I'm an old fart from the central Yukon. Mine gold mostly in the summers, fix every sort of equipment and engines in the winters. Wifey has a 97 blazer, which I fix from time to time.

From my considerable mechanical experience, I believe Blazer engineers should have been shot and p****d upon.

 

LMAO
Guessing you got into any one of the miserable repairs like spark plugs , pitman arm or heater core
I swear they go out of their way sometimes to make things difficult on most cars

A week ago I did a tour of the local Lexus SUV plant
Seeing the various stages of assembly its clear why its such a pain in the butt for us later
When you see the complete motor transmission and drive train assembly sitting in a jig and the body being lowered onto it you understand how what used to be a simple task is nolonger
I also noticed they used heated boxes to pre soften things that needed a little more flexability during install

I worked in a heavy truck shop years ago and for the most part things were pretty simple but heavy to lift into place
Now the new trucks are getting "smart" also but to me that just means it can break down and leave you completely stranded

 

Yup, pitman arm, plugs,seals,front and rear axles,transfercase,pinion seals, front & rear driveshalf, signal/ignition switch, main harness,catalytic converter & exhaust.

Engine is still good no blue smoke yet. (:

Kinda figgered they lowered the body onto the frame after every major component is in there.

Working on the front diff at the moment, my son had replaced the gear which marries the inner axleshalf to the outter axle shalf when in 4 by 4.

Didn't put the thrust washer back in right. By the look of the old chewed bad one. Only trouble is it's -27C with the windchill while doing it.

Hope it solves the problem. If not wifey's got 2 wheel drive. Not going in there again this time of year.

 

I see another happy customer. I have had reasonably good luck with first gens, things are quite a bit easier to fix on them..
But still.. I am convinced when they were making these, they had an intern that was throwing around ideas for things to do to them.. and just to make him feel like he was part of the team, they went with his suggestions.

 

i always refer to them as 10lbs of (blank) in a 5lb bag. everything is so tightly jammed in every spot of these things. its kinda nice working on a fullsize truck, its basically the same set up with twice as much room

 

These Blazer's can be a paint in the @$$ to work on...But I rather work on my Blazer than a Ford any day!

 

Back in the late 70's early 80's,Leopard 2 by then, it always amazed me that the mechanics could change out it's engine,tranny, and drivetrain in under 20 minutes. Okay it was/is the European main battle tank so it needed to be serviceable quickly.

Anyways, in the background I'm always thinking on this. Imagine being able to have removable fenders,rad, and hood in seconds.

Nobody makes them like that, any make. Surely they would sell like hotcakes if they did.

The engineers could do it if told too.

 

have you priced out a tank lately LOL

A tilt front end would make life much easier for lots but in all truth my Blazer has not needed that much upkeep