bolted back together. Reattach the shock, tighten everything up and go do the other side.

A second set of hands would be helpful but I got mine done alone.

We'll see if anybody else who has done this recently catches anything I might have forgotten.

nice write up mud

should i just remove the torsion bars then?

ive never really delt with them before, i was gonna do a PML, but i just didnt want to deal with those pesky t-bars, its pretty easy to pop em out right? (i also have a set of calmini t-bars that need to go in, this maybe a perfect time to get em on)

If you've got upgraded t-bars to put in then yea, just pull the old ones out. There are lock nuts on the t-bar adjuster bolts that need to come off and after that you'll need a wrench on the nut above the frame to hold it still while you loosen the adjuster bolt. Once you wind the adjuster bolts on the back of the t-bars all the way out take note of how far down the adjusters hang so you can put them back at about the same angle. Before you pull the t-bars out of the front anchors you'll want to get the adjusters off the back. They should slide (with some encouragement) back off the bar and then you should be able to sort of twist them down and out of the opening in the frame rail. Once those are out of the way you may be able to just slide the t-bars back out of the front anchors. I've usually had to loosen the nuts on the front anchor and wiggle the t-bar to get them to move. Watch your head. They stick and stick and stick and then slide right out.

When you put the Calmini bars in after installing your new LCAs make sure you get the t-bars seated as far as possible into the front anchors. Shoot, if you've got the front anchor off the LCA, put it on the torsion bar all the way and then line up the anchor bolts. You may find that you can't crank the rear adjusters all the way up into the frame if you line the rear adjusters up at the same angle they were at with the old ones. All that means is that you get to undo them and adjust the things one tick toward the frame and wind them up again. It's like a necktie, it usually takes me three times to get it right.

If you've never done the t-bars before you need to know a) you do have to put the truck up on stands before you loosen the back adjusters all the way or the truck can crush you, b) while the truck is on the stands it is possible to over-tighten the t-bar adjusters so that the upper control arms are jammed up against the stops when you set the truck back on the ground, and c) you do want the rear adjusters all the way inside the frame rail when you are done so they are not rock targets.

There are at least a couple of torsion bar threads around here somewhere with more details and maybe even pictures.