I recently purchased a 93 S10 Blazer with 2 wheel drive and 220,000 miles. I set the front end up on jackstands positioned under the lower A arms and grabbed the tire at the top and bottom and tried to move it in and out. It felt solid with no play.

I then removed the wheels and discovered that it still had the factory rivited in upper ball joints. I was aware that S10 have an issue with ball joints and was really surprised that these still felt good.

My question is: Is what I did the correct way to diagnose a bad ball joint. GM Metric cars have nearly identical A arms, spindles, and brakes and that is the way I have always checked ball joints on my Metric framed race truck or anything with similiar syspension.

I used the Search feature and didn't find anything other than ball joints are a frequent repair.

 

Make sure that your jackstands are out as far as you can get them without touching the tires. It sounds like your checking them correctly.
I also take a bar and pry up under the tire to see if there is any movement up and down.

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Yah they sound good, but I am very surpised that yours are good at 220k miles. They must have been really greased their entire life and being a 2wd definetly helps.

 

I'm going to be checking my front end this weekend just to see how everything has held up after 80k miles. I have a 2000 2dr 4x4. I am the second owner since 45k miles and don't think there was any work done to the front end before I got it. Can I get some detailed info (maybe some pics) as to what I should be looking for and what components to check out? From this post, I know how to check the ball joints (jack up and see if there is any play in the wheels) but I don't know what the ball joints look like. As much info would really be appreciated.

 

Same here. This is something I've been wanting to check soon, since I'm at 166K miles. I also did a search and came up empty on what I was looking for.

 

Thanks Chevylover, I knew I forgot something. I went back and used a pry bar under the wheel and they still checked out ok. I believe that it had been greased regularly because grease came out every joint on the first pump of my grease gun.

My son's 4 wheel drive 94 with 160,000 miles has a replacment ball joint on the left side and the stock rivited ball joint on the right side. It checks good also.

 

ya i know my blazer had been well greased and still has the stock ball joints at 136K mi. when i went to grease it when i did my oil change at 2500 mi i would only get a few pumps b4 it started comin back out

 

To check UPPER BALL JOINTS you have to take all weight off suspension. Put your stands on the frame letting the sit without weight.

 

The way I check the ball joints are the same, except to check the top you would push on the bottom side of the tire and wiggle the top. The opposite goes with the bottom. Youwillfeel or hear the loose ball joint if there is one.