like the title says. i have the stock ball joints on my blazer and it has 188000miles on it and it has the original ball shocks. is that normal. i thought they are bad in these trucks.

thanks

 

I have 180,000 on mine... It had 168,000 miles on it when I got it - completely stock. I did a ton of work on it the first month I had it: Tires, MSD, exhaust, power steering pump and the Entire cooling system was replaced, etc. Everything was good until I took it off road! Now it has two new front hubs, and I have a bag of Moog Ball Joints waiting for a day above 30* untill I can put them on!

I have to say too, the 4x4 Blazer is VERY Off-Road worthy!

 

That's not normal, and you may well feel a difference after replacing them. Mine were all in need of replacing after 125k, but I live in a neighborhood with speed humps and had taken it through a couple of "off-road" adventures in high school.
25k miles later and not a peep. I do plan on keeping this thing for a while longer, so I'm glad I did it.

 

I got 117k miles on mine and stock ball joints and don't have any problems with them *knock on wood*

 

Well yes it can be normal depending on how well the truck was taken care of

 

I think you might be surprised just how wore out they are when or if you pull them off.

 

Wouldn't you notice it if you unload the front and try to move the tire back and forth (in the direction that the wheel normally shouldn't be able to move )

 

True, if you can get a jack under the bottom a-arm (its awkward)you should be able to grab the tire at the top and the bottom and rock it.

 

Because when I got the blazer new I brought it to a shop to see if it needed anything sure enough they said ball joints, made it sound like the truck would fall apart any second, so I asked a friend of mine who was a mechanic for several years to check it out and he unloaded the front and nothing moved.

Never went back to that Mechanics shop again, I'm assuming they looked at the mileage and figured he can get new ones.

 

I believe that if the weight is unloaded (suspension at full droop) then the ball joints will be in a bind.You need to have a jack under the lower a-arm with the trucks weight on it to check the ball joints.