I have a 1995 Chevy S10 Blazer 4WD. The car never is off road but with 117k I think one of the tie rods and the steering idler arm(the one bolted to the chassis) need replacement. I noticed some rust coming from the tie rod adjustor and clamp ay on the passenger side. After inspecting found that the connection was loose so tightened up seems okay but I think I should replace just to be sure. Also noticed that when I took the brake rotor / dr ay and moved it left to right I noticed that the Steering Idler Arm was moving up and down? I don't know how it should move? Am I correct that it should only move left and right? I think that's where the Rotor/dr left to right end play is coming from? Probably just going to use Raybestos parts being that it never goes off road. Any thoughts? Thanks

 

I too have a 95 blzr 4wd ls and I just dealt with the same thing a few mths back. If u have play in ur steering, and u found that the Idler arm moves in all directions then it should be replaced. The worst part about the idler arm goin bad is that it causes a chain reaction of sorts with other steering related parts. If its been bad for a while there is a pretty good chance the pitman arm is bad as well. And also, make sure that ur ball joints are all ok. If u end up replacing ur idler arm, I would go ahead and replace the pitman arm at the same time if u can afford to. Good luck with this, cause when mine was bad I had to replace all but my tie rods and wheel bearings in my front end cause the other parts were junked in the chain reaction.