So I take my car in for an alignment and he says come back in an hour to an hour and a half... So I go for a walk over the sporting goods store across the road and go back an hour and 15 min. later. I walk in and he smiles and says, boy you got some problems with your front end. Then he pulled a sheet out and I saw $626.19 and was like whoa whoa. Well he explained to me that was the estimate of different stuff which included the labor. What I need is 3 ball joints(the other 3 I didn't reaplce if anyone remembers a while back), upper control arm bushing kit, and the control arm shaft. And he said that was the computer estimate and it would really be close to 800 bux. But he said I looked like a nice guy and told me that he could have done the alignment and not told me the other problems and have my alignment go to **** again once I hit a pothole and that I could buy the parts from him for around 130 bux and take a day and do it in my garage and not get ripped off at the place.....kinda weird he would tell me that. He said I shouldn't be driving AT ALL, he showed me my drivers side tire and told me to grab it on the top and bottom and shake it, so I did, and it moved about 3 inches both ways...not good. Well just thought I'de say, i'm just kinda pissed off, sorry if it doesn't really make sense, I just kinda typed it real fast.

 

Yeah i heard blazers were bad about ball joints going out in them. At least the guy tried to help you out. I just recently had an ignition switch replaced and had my coolant and power steering fluid flushed and changed and the damn place charged me like $500. I was pretty pissed but oh well what can ya do.

 

Seems like the guy was pretty straight with you, but just to be sure, I'd get a second opinion.
If you can replace the parts yourself, you'll save a ton of money.

 

Fix the ball joints yourself. about 1/2 of the current posting members have done it themselves.

Measure where the torsion bar bolts are at and write it down. You'll need it later when your done w/ the front end.

You mean upper/lower "A" arm? Or is that the same thing?

What is a control arm shaft?

Do all the "a" arm bushings, outer ties rods, all 4 ball joints. then get alignment.

 

a arm shaft would be the bar that bolts to the frame and runs through the bushings on the upper... is it bent or something, thats the only reason i can think of that it would need to be replaced...

as everyone here said, get in there and do it yourself if you have the time to. even if you have to buy tools to do the work you will still save money and keep some tools at the same time.