I took my 98 Blazer for an oil change and lube job. He told me I need to replace my upper and lower balljoints.

I looked in my manual and it looks like it might be more work than I can do-I have a very bad back and also never did it before.

Can you folks tell me about what I can expect to pay a shop to do this if it indeed needs it?

Thanks to all in this forum-great place!

 

If you search for ball joints you will find a lot of information here on how to do them yourself. The cost of shop time will vary by region and mechanic. It could range from $500 to $750 depending on cost of parts and labor.

I did mine last year and after going and doing the bottoms with the help from a friend who had the 36mm socket and couple of other front end tools I did not have (they can be "rented" from Autozone or other auto parts store that has a tool lending policy). It took longer for me because I have a disability I have to work around but I got it done and saved myself some time and I have the knowledge that the parts were installed correctly...I used MOOG ball joints bought them from Summit Racing they seemed to have a good price including S&H.

 

I recently changed mine myself on my 94. I paid a total of $75 for upper and lower both sides. All I really used was a Haynes manual as a guide. The only special tool that I used was a ball joint seperator. I borrowed it from a friend, but you could pick one up for less than $30 or just rent one for the day from most auto parts stores.

 

Thanks to both of you for your replies.

I'll think on it some-won't be until this spring or later that Imay take a shot at doingit.

Again thanks!

 

I checked to see if your 98 Blazer had the same upper ball joint recall as the 96 - 97s did but unfortunately it didn't (it would have beeen nice to get a free repair from the stealership). However, I did find 3 recalls for your year that I'm not sure if you knew about. One of them is for the brakes and the other one is for you control arm bolts. You can do a lookup for recalls on the link below.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...callsearch.cfm

 

You could save a lot of money if you read the repair manual to a fairly strong friend as you fed them a couple of beers

 

The uppers are much easier then the lowers. Tools needed:
Air Hammer
Drill
Pit man arm puller or Pickle fork
wrenches
Greese gun

You need the air hammer to chissel off the rivits that hold the factory one on and sometimes have to finishoff the rivits with a drill. Most good shops can do this in under an hour. If you have one you trust and know they wont take you for a ride go that route. Otherwards get a buddy, a case of beer, crank the tunes, and nail it out. First timers on this it takes about 2 to 3 hrs. But then once you know how to do it, you can do it in under an hour.
But for sure don't wait too long. I had a friend do that and well he had to have it towed due to the truck was not drivable and had to do more then just a ball joint. They were lucky they did not crash it or worse crash into someone else.