Front alighnment and joint /bearing help?
 

I have an 83 300sd and the front is starting to knock on bumpy roads and wearing the tires unevenly on the outside of front tires (pulls to the right slightly as well). I inspected all the rubber joints and everything looks good and feels tight with the exception of the lower arms that run from the supports to the lower firewall on each side( i can add a picture if needed). Im guessing this isnt the only problem and my question is, is this a possible do it yourself for someone who is decent with mechanics or something that i will get in over my head and should be left for a shop to do? It has 138,000 actual miles on it and no recorded front component replacments with the exception of brakes and roaders so im guessing the whole front end might need to be done by now. Any advice or links to how to instruction for front end repairs would be much apreciated.

I would 1st suspect anything that is mounted on rubber like the Lower Control and Upper Control arms.
The thumbnail pic below is pic of one of my old Lower Control Arm bushings. Both the Upper and Lower Control Arm Bushings are set up so that when the Retaing Bolts are tightened they pivot on the Elasticity of the Rubber Bushing. They donot pivot on the Bolts themselves.
Over time the Rubber Rips internally causing a loss of alighment adjustment in that area.
In the pic you are looking at what is supposed to be 1 solid piece of rubber. Yet if you look closely you can see an inner circular area where the Rubber ripped/sheared. I have stuck tooth pics in part of it to make it easier to see.
You cannot see this from the outside. You have to go by the symptoms; like your tire wear.

In the past alighment shops used to offer free inspections. If they still do you could take it in for the free inspection and let they tell you what they think might be wrong. But you have to have the courage to san NO to having the work done there.

If it happens that some Ball Joints are the problem they are not so hard to deal with.

The parts and the labor on suspension jobs are what cost the most. The Actual alighment part of the job is resonable in most areas.

I bought a cheapie front complete front end parts kit for around $255 plus shipping so that I would have everthing I needed incase I found something I did no needed replacing while I was doing the job.
There is more than on good DIY thread on replacing the various parts on the front end so it is better to look them up.
The front springs are extremely strong and you need a good spring Compresser to do the job. I tried it with some generic one and got into a little trouble. I ended having to make a strong one.

To replace only the worn parts pretty much means you need to take some of the suspension apart to see what is worn before you will know (rust sometimes renders the upper and lower Control Arms hard to remove sometimes).

If there is a lot of parts worn I do not see how most people could afford to pay a Mechanic to replace the parts. My Car cost $2000 and could not see payint $1000 or more to fix the front end.

I'm in the exact same situation with the SD. It's front end had become somewhat mushy and I decided to replace some of the suspension components and freshen it up a bit. The list included guide rod mounts, carrier bushings, forward guide rod bushing, LCA bushings, upper control arms, swaybar bushings, and steering damper. The lower ball joints were clearly replaced at some prior point in its life, so I kept them. I also chose to replace calipers, pads, and rotors during this endeavor.

I will tell you that it's slow and miserable work, better suited for younger people. I've been at it for a month (working very sporadically) and only completed one side. To do all this work, you'll need a spring compressor and some type of puller to separate the ball joints without damaging them (unless you plan their replacement anyway).

My steering components, with the exception of the damper looked fine so they won't be touched in this process.

Additionally, I found the four nub spring pads at the top of the springs, explaining some of the nose high behavior that we commonly see on the SD's. The replacement is the very thin one nub pad. We'll see if that cures the look.

So from what i gather your saying this is something i will be able to do on my own just leave the final alighnment for a shop after all the components have been replaced. Where did you find the front end kit? I think im going to have a similar situation where i dont know what will be worn out and what wont and once i have it apart i wont be able to wait a week for parts to come in so i might as well get everything i need. None of the shops in my area do free inspections anymore unfortunantly. For the most part they want $40 to put it on there jacks and take a look.