I just got an awesome alignment done, and had almost all my front end components replaced, all Ball joints, idler arm, drag link, cv axles. Got 4 new tires, and 3 weeks later I can see my front passenger side tires outer edge is already cupping... I also recently found out my passenger side torsion bar mount is broken.. Would this be enough to cause the outer edge to cup? I also lowered my torsion bars to what looks like stock height, they were maxed out when I got there truck... I also have newer bilstein shocks that are about 2 years old. When I lowered the bars, I turned them both out the same number of turns.

 

Did you lower the bars after the alignment? that will knock it off.How is your control arm bushings?

 

X2

might want to try a different alignment shop as well. I had an alignment done on an s10 done years ago and the shop got the steering wheel straight and the tires pointed the same direction, but the camber and caster(both wrong, i did it ) were the same as when i brought it in.

 

A torsion bar mount would not cause your tires to wear unevenly, I can say that right now, I drove my 94 blazer for 2 years with broken mounts on both sides without a problem .

 

Hey guys thanks for the quick responses, I lowered the T-bars about a year ago, haven't touched them since then. And the alignment was just done. I was wondering if I should measure a specific point on each side of the truck to see if the T-bars need to adjusted side to side to make sure everything is level? My brother did the alignment at his shop, I'm pretty confident in his skills, and the alignment machine is the big 4 wheel laser type one. He said he could recheck to make sure he didn't miss anything. And I told him maybe to adjust the camber a tad more negatively on that passenger front to take the wear off the outside shoulder.
I haven't checked my control arm bushings, where are they and how do I know if they're bad?
(I don't know much about independent suspensions) the other thing is my blazer has always felt like I'm driving a boat, is that just the way they are? I mean, I had a mercury mountaineer, and it had torsion bars and IFS, but that thing was glued to road and handled like a race car.

Also good to know the broken mount won't cause any issues, I haven't had time to fix it, any pointers on replacing those when I get to it?

 

Driver side torsion mount is easy,passenger side mount is a pain. the exhaust has to be moved up in order to replace it. Go to the tech articles and there is a how to thread in there.

The control arm bushings (2 total)..You know where the balljoints are? the big arms they are connected too,follow it back to where they connect to the frame. you'll see on each side of the control arms they have a pressed in bushing. Jack the vehicle up with safety jacks,step back and rock the tires and look for excessive slop play in the bushings. If they are bad you have to pull the arm,then have them pressed out. A hammer isnt going to do it.

 

Thanks for the tip on the mounts, I have a custom 2.5" exhaust, but It seems to have plenty of play up and down so maybe I'll be okay, and I'll check out that tech article.

As for the bushings... Is that something that would have been more easily replaced while I was getting new Ball joints and cv axles installed? I'm gonna be really irritated with my mechanic if it was...

If it's going to be expensive, is there another way to bandaid the problem like setting the camber more negatively on that side to reduce the wear? Or is it just nature of the beast, and the bushings need replacing?

And is there anyway to make this thing ride better and the suspension stiffer up front? Cranking the T-bars does nothing but make it higher and then I lose up travel. I can't seem to find a coil over conversion except for the 2wd versions?

 

The bushings are like $7 for a pair (each control arm uses 2). Getting the top control arms off is easy,just bust the balljoint loose,and remove 2 nuts off the back of the arms. The problem is 2 things though,you gotta use a press,or a nice impact chisel if you have a steady hand to get the old ones out. Second problem is the bottom arms. You gotta remove the torsion bars from them,which is usually a pita and most mechanics hate looking at them. Especially if you are up north and deal with salt.

Once a bushing wears you will eat tires,have terrible clunks in sharp turns and eventually kill other front end parts from loose play. I guess the best way to test them is pop loose the balljoint from the spindle,grab the top arms and pull back and forth and side to side and see if the arms slide any. Not too sure how to test the bottom ones as they are loaded with pressure.

For the ride quality,hows the shocks looking?

 

Great... Sounds like my mechanic should have checked and replaced those bushings before putting everything back together... The labor rate to replace those things sounds outrageously long... As for the shocks... There the blue-yellow bilstein, they're mono tube, and I installed them with the shock body up instead of down since they went in a little easier that way and I read mono tubes can be installed either way. And since there only 2 years old I can't imagine there bad... I know on hard braking I do get some clunking that definitely is a different sound tbN the broken T-bar mount clanging sound.

 

Only reason i knew my mounts were bad is they would clunk on hard turns,and clunk when your driving over those speed bumps. As for labor on the bushings,i did 1 control arm on my dads blazer. It took about 45 min to get it off (would take 15 min if you have some ratchet wrenches) as there is so little space between the nuts and exhaust manifold. Anyways,45 min for that then it took the shop 30 min to press then out and new ones in using air tools.

One thing you can do,to tackle the balljoint,AND not having to worry about pressing in new bushings is order brand new control arms. they come with the balljoint and new bushings already in. Rockauto has them for like $65 each. if i knew that i wouldnt of spent $60 in new bushings and the cost of the shop labor,and my time. I didnt see what year blazer you have but i checked for a 92,and a 98. and both were about 65 each.