I moved to a new town and am in need of new upper ball joints on 2004 blazer- was recommended by a 'local' to a small shop that supposedly does good repair work. I called shop to make appt and mechanic said that upper ball joint replacement on 2004 blazer is a large effort as it requires removal of spindles. I don't think that is true, can someone validate?

Largest effort I know about is removing the factory bj's, as they are riveted in but should be able to be drilled out with ease, I would think?

Thank-you very much.

 

Remove the spindle... Well, when you replace both the upper and lower ball joints, you basically disconnect everything but the driveshaft (if 4wd) and the steering tie rod to replace them... You do not need to remove it completely though. You can swing it out of the way enough to get to everything, at least that is what I did. If only doing the top, you do not need to do nearly as much work. Pop it loose then remove the rivets and then remove the ball joint.

An air hammer works great at getting those rivets out of there. Sheer off the tops, then use a punch attachment to drive them out. Drilling them can take a lot of patience. When the rivets are put in, typically the holes are not aligned perfectly and the rivets will get a step in them.