I bought this 1999 B4000 4x4 last April for $800. I have since put in around $1500 in repair and maintenance. My next step
is to replace upper and lower control arms due to bad ball joints. (the truck has 218K miles). I have already replaced the PVH
with AVM manual lockers. But before I start, I have a couple of questions.
Since I will be tearing down the front end, should I replace the large seals where the axle goes into the hub.
Does it matter since I no longer use PVH? Are those seals necessary to protect the wheel bearing? And lastly, does the wheel bearing have
to be removed from the knuckle, or are the seals pressed in from the back of the knuckle?

 

You replace the lower ball joint and upper A-frame with attached ball joint
No need to replace lower A-frame

Hub is a sealed unit and can stay on support arm when its removed from ball joints, there is a shield and oil/dust seal behind it you can change the seal if it looks bad

After hub is moved off the axle and out of the way you can pull out the axle and inspect the CV joint dust jackets, look for cracks or tears

 

Thanks for the info. I have already purchased an entire front end kit, including upper and lower arms. I felt that since I was tearing
it down, might as well replace the lower arm now, rather than waiting for future problems with bushings.

 

My son and I did what you are talking about (2003 FXII) - we replaced everything and I mean everything - it was expensive and took a long time but I figured while we were there I didn't want to go back - even did the entire power steering system, the rack was leaking bad. The one thing I didn't think about was the outer axle seals so I didn't replace them but wish I would have, I think we have a leak now. It's cheap and easy to do them while you have everything out of the way.