I am replacing the passenger side lower control arm on 1998 Blazer 4dr 4x4 LT. I have the every thing off , waiting for the control arm to come in. I have a torsion bar question. I know I need to count the number of threads on the
adjuster bolt and used a little white paint mark the bolt and torsion bar. I have my puller ready to go in the dimple of the adjuster arm. Here is my question," How will I know when the tension has been removed from the torsion bar adjuster bolt?"

Here is my other question. I ordered the a control arm on Amazon.com. I did some homework on it and decided on Moog RKXXXX. When it arrived, it was
totally different than what I needed. It did not have the brackets for the shocks. Is there two different types of suspension for the 1998 Blazer?

Thanks for your help.

 

RK620464 is the number I have ordered twice from Amazon and not had problems with. This is the non serviceable ball joint however. I have removed those and replaced with the upgraded greasable ball joint. It is still less money to do it that way than it is to order the greasable ball joint already installed.
What number is you order?

As far as the tension on the bar. If you have already removed the lower control arm, there is no tension on the bar anymore. I think it is the passenger side bar that goes through a cross member and is more of a pain than the driver's side. When I did mine, I did both sides and had the torsion bar support cross member totally removed. I'm not sure if you will have enough room to move the passenger side torsion bar around without removing the support cross member. Meaning, you might have to loosen the driver's side as well... Maybe someone else can chime in as well ..

If you don't have the passenger control removed yet, place your clamp in the dimple like you stated (the real clamp, NOT a modified c clamp) and remove the bolt. Then, as you loosen your clamp to remove it, the key will rotate downward and there will be no more tension on the bar when the clamp is loose.

Hope that helps

 

Echoing the above, if you have the $$ replace the crappy ball joint on the new control arm with a Moog. Way easier to do this while the CA is off the truck. I had to replace my LCA a few years ago and neglected to do this. The stock ball joint failed in less than a year. Replaced with a Moog, no problems since. (A Moog brand LCA was unavailable for my 2003, had to get a Dorman.)

FWIW, I used this puller to deal with torsion bars three times on two different Blazers, never had an issue. Though I wouldn't recommend using it more than twice on the same side to release the tension, after two times on my current truck the flanges on the cross member were starting to bend.