Hi,
this is my first time posting anything on Blazer forum so let me know if I mess up. I was driving today and was turning and hit a pole. I wasn't going very fast and hit the pole on the left (driver side) fender. The fender is dented and scraped but no major damage I hope. But now to go straight my steering wheel is cocked to the left at about 2 o clock. I hope it's not something wrong with the steering column, but I'm thinking my alignment got messed up since the wheel was turned into the pole. Any ideas?
Thanks

 

it could be as long you can still drive it and it turns it will not be any thing major.
at least it should not be expensive

 

Yeah. I can turn and everything. You cant really tell but it's amazingly annoying.

 

You should definitely have a front end inspection/alignment done on your truck. It is possible that you bent one of the control arms as well.

 

sounds like a bent tie arm or control arm(do aligments, lol at town fair tire now)

 

It looks like my alignment is bad. But they are trying to tell me that all my ball joints need to be replaced. I thinks it's total crap. I looked at the upper and lower on the passenger side and they look fine. I know that I have one bad one and it's the lower one on the driver side. They said they are "loose" and all of them need to be replaced. I personally think that's total bull ****. Theyt want to buy a pair for 1 side that would cost $250! No way, I'd rather buy the one that I need for $21. The one's they want to buy are "the best there are" from NAPA. No way am I paying that. Can't they just tighten up the one's on the passenger side? I'm not a mechanic but they do not look that bad. And neither does the upper one on the driver side. In total for their parts and labor they want to charge me over $1250. Any ideas?

 

You cannot tighten a ball joint. Atleast you can't and have it last any appreciable amount of time, or be safe...

 

u can check ur ball joints by jacking up the blazer so the wheels r slightly off the ground. then take a long 2x4 or metal pipe or something like that and try to pry the tire up. if u hear/feel a clicking/popping sort of sound then ur lower ball joints r bad. i forget how to check the upper ball joints but just search around on hear i know its been disscussed b4.

 

Most of the front end components on these trucks were under-designed from the start, so they tendto wear out faster than most people are used to. The $21 part is probably identical to what came with the truck. Most major brands of front end parts (Moog, TRW, etc...and probably whoever NAPA gets theirs from) sell upgraded replacement ball joints to fix the weak design. If you plan on keeping the truck, you should consider spending the extra money.
BTW...I'm guessing that $21 is probably a price you got from an auto parts store. When a shop quotes a price, it is usually "list" price, so it's not really a direct price comparison. The list price on your $21 part is probably anywhere from $35-$45. I just had upper and lowers, and upper control arm bushings, replaced and if I'm remembering right, it was somewhere between $200 and $250 per side for the ball joints (Moog). The control arm bushing kit was also an upgraded heavier duty part.
Lotsa money, I know, but it's such a labor intensive job that I wouldn't want to pay the labor twice (again, if you think you'll have the truck for a while).