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Balljoints, 94 K1500

9

94blazer

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Location
Az
Hey guys, I posted this in suspension, thought I would cross post it here.

Balljoints


Does the halfshaft have to come out to get the lower balljoint out? Is pulling the nut and leaning the steering knuckle out enough to get the halfshaft out of the bearing? Don't want to mess with the front axle junk if I don't need to.

Plus, working out in the dirt driveway sucks....

Upper and lowers are riveted in, lowers are missing most of the boot. So I thought I would do the balljoints and control arm bushings all at once, since they all look OG and the trucks got 215k on her.

Anyway, thanks for any pointers :thumbsup:
 
94blazer said:
Upper and lowers are riveted in, lowers are missing most of the boot. So I thought I would do the balljoints and control arm bushings all at once, since they all look OG and the trucks got 215k on her.

Anyway, thanks for any pointers :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Jack up the front of the truck. Put a bar under a front tire and pry up and let it loose. Is there clearance in the joint? Otherwise just a blown grease boot is not a very good justification for the job.
 
For what its worth, you don't have to take the halfshafts out to get the knuckle off. The rear lower control arm bolt is a bear to get out with the halfshaft in tho.

I drive 8 miles of dirt road to get from my place to the pavement. I wasn't willing to drive around with no boot on one ball joint on either side. Anyway, now I can do the control arm bushings too.
 
Last edited:
I'm in the middle of doing this myself, but getting that rear lower control arm bolt out seems like a bigtime PITA.

My halfshaft is out, I'm replacing that one also. But it seems I have to move the whole front diff to get that bolt out?? :mad2: If that is the case I think those lower bushings will stay in till they fail.. :nonod:
 
Mine had a couple indentations, if you rotate the halfshaft, you can work the bolt out... I used a drift from the rear and tapped it out. The corners of the head of the bolt WILL drag. Once the knuckle, tie rod, upper arm, and sway bar are off, I pulled the front bolt and was able to wiggle the arm around and get the bolt all the way out.

Its going back in the opposite direction :D
 
I will probably have a go at it again tomorrow, but I guess it's possible that my 97 truck is different enough to be a whole other story from your 94 Blazer(in a bad way). I've pulled the halfshaft, upper arm, sway bar link, knuckle, the shock and front bolt, but the snag is the mounting flange on the diff that mates up to the halfshaft. Maybe a good nights sleep will have me figuring out in the morning..
 
If i remember right, the 3/4 ton trucks have a larger front diff than my heavy half ton. Its a very tight fit to get the lower arm off with the halfshaft in. If the diff was 1" wider, the flanges would prevent the bolt from coming out....
 
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