I butter up the pins and clean off the excess when installed. I also use it for any brake pad moving parts (where they slide in the caliper, where shoes rub against bake plate) I use a acid brush to dab it in where needed. none, nothing, nada on pads or rotor! Then a little "never seize" on the end of the axle to make taking the rotor off eaiser next time.

 

Time to check balljoints and tie rod ends, jack up that wheel under the control arm as close to the tire as you can, then grab the tire and firmly try to turn it back and forth like it steers, pay attention to any movement, this would reveal a loose tie-rod end or a worn idler arm or something in the steering linkage so watch those parts, nothing should wiggle or move more than an 1/8 to a 1/4 inch(other than some left/right steering movement that the steering wheel lock doesnt catch), then grab the top and bottom of the tire and pull on the bottom and push on top and vise versa, you should use a good amount of muscle when doing this, sometimes putting both hands under the tire and pulling up and out will reveal a bad lower balljoint pretty clearly.
When you hit the brake you are sending the braking energy through both balljoints, they are holding the whole knuckle and hub assembly from twisting forward, sometimes this is where braking clunks come from, also, when braking, the wheel and tire would naturally want to turn inward or outward so the steering linkage also comes into play and can be a source of clunks. Only other thing to check is make sure your control arm bolts are very tight, if you find a loose one you should have it aligned.

Hope this helps!
Good luck.

 

yea im really starting to think it could be suspension related, i know my ball joints were replaced at 100k (doesnt mean they couldnt have gone bad, but they were replaced with moogs i believe) not sure about the tire rod ends, gonna take your advice and do all the checks still...naturally i get done work early tmr and its gonna pour here. im gonna give my mechanic a call because before i owned it the previous owner went to him and he still has all records of maintenance.

will keep you posted thank you so much!

 

called my mechanic, ball joints were never changed (by him, who has done most of the work on the truck)

theres no way the oem's lasted this long is there? how long does this job usually take, and do you replace both sides (driver and passenger) at the same time or just the bad one. i dropped it off to him today, hes suspects its ball joints but will most likely look at it tmr... trying to prepare myself on how expensive this fix will be

 

Heres labor times from alldata.
Upper Ball Joint. One side. 1.1 hours
Both Sides. 1.9 hours

Lower Ball Joint. One Side. 1.6 hours
Both sides. 2.9 hours

So if it needs all 4 your looking at 4.8 hours of labor @ $50 an hour which is absolutely the cheapest you can probably get it done for at a small shop, youre looking at about $250 in labor and maybe $150-$200 in parts. Then it will need an alignment, so all said and done your bill will be probably $500 plus.

You could probably do one pair and then the other later if funds dont permit everything at once, they dont all 4 get really bad over night. However if left flopping around for too long the balljoint can separate and the whole knuckle comes off and its not pretty.

 

sadly the cheapest around me within a 25 mile radius atleast is 80/hr . i hoping for some reason they were changed before, cause I assume the riveting on the stocks are a PITA. figures, i got an alignment 2 years ago lol...thank you for the labor times, i know my mechanic uses alldata for references. he hasnt looked at it yet, but from my description he said ball joints given how common it is and he atleast hasn't done it yet. i guess 166k and 15 years is a decent time for these to last...right? lol

 

Yep mine has 195k on it and theyre stock and pretty sloppy, im just lazy.

 

haha atleast your honest, id be too worried the tire would just fall parallel to the ground doing 70 on a highway and id be dead. i guess i will find out tmr when i get the call, i know hes a big fan of moog and will probably suggest that i use that like you guys said. i will keep you guys posted thank you again !!!

 

Ahh the blazer is a somewhat round object, they roll over...and over...and over pretty smoothly.....hahahaha!!
I've only got 600 bucks in mine, as long as i dont die its all good....it'll be a fun ride if nothing else..
Seriously though im not even driving it for now cuz its got a crazy loud wheel bearing that needs changed and the brakes need work, so i need to sink a couple hundred bucks into it before snow flies here....so anyway.... i dont even know what im rambling about.

As far as the parts, yes use Moog, you wont be dissapointed, i put a cheapo lower balljoint in my wifes safari van and it lasted 8000 miles before it had more slop than the factory balljoint did at 140,000. Replaced again with a Moog and have 45,000 on it and its still fine.

 

actually sounds like your bearings when you apply on the brakes does your brakes release around 10 to 5 mph then grabs to stop?