So I picked up this 88 Chevy S10 Blazer Sport 4.3L 4x4 for a trade on my 2 yr old Alienware computer. After going all through it I'd say the small problems I'm about to address are minimal in the bigger picture.

When I got her, she had about 2"-3" of slop both left and right when turning the steering whee before resistance was felt. It felt like the tires were just kind of "floating" or "drifting" left/right in that small window of space. If you took your eyes off the road for a second you could be somewhere you really didn't want to be.

I have a good buddy that works at Les Schwab Alignment shop here so I took it down one night after hours and we got to tearing into it. We found that the right front wheel bearing needed to be replaced as well as the idler arm and pittman arm. Add to that, the idiots who had the rig before me had oddball size tires on the front. One was a 2 size larger 6 ply and the rest were standard issue 205/75/15. So we threw on two new matching tires so everything was the same size. Got the alignment done after all of that and VIOLA!!! Absolutely no more slop in the steering. I mean its almost as good as my new car.

Just thought this might be helpful for the next person experiencing the slop issue. Retail it would have been about $750, which I would have gladly paid and considered myself on the good end of a trade. For that to be all that's wrong with it...nuff said I only had to pay for the parts so it was around $400 and change.

 

i swear idler and pitman arms on these trucks are bad on everyone i ever check out at work.