Last night when i was pulling out from the parking lot I heard a clank. I stuck my head out and looked at the tire and Noticed everytime i touched the gas the top of the tire would pull away from the truck. It only does it in reverse.


Today i jacked the truck up and pulled up on the tire with a bar and there was minimal play. A little side to side play. I really need to get the front end redone. The only thing i can think that would cause it to bulge out is a ball joint.


Another idea is,since its 4x4 it has torsion bar mounts. BOTH mounts are bad. I know when going forward the right side of the torsion member clanks when turning left. the driver side Seems to have no effect. Could the driver side torsion bar be binding up and causing the lower control arm to push up on the bottom of the spindle and push the tire outwards?


Videos isnt much. I couldnt get the right angle so you can see how the tire is moving when i pop the gas pedal when in reverse.

Bad ball joint? S10 blazer - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxP2ViRJVps

 

Hows about the bushings on the upper control arm? Other then that I would thing the spindle itself. Question: Does the truck have vibrations or the (Front drivers side) tire just wobble at highway speeds?

 

wow thats bad

hows the bushings on the arms ? when you jacked it did the tire wiggle in and out a lot ?


Plus YOU ALLmost ran me over in video one =*(

 

bushings Looks ok. Looks like a set thats been on since 1991 lol,but no chunks etc are missing. looks normal for its age. There is not wobble play at all in the steering wheel. No vibrations until im going 75 mph,even then just enough to show im going 75 mph.

 

wow thats weird i hate to blame the ball joints but who knows

 

I wouldn't trust doin 75 mph with a wheel that did that.... just saying...

you also need to consider the fact the truck has a bit of a weight advantage on you, so it can create a greater force on the wheel/tire and cause it to move farther..

If your steering is tight and you have equal up and down and side to side play, wheel bearing, if your play side to side comes from the steering and you have up and down play, ball joints are more then likely shot. Get a friend to wiggle the tire while you look under your truck and visually look where the play is coming from.

 

lol i was going 75 mph on the way to the place that it happened at before i knew i had problems. Im going to replace the upper ball joint and see if that straightens it out. Hopefully,if not well i need to do all of them anyways.

The hub was replaced on that side Back in February

 

from watching the videos more then one time

it makes sense that the ball joints are causing this but witch one the top or the bottom one

 

It looks like an upper ball joint to me. Before tearing everything apart I would go with the previous suggestion of having a friend move the tire in and out at 12 and 6 o'clock and watch the upper ball joint for movement. It should be obvious if the upper ball joint is bad when you see the top of the steering knuckle move around.

I'd also like to suggest that when you replace the upper ball joint you grind an X into each rivet and then take the air chisel to the rivet heads. With the head weakened by grinding an X into the top they should pop right off. That's what I learned from doing the ball joints on my Blazer.

 

Eh. thing is i dont have air tools. All i have is a side grinder.