So I posted a thread a week or so ago asking for help with my negative camber, the responses I got were very helpful but I still decided to take it to an alignment shop to have everything verified. I'm glad I asked questions on here though because it made me look like not such a dumb*** when talking with the THREE mechanics! Here's what I found out...

My truck is a hunk. lol. No but seriously, pretty much everything on the front end has been replaced or will be replaced by the time I'm done. I've already replaced all of the brakes and master cylinder, the pitman arm and the axle. Today after the look over I found out I need longer control arms (what I pretty much assumed), or I'll NEVER even be able to think about reducing the neg camber - thats first in line. I also need new upper and lower ball joints and an outer tie rod on the right side. Great.

I have a good friend who said he would put all of these new parts on for me for around 300 bucks, which is MUCH better than the 1500 that the alignment shop estimated. So, here I am searching the web for the parts.... I CANNOT find ANYWHERE that sells longer aftermarket control arms for a 1997 Blazer LT - NOWHERE! Can someone please point me in the direction of where to get these?! This is the most important thing! Do they make some type of bracket or extension for these types of things? ANYthing? I can find everything else, even if I have to go to Advanced Auto to get it but these control arms are ghost. I've seen other post on this forum and elsewhere about people suggesting using a 1/2 ton's control arm or a Tahoe's... has anyone ever actually done this? I need a guarantee when I purchase these arms that they're going to work, I don't have A LOT of money to buying parts that MAY bolt up.

This is SO FRUSTRATING.... I knew from the beginning that this truck had some minor problems and that the front end had negative camber but I had no idea the extent of it. Guess that's what I get for thinking I got a steal when I bought the truck for $2000 with only 100,000 miles on it. So far I'm only about $500 in my pocket, so if I can get all of this done for around $1000 I'll be happy. $3500 Blazer with 100k on it, 35in Mickey Tompson's and a whole new front end, not too bad in my book. But I'll never get there without these control arms, HELP PLEASE!!!

Here's a couple pictures of my truck....

 

*cough* Solid Axle Swap *cough*

 

what will this do?

**edit** sorry bare with me please... I'm new to lifted trucks in general. I've owned nothing but fast cars and lowered trucks so I'm kind of lost lol

ANYONE? Longer control arm? I can't tell if this one is longer or not, can someone help please.... 1995-2005 Chevrolet Blazer Control Arm - Suspension - Moog, Upper 95-05 Blazer Control Arm - 3656-07031343 - PartsGeek

 

Most people who need longer control arms usually buy the Superlift kit just for the arms and sell the rest.

You may want to look into having some custom fabbed as I believe NVANZEE just mentioned that he bent his Superlift arms while wheeling.

 

Is this the control arm(s) that come with the kit? Superlift Suspension 3103-3 - Superlift Front Control Arm Kits - Overview - SummitRacing.com

or do you think this would work... http://www.shop.synergyoffroad.com/S...10CtrlArms.htm

 

good god i hope you arent driving it like that...those tires will be shot faster then you can blink!!!!!

i suggest if your gonna run lifted trucks, that when your friend does the work for you, you help along side him and pickup what you can...this can be an expensive hobby if you depend on others for mech work.
i am just saying...i dont know your exp level, but i learned that this can be pricey when you depend on others.
and actually its not that hard to do you just have to be patient and do your homework.

good luck....by the way...truck looks AWESOME!!!!

 

Yea definitly... I'm helping him do everything, I have mechanical knowlodge, just not so much with this short of thing. I've never really gotten into the suspension or steering of any vehicle I've owned, never had to. (unless it was a sway bar or something) But no, I don't drive it much at all. I'm really stressing about buying the right upper arm, I just don't know which one to get. I see the ones I've posted say theyre for a 2in lift, I'm not sure if it'll give me the clearance I need. I have stock ones on now, they're cut to fit. Can someone just point me where to purchase JUST the control arms?

**edit** OH AND THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENT, IT'LL LOOK REAL GOOD WHEN SHE STANDS RIGHT!

 

How much lift do you have now? Those are the arms I meant and yes they are meant for 2" of lift but I'm pretty sure that's what the lifted guys use.

Someone who has 5-6" lift will have to chime in.

 

I hope they do soon... lol. Because I'm just going to have to take my chances if not and I HATE doing that! haha

 

dude thats beast. Lemme borrow it for a few days

How high is it currently lifted?

You could try to fab your own arms for templates instead of waiting to try to find out how long they need to be. Just get some steel tubing take your current arms, cut the arm and weld a piece of tube to it. Viola-extension.

I was never any good at figureing out camber or crap like that, so if it needs to be shorter, just hack a chunk of the old arm off, re-weld and slap it back on until it looks like it should.

Since you said you're not driving the truck in it's current state, then you should already have the arms off it. So go crazy with them. The worst that's gonna happen is you screw the old arms up horribly and they are useless... well they are useless to you at this point anyway so no need to worry about that.

Takes time, gives learning experience and once its all done, since it'll be temporary you know exactly how long/short the arms need to be when you go to buy new ones.

I mean, thats how I would do it.. might seem like a lot of work but its better then playing the guessing game when buying the new ones. Get the wrong arms, gotta send them back and wait even longer. This way you'll know for certain.

But its your truck and your time/effort. All depends on how long you feel like waiting. Me personally, id be to excited to wait and start the hack and slash process knowing that im getting new arms anyway.