Time for a bit of an update.

It has been a long many months that have kept me away from working on the Blazer. For one thing, I had a lot of deferred periodic maintenance to do. Even with that, I thought, 'Hey, this might be a good time to finally install the 1-ton Idler arm upgrade I've been meaning to do.'

In short, it took longer than I expected, but in retrospect, I brought much of that on myself. LOL

As many of you know, the OEM style idler arms are notorious for wearing out on our Blazers and S10s. Even the improved ones from Moog and Proforged will wear out. Since I like not to worry about my truck when I'm off-pavement, sometimes many miles from civilization, I've been working on upgrades intended to give me peace of mind. Of these, one has been the 1-ton idler arm upgrade.

The parts:

• Adapter bracket from Outfitter Design (https://www.outfitterdesign.com/1-to...m-bracket.html)
• Idler arm: Moog K6447, recommended by Outfitter design (Proforged 102-10026 looked to work, but returned because it used a nylok nut.)
• Idler arm pivot: Proforged 102-10033 (Outfitter design recommends Moog K6723, but the Proforged one can made to fit)
• Two, 1/2" grade 8 bolts and locking nuts (stover style). Outfitter design suggests using the original idler arm bolts and nuts, but these are 12 mm and mine had worn threads so I opted for the 1/2" bolts to better fit the 1/2" holes I drilled for them and that are in the adapter bracket.

Tools needed (beyond standard ones):

• 3/4" deep socket for reaching into the frame to secure the bracket mounting bolt that is located behind the pivot. This socket is also useful for the final two bolt heads for the two 1/2 bolts on the forward flange.
• 8 mm Allen head socket. This is required for the first mounting bolt that is behind the pivot.
• Drill and 1/2" bit

First issue: Parts fitment

• When I got my bracket from outfitter design, I did a trial fit and it didn't seem to fit the frame well. The forward flange that bolts to the frame had a small gap of almost 1/8". The Outfitter design people took it back and sent me another. They said it was fine but the replacement did fit a bit better. It is very possible that the first one might have worked, although I'm glad they sent me the second one. (Big shoutout to Outfitter Design for their patience with me!)
• The second issue was that I discovered that the Proforged version of the idler arm pivot, p/n 102-10033, was too tall to fit into the adapter bracket. At this thread, fellow member 2001ZR2 added some great pics and thoughts on the fitment issue. (Thanks!) https://blazerforum.com/forum/suspen...-maker-102653/ Turns out we independently learned from Outfitter Design that the Proforged pivot can be made to fit by grinding away some of the weld on the inside of their adapter bracket. (see pics below) According to 2001ZR2, Outfitter Design has since redesigned their adapter to accommodate the Proforged pivot.
• The third issue was that the Proforged idler arm, p/n 102-10026, did not use a castle nut system with a cotter pin and instead relied on a nylok nut to connect it to the center-link. This made it really hard to install and furthermore, it was an attachment system I did not like. I was able to return it as when I purchased it, the pictures on their website had shown it with a castle nut which is what I expected. They have since updated their pictures on line. I purchased a replacement Moog idler arm that had the traditional castle nut.
• The fourth and final issue, which turned out not to be an issue was what seemed like lack of much clearance between the the top of the bracket and the cooling fan. Outfitter Design assured me this was fine and I later realized it was.

Second issue: Likely bad motor mount.

• Once I had the adapter bracket installed, I found myself concerned with the tight clearance between the adapter bracket and the cooling fan. (This turned out not be an issue.) But after looking at the motor mount on the passenger side I suspected that it might have been bad anyway. Some initial inspections appeared to show it had shifted. However, after testing it by carefully lifting the engine with a jack, the motor mount easily separated. Either it had already separated or was about to separate. This of course added a whole other delay to my work schedule.
• Here's a link to my description of the installation: https://blazerforum.com/forum/genera...-mount-106881/ What a pain it was to do that repair. If I had to do it again, I think I might have gone with the aftermarket mount as they look to be easier to install. But if I had, I might have felt the need to also replace the one on the others side. To do this repair, I had to buy a set of flex-head, ractcheting box-end wrenches to have the one I needed to reach the bottom bolt.

Installation:

• Before installation of the bracket, I spent time with the Dremel to remove some of the weld to create clearance for the taller Proforged pivot. I also was checking that it would slide into the bracket easily, which it did with no free play. In retrospect, I think I should have filed down the bosses for the mounting bolts so that they'd be a tad more narrow, by at most 1/16", so that it would be easier to slide into the mounting bracket when installed on the truck.
• The installation of the bracket was pretty straight forward, although you will want to be careful of the brake line you must move out of the way. This is where you need the 8mm Allen head socket.
• Clearance issues:
  • The first clearance issue I had was with the fan shroud. I have installed an oversized radiator that translates the fan shroud being further to the back than in the stock position. I didn't want to delete the lower fan shroud so I took a hack-saw and cut out part of it so to prevent interference. According to Outfitter Design, this would not be an issue with a stock radiator.
  • While considering the clearance between the fan shroud and the bracket, I realized that the lower half of the fan shroud could be lowered by inserting some 1/4" spacers between the two halves to give me a bit more clearance with between it and the fan. This necessitated making the opening in the fan shroud for the bracket larger. I also saw that to prevent the fan shroud from rubbing against an oil cooler line on the drivers side I needed to open up a hole in the shroud there too. All of this was made easier by renting cooling fan removal tools from local auto-parts stores.
  • Because I have a remote transmission cooler, the hoses that run to it now were resting on the top of the adapter bracket. To prevent any wearing through of these hoses, I purchased some 5/8" ID heater hose and cut a couple short lengths that I then cut lengthwise that I could secure to the transmission cooler hoses with zip-ties.
• Getting the assembled pivot and arm into the bracket took some fiddling. I had to resort to using a rubber mallet to get it in due to the tight fit of the pivot to the bracket, and hence my thoughts that I should have filed the bosses for the pivot a bit more in preparation. Any extra room would have been taken up by the tightening of the mounting bolts. Getting the idler arm bolt into the centerlink was made harder by having a steering stabilizer installed which prevented moving the center link much, but I was able to do it.
• After the installation, I took the opportunity to loosen the bolts that secured the brake line to the right-front brake to make sure it did not rub against anything. I also replaced the bolt that secured the brake line at the top of the frame where to crossed over with a taller one with a spacer to elevate it above the bracket.
• The final choice was what to do with the grease fitting extension tube. I zip-tied it to the brake line to keep it from flopping around, but in a way so that it would be easy to access with the front skid-guard removed. The extension tube was necessary for me since with the fan shroud in place, accessing the zerk fitting would have been quite difficult.

Pictures:

Proforged idler arm with nylok nut. I replaced this with a Moog version with castle nut that can be secured with a cotter pin



Expanding the mounting hold for the mounting bolt that resides behind the pivot.



Test fitting the mounting bolt.



Installing the bolt for the bracket that is behind the pivot using the 8mm Allen head socket.



The gap between the front flange and the frame of the original bracket. The replacement bracket was a better fit.



I used masking tape and a red Sharpie to identify where the I needed to grind away parts of the bracket. I'd install the lower of the two mounting bolts and swing the pivot into place on the bracket to create these witness marks.



The final product of the grinding away of the bracket for the idler arm pivot.



Another view of the fan shroud, its cutout and the idler arm bracket.



Looking up at the idler arm bracket and where I had to make a cut-out in the fan shroud for it.



View from the wheel well towards the inside. The elevated brake line mounting at the top of the frame to keep the brake line from rubbing against the idler arm bracket is indicated with a green arrow. The red arrow shows the top of the idler arm bracket.



The idler arm bracket and upgraded idler arm parts installed. The pair of hoses on the upper left are the line to the extra transmission cooler. The cooler lines do not have the rub protectors installed yet. The remote grease fitting was zip-tied to the brake line.

 

EDIT: I thought I had forgotten to post about this. Turns out I did in #145.

Thought I might as well document the steering gear replacement while I was thinking about my build thread that I did back in Jan/Feb 2024.

One could argue this is not so much an upgrade, although considering the age of our vehicles, the choice of a quality replacement is important.

Several years ago I replace the rag joint with a Flaming River u-joint which really helped with getting rid of some slop in the steering. But by fall of 2023 I realized that the steering gear could not be ignored. I had made quite a few trips across Washington from North Idaho to the Seattle area and could feel the looseness in the tracking.

After hearing and reading stories of replacement steering gears feeling loose, I discovered two brands of rebuilt gears that seem to do the best job with the rebuilding process, RedHead and Blue Top. Both are known for remachining the bearing surfaces and then installing new bearings that match the new dimensions to minimal tolerances on the fit. Fortunately for me, I was able to pick up one on one of my drives to the Seattle area since RedHead's headquarters is in the area. They also have a location near Spokane WA.

I've been really happy with the new steering gear.

Here are the details:

Parts:

• Steering gear: Read-Head #18510, three-turn, three mounting holes. There are a few options to choose from. Call the vendor to decide which is best for you.
• Oil Cooler Line Gasket Assortment, Dorman 66201. These are required because remote oil cooler line had to be removed to gain access to steering gear
• New power steering hoses

Special Tools needed:

• Torque wrench that is capable of 185 ft-lbs (got loaner from local auto parts store)
• 16mm = 5/8 flare nut crow foot for removing the power steering pump pressure hose to power steering pump outlet fitting with 3/8” drive breaker-bar. Best would have been a flare-nut crow-foot with a longer lever arm so that ratchet wrench could have been attached directly to it.
• Pitman arm to centerlink puller.
• Large socket for pitman arm to steering gear nut: 33 mm (?)
• Mity Vac and modified sink drain stopper for bleeding PS pump.
• Set of stubby wrenches would have been useful, specifically 5/8” = 16 mm.

Suggestions:

• The gear is not to hard to get out from the front, below the radiator, but you will need to remove the oil cooler lines to the remote oil filter.
• I was able to remove pitman arm from center link with steering wheel locked in center position. You will need a very large socket for this.
• If lower intermediate shaft of steering wheel shaft doesn’t slide up and back far enough, check orange rubber collar overlap of the lower lip of the plastic cover over upper third of lower intermediate shaft. (see pics below)
• Trial fit the power steering hoses to power steering gear before the gear is installed to make sure threads are clean of paint and will thread in easily.
• If you have a Flaming River u-joint for coupling to steering wheel shaft, drill a divot for locking set screw on the flat of the input shaft to the gear before installing the steering gear.
• If you have OEM style “rag-joint” coupler between steering gear and lower intermediate shaft, be very careful of alignment of splines as getting off by a spline or two would be easy and the steering gear and steering wheel will not be centered.
• Try not to let steering gear rotate while installing pitman arm. Steering gear will be centered from Red-Head and you will want to keep that setting. This is the step where I had to borrow a larger torque wrench.
• Removing the oil filter and oil cooler hoses from remote oil filter will make getting the gear in and out easier. (This is a good time to do oil change and suspension lubrication)
• Use a power steering gear return hose that connects to pump that is pre-bent.
• If using a non-bent return hose that connects to pump, cut off enough of the hose so you also have enough hose to connect to power steering fluid cooler. Be sure to install this hose with no kinks or twists.
• I needed 3 hose clamps for power steering hose (3/8” ID, ?OD)
• Follow service manual advice for bleeding PS pump. I used a Mity Vac and a bath tub stopper to cover the top of the power steering filler to draw a vacuum and get out the extra air.

Pictures:

view from above showing the old steering gear and the hose routing.



View after removing the original steering gear and lower intermediate shaft.



View of the backside of the power steering pump. There was a fitting that was hard to reach on the back side.



Reaching in with the flare nut wrench to the back side of the power steering pump. A stubby version of this wrench could have been useful here. (View from above.)



Using a crow-foot attachment on a 3/8" drive breaker bar to loosen the fitting on the back side of the power steering pump. (View is from below looking up and back.)



The lower intermediate shaft. I had trouble reinstalling it because I was not able to contract it sufficiently until I realized the plastic liner was jammed.



Lower intermediate shaft disassembled.



The lip in the inside of the orange rubber cover on the lower intermediate shaft.



I had to use a drill to create a small divot in the flat spot of the input shaft to the steering gear for the Flaming River U-joint coupler. This would have been much easier before I installed the gear.



Performing the vacuum air bleeding procedure on the power steering pump. You can see the bath tub stopper upside down on the filler to the pump.



The modified bath tub stopper. I installed the line to the Mity Vac to the black fitting.


New steering gear in place, but with the hoses not yet installed. I had trouble with one of them and worried I might cross thread it. I suspect there was excess paint on the threads. I should have test fit the hose fittings before I installed the gear. Note the purple paint on the adjustment nut on the gear. DO NOT TOUCH IT. Doing so will mess up the adjustments and void the warranty.



New steering gear installed. View from front, below radiator looking to back.

 

Not so much a mod or upgrade, but rather replacement for piece of mind: New Fuel Pump.

I had a crank/no-start about a month ago and it got me nervous that my fuel pump might be going. Luckily this happened literally around the corner from my driveway and technically still in front of my house. I went back out an hour later and it started right up. With it being 25 y.o. and with 169k miles, I thought it would be a good form of preventative maintenance to put in a new pump.

Here is a summary of what I experienced and learned.

First I had a delay because the pump I ordered from Rock Auto looked as if it had been previously test fit. So I submitted my request on last Saturday and got the replacement on Tuesday. Kudos to RA for the fast replacement delivery.

I had purchased replacement lower filler hose and vent hose since I had heard stories about how hard they can be to get off the tank. Turned out that even according to GM Parts Giant, what they list is not what I have! Good thing I didn't just cut the old ones immediately. Whew! Instead what I found were the following. (pictures below) The lower filler hose has an ID of 2" and is about 12.5" long with about a 30 degree dog-leg in the lower 2"-3". The vent hose is 3/4" ID and about 13" long. This hose had some gentle molded bends to it that could be replicated with regular straight hose. They were bonded together for a length of 5" to 6" about half way up. I looked high and low and could not find any OEM style replacement hoses that matched what I had.

To get the hoses off was hard. I first tried removing the larger one from the tank but I could not get it over the molded lip. I then focused on the smaller one so to give myself more room near the large one. This I got off at the tank, but it was still not easy. I had to fiddle with the support of the tank on the rented transmission jack so to create some tension and room for the vent hose to come off. A large flat bladed screw driver was essential.

After trying to get the larger hose off the tank again and failing, I decided to remove it from the solid filler pipe on its other end. The molded lip on the pipe I think is less pronounced and I was also able to leverage my large flat-blade screwdriver against the frame to remove it from the pipe.

Now I had to get the gas out of the tank. Here I got to use a little physics in the form of a syphon effect. The only hoses/tubing that could fit the vent tube were really small so it took awhile to get the gas out. I'm guessing the vent tube nipple ID is about 1/2". Before this I had been careful not to let my tank get too low, but knowing I had to eventually drain it, I didn't want it too full. In the end, I had almost 5 gallons to remove.

The next challenge was to remove the fuel hoses from the old pump. This did not go well with the plastic of the nipples breaking on the two on the outside. I was going to replace the pump anyway! It took a little work later, but I was able to get the old ends of the nipples removed from the female fuel hose fittings.

Getting the old pump out was not too bad. A hammer and a screw driver is what you need to get the locking ring off. I was glad I cleaned the area well ahead of time. You do not what to get dirt in your tank. My tank looked clean on the inside, but I went ahead and cleaned it anyway. I found a special detergent from Delphi (pn FC01) I brought from Rock Auto along with the pump. I used about half of it and added 1 gallon of warm water. Sloshed it around and drained it. I then added another gallon of warm water to rinse it out. I then propped it up and let it dry overnight. I likely didn't need to do this, but I didn't want to do this again.

As some of you know who have done this job, the electrical connector to the new pumps is different than used on the originals. The new pumps come with a new pigtail and instructions on how to use waterproof crimp connectors to connect the pigtail to the original wiring. Since I had the special crimp tool for these connections and I found I could disassemble the new plug easily, I decided to connect the old wires directly to the new plug. (pictures below) I did have to get new female terminals from the local dealer to do this. If I had known this ahead of time I could have ordered them before hand. The part numbers need for these are 15304719 (for 16-18 ga) and 15304718 (for 20-22 ga). You will need at least two of each, but get at least two extra of each in case of mistakes. While doing this rewiring, I did find that one of the wires that goes to the fuel tank pressure sensor had a crack in its insulation. This had been covered by some electrical tape which makes me think the pump had been replaced before. I covered this with the self-fusing silicon tape, e.g., "Rescue Tape." to protect it. I also found the the larger black wire, the one for the ground for the pump itself was corroded and brittle, I had to cut back about 1.5" to get to better looking wire to make the electrical connection.

I'm glad I rented the transmission jack as I don't think my smaller floor jack would have had the range or provided the stability to support the tank. On a 4-door Blazer, these tanks are long and awkward to move around and having the jack was nice.

Reinstalling everything was not too bad. I didn't even try to get the larger filler hose off the tank and instead lifted the tank with the filler hose on it. With the hose it was a bit awkward to get it lined up. Be sure to clean the end of the solid filler pipe so to keep dirt from falling into the filler hose as you put it back on. BTW, removing the driver side rear tire and the under bumper spare tire made getting access to the thank and the filler hoses much easier. The tank straps seemed to have a mind of their own but I got them on. I also almost used the wrong bolt hole for the rear strap. There are two threaded openings on the crossmember to which the strap is bolted. The easier one to use is slightly more inboard but that is not for the strap. Fortunately I remembered that the inboard one is for the tank shield mounting.

Finally, in my service manual, it has explicit instructions to replace the mounting fasteners when replacing the tank. I thought this odd. But to be safe I did look for matching replacement bolt and nut at the local hardware store, but could not find the size of the bolt I needed that was threaded its hole length like the original. I ended up using the original hardware.

P.S. When you first put in gas to the tank with the new pump. Make a note of the amount you put in and what the reading is on the gauge on the instrument panel. Then when you fill it up, note that level and after you have used up enough to have the tank gauge exactly full. For me, with about 4.7 gallons, the needle was at about 1/8 full and when full with an additional 13.3 gallons, the level was reading about one-needle width above full. I have to drive around a bit more to see how much I've used to have the needle be exactly at full.

Pictures!

The tank removed. I had to park my Blazer all the way over on the other side of my garage to get enough room to work. Ack.



The filler hose. The dark part along the top and under the hose clamps is where it was fused to the vent hose. The hose has been rotated on the nipple on the tank.


Looking up at the end of the filler tube and at the vent hose. The dark part along the side is where it was fused to the larger one.


The original plug and wires. The plug does have pins A and D labeled which is useful.


The first step in disassembling the plug is to pry up the blue pins cap. This is a GT-280 Metri-Pack plug.


With the blue cap off, the metal connectors are released by pushing down on the retaining clips. The wire is then pull out from the backside. (Yes, that is a broken Gearwrench, flex-head ratcheting wrench in the background. )


This is the retaining clip on the backside that must come off.


This is the first wire removed. I pried up the end of the connector that secured the yellow seal and reinstalled it on the new wires.

Final assembly and the wire with the broken insulation on the connector for the tank pressure sensor.

 

Nice write up! Some how my son was able to get the fuel line quick disconnects off without snapping the lines on the pump side. First time I did this job I snapped the lines, second time I just cut them off without even trying to get them loose. I'm probably getting due to do mine a third time as I'm at 300K miles. It will have to wait until the snow if gone, so I have time to sit back and not worry about for a while.

 

Thanks.

Yeah, the breaking of the nipples I think was becsuse, or wasn't helped by, me squeezing the wrong part of the fitting. It is hard to get to them and do it right. It would be easier if I had to do it again, but I'd rather not. LOL

And I was fortunate to get the pump done this time of year as normally when their is snow, moving out the old Mustang I keep in my garage is not alwsys posdible. This year we haven't had much snow at our elevation.

 

I think i see you in every thread on this website lol, im pretty new to having a blazer and currently only one speaker works. do you have any recommendations on head units and speakers?

 

Hi. I can't recommend any head units or speakers. There is sticky thread on speakers that fit.

Welcome to the forum.

 

It looks like you have done a bunch of work since I was on here last! Great write ups as always! Wish I got half as much done to my rigs lately lol

 

Thanks,

I feel I'm in a new phase with the truck. I have some repairs to do like installing new leaf springs and torsion bars along with finally installing the swing away spare tire holder.

i had a bit of a scare with a crank/no-start situation the last few months. It might be resolved.

But the key thing I find myself joking how I want to keep it going not just as a hobby or for utility, but out of spite. LOL I want a basic truck that has no computer interface panels. 😃

 

This is why I love my 72 K20. Of course, I need to get it on the road one of these days. Too much other stuff to get done before I can start working on it.