So my Blazer has some shaking issues which I've been fighting with for some time now. I dropped it off at the mechanic to diagnose this recently and he said the Upper Control Arm Bushings are shot and wants $380 to change them.

He balanced my tires (29's on Cragar Rims) and put the weights on the outside. When they were originally balanced the weights were put on the inner lip for cosmetics. He said wheels balance better with weights on the outside and without having hit the highway yet it does seem better. Anyone else heard of this?

Anywho, I jacked the front wheels up one at a time and shook them. I didn't preload the lower control arm but there was no noticeable movement up and down on either wheel. There was plenty of side to side wobble on both however. And that is evident on both wheels with the other on the ground. This inherently means that there is play in the steering linkages and not the steering box, right? Since there is play between the wheels when the other is fixed.

Back to control arms; they do not squeak or make noise either. Any other symptoms that could suggest these bushings are bad? The front driver side wheel does seem to slant inwards a bit (front view: |---\) but that indicates a bad ball joint right?

I could pay to fix this but I've dropped near 2g'son this thing recently and don't want to spend much more on her now. All help is appreciated, thanks!!

 

i always balance the inside of the rims at work and haven't had any problems. though we do have a guy who works there who swears by balancing both the front and back cause its way more accurate.

and there is always such a gray area with identifying a problem like this. are they broke and falling off, probably not but they might be all dry rotted or have a hair of play in them, theres a lot of time i have to call the boss over to see what he thinks, cause alot of times i look at stuff and say id drive my truck like that but some people wants stuff perfect. you probably have to get in there with a pry bar and pry on the bushing area itself to see if anything moves.

i remember a few months back had town car in there, banged when you gave it gas or braked. im prying on everything and trying to move the axle and nothing. finally i found it. i just had to pry in a very specific location going a very specific way to get the bushings to bounce around.

 

Thanks for your insight into this problem! I thought it was strange that he thought this but mostly because of the heinous silver weights on my black rims. A black paint pen solved my problem there though. If it really fixes it, I'm fine with them. I'll hit the highway tomorrow morning to find out.

As for the bushings, yea they look rusted and old, but I don't see any reason why they are critical to replace. There isn't any play (at least without loading the lower control arm) and they don't squeak. Even if there was some play I don't see how that would contribute to any problem I'm having.

Unless that is the cause of the vibration, which I doubt, the only other problems in the front end are loose steering and the slanting of the associated wheel. The wheel slanting inwards indicates a bad ball joint though, right? The steering is something else altogether and I'll figure that out when I find someone else to help me me move the wheels while I'm under the truck.

Insight on the ball joint vs. bushings question? Thanks in advance!

 

Well this thread hasn't gotten much attention, but I may as well follow through and say I bought new upper and lower control arm bushings from Moog and will put them in soon.

 

I had bad ball joints and the wheels would move back and forth and a very bad vibration above 40. I wish I had asked the tire place to put the weights inside when I got new tires. The weights mutilate the rims

 

My mechanic has since put the weights on the outside and yea, they do look ugly. Not to mention the marks they may leave when they eventually come off. My rims are black, so I colored any of the scratches and the weights themselves black with a paint pen. They're pretty discreet now. maybe that will help you out.

 

I just had to replace the sway bar bushing and links on my 97 blazer. In the near future I also plan on replace all the bushing and ball joints on the front suspension both upper and lower control arms. $380 is absolutely ridiculous to change some bushings. Check out autopartswharehouse.com, they have a huge variety of O.E. replacement parts. I found new ball joints for $25, the bushings for my sway bar were only $23 for the pair.

Take the tires off, and you should have easy access to install the new bushings and joints. The tricky part for the ball joints is disconnecting them from the knuckle. Lightly tapping the knuckle with a hammer after removing the ball joint nut should dislogde the old ball joint even if its stuck on pretty good. Make sure you grease the new ball joints.

You should be able to replace the bushings and ball joints on both sides for no more than $100 with shipping and a few hours of your time.

 

Thanks for the input jvarugh. My local National Auto Parts store is cool and charges me 'shop price' for parts, so I'm going to replace all ball joints and control arm bushings with Moog parts tomorrow.

There is a good how-to on here somewhere but sadly I can't find it anymore. I'm going to go off of the Haynes manual for everything. The Upper Arms look very straightforward. The lower ones could be tricky because I'll have to disconnect the torsion bar.

Will report back...

 

I've just replaced all the ball joints on my 97 blazer as well as the lower control arm bushings... yea... the upper ball joints were the original so i had to grind and punch out the rivets- no problem.
The lowers on the otherhand... it would definatly help to have a hydraulic press large enough to fit the arm in, i had to use the "c-clamp and socket" set from my local hobbie shop and it was a pain in the d*** to say the least.
As far as the bushings, i had to melt/ burn the rubber from the inside and crease the outer metal edge and curl it in on itself... also a fun job. I was going to replace my upper bushings next... but if i had to do it over i would've spent a little extra money and just bought the entire arm- which comes with new joints and bushings. i found some for about $30, but i'd prob get the $70-$90; but thats just me. I know i already have new joints on the front but imma just buy a whole new arm and be done with it; but hey, i got the experience now

 

I saw the new, reasonably priced arms with bushings and thought about it, but ultimately did it myself. Well the assembly at least. Some lame new rules at work prevent me from using the presses I had planned to use, so I had a shop do the uppers and lower bushing changes for me at $50 a side. Not cheap but it got it done.
Removing the torsion bars was way easier than I expected and assembly wasn't too tough.
Then I brought it to a shop for alignment and specifically requested "To adjust ride height to higher of 2 sides and align as best as possible" since the alignment can never be perfect with a t-bar crank. Those butt munches returned it to factory height and charged me $250 'for the extra work'. After arguing and agreeing to pay $150 or nothing, I left and now my wheels rub the fender walls when I turn. I won't be going back there...
On a positive note, the car does ride very nicely now!