So I've been looking into getting a suspension lift for the blazer. I was thinking the 6" by superlift so I go over to my local 4 wheel parts store and see if I can get an estimate for tires, lift kit, wheels and labor. The guy I talked to gave me the "I've been in this business for years" shpeal and he said that the steering components on the s-10 was crap and I would need to bring it in at least once a year cuz something would break... Is he just flinging crap my way or is he right? He actually reccomended swapping for a dana 44 in the front and I dunno if my piggy bank can handle that...

 

Lets see if I can revive this one, I really am curious about the steering components on a 6" lift. Can the stock steering components handle bigger tires and a 6" lift or am I going to be visiting my auto parts store for replacement steering components every 6 months?

 

If it's a proper 6" lift, then I think the front end components will last roughly as long as they normally would... Which depending on how you drive is either a long time, or not so long... lol.

T-barcranking is what really kills the front end...

That's as far as I know, anyway... I know the balljoints and cv-axles will last with the right lift, because they have the right brackets and such to drop the front end.

 

The 4x4 shop is blowin some smoke up your butt. The 6 inch superlift kit is designed to be somewhat strong and does hold up well. I know of no steering component issues but there is still the ever present cv issues but not any worse than stock driving. Now the shop wanting to do a dana 44 isnt a bad idea. They are strong as all heck and there are accessories out the wazoo for those things like lockers and diff covers and all sorts of other stuff. Be forwarned that they are probably gonna talk ya into a new rearaxle as well to try and match it. Again not a bad idea unless you got a GM8.5" rear diff in which case its the same strength as a dana 44. If needed get it geared to match and then you will have one built little blazer.

 

Well thats comforting... I would like a solid front axle set-up but it just seems way too expensive on a college student's budget. The 4x4 guy was telling me upwards of 7k for the whole build with a front axle.

 

My buddie has the Superlift 6" kit. The only issue he has that he always replaces the pitman arm, but that's because he beats the crap out of his truck. If you are worried about replacing suspension componests in the future I would just upgrade everything while you have your truck apart. Contact the guys at Powerperformancemotorsports.com, they have all of our front end components that are alot strong and offer a 1 million mile warranty. You can save yourself some $$ by just installing 4.10 gears in front and rear to run 32's with that lift. I would recommend to geta programmer to calibrate the speedometer. PM me if you have any other Q's.

 

Too bad they don't list their "Extreme Duty" ball-joints for the 4x4s, lol, only the 2wds

I'm hoping they just left it out of the labeling...

 

Holy dang!! 7 grand!?!?! Thats a rip-off. You could get the whole setup for much less than that with coil overs for gosh sakes. Tell ya what, to get an idea of what you would need for the solid axle setup go HERE and look at some of the setups that have been done. You will see really quick that its not 7K worth of work. Maybe 2K, possibly up to 3Ktops (at least thats what im estimating using some used axles). You can probably even get it under that cost. Heck we did one on a toyota tacoma with leaf'sfor under $1200.

 

That $7k might've included the shop labour...

 

It looks like 7k was just an estimated price not the actual. Plus they are talking about BRAND NEW items not used stuff and labor isn't cheap either. Heck the Superlift kit alone can cost up too 2k alone with out install, wheels figure another $700.00. I'm not sure how much the Dana 44 is, its probably not cheap either. Labor is probably a bulk of the cost. So far I spent $3610.00 on parts alone but I'm saving a ton by doing the install myself. I still have more items to buy. Fuzzball you should get a realistic break down of what the parts are going to cost and how much labor is going to cost. It might not come out to 7k, maybe a little close but I think that guy was just trying to cover himself by giving you that high amount. Also check if they charge you for waste disposal. I know here in NJ the shops charge you for that. Also are they warrantying their work and for how long?