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95 Blazer Steering woes.


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JoulesWinfield
11-01-2004, 08:19 AM
I know there has been a million of these types of posts so bear with me.

I have a 95 4x4 4 door blazer.
When I did the lift I replaced all 4 ball joints and both outer tie rod ends.
Yesterday I replaced the idler arm since it had never been greased.

I still am getting a left pull every time I hit the brakes.
Also when there is an uneven sag or rise in the road it feels like something shifts and I will have to turn the wheel like 2 inches to compensate.
It doesnt take a bunch of force but the amount of travel is pretty alarming.

What could this be? I am planning on removing the calipers tonight and cleaning and regreasing the bolt sleves to make sure they arent binding but what else?

I just had a kid and I really dont have the funds to just take it in.

Fireplug
11-01-2004, 09:31 AM
check that the caliper pistons are not frozen in place. A stuck piston will cause a brake pull

BlazerLT
11-01-2004, 03:39 PM
I agree.

Fractured1
11-01-2004, 03:44 PM
just curious...when you lifted could you have bent a brake line on the brake in ?, or possibly kinked a line to that brake

JoulesWinfield
11-02-2004, 09:32 AM
Well, Thanks for your help.
I found the problem last night.

The upper right ball joint is wasted.
Yep thats right, a new ball joint, less than 15k on it.
Im not sure if the Idler arm could have caused this but its definitely bad. Also the sway bar bushings are about gone. I think I will try to replace those tonight when I do the ball joint again.

As far as the caliper bolts go, I went a head and cleaned them up, regreased and reinstalled.
The feel didnt change much, but I did notice the outer pad was just a little thinner than the inner on the right side only.

One thing I would suggest is when replacing the pads, get a little pick and clean out all of the built up stuff where the o-rings go. There was a ton in both sides, like plaque or something.

BlazerLT
11-02-2004, 02:49 PM
Brake calipers are so cheap now you should just have them changed. A binding caliper can get you into an aaccident in the right circumstances.

Other than that, maybe the alignment is out.

When replacing the sway bar bushing, use the AC Delco ones from the dealer, not the poly. I installed poly only to find them defective in under 100miles.

Did you check the sway bar end links?

JoulesWinfield
11-02-2004, 02:59 PM
I dont think there is anything wrong with the calipers at all.
What do you mean by sway bar end links, is that the rod that all the busnings and washers stack up on?

BlazerLT
11-02-2004, 03:02 PM
Yes, at the end of the sway bar where they attach to the control arm.

Replace those too when you replace the bushing or your new bushing will be shot in short order.

JoulesWinfield
11-03-2004, 07:32 PM
So, check this out. It wasnt the ball joint after all.
The ASE certified tech at the Bell Tire failed to properly torque the camber adjuster.

It was finger tight.

Im soooo pissed off.

Fireplug
11-03-2004, 07:56 PM
Why would he have to play with anything to do with camber to replace a ball joint unless they did a front end alignment. Tell me they did a alignment???

JoulesWinfield
11-04-2004, 06:59 AM
Yes, I took it to Bell Tire after I did the 2" suspension lift and replaced all four ball joints and outer tie rod ends.
So it was when they did the alignment that the camber adjuster was left loose.

Fireplug
11-04-2004, 09:07 AM
You 1 lucky dude!!

JoulesWinfield
11-04-2004, 09:43 AM
Yea, luckily it only cost me like 20 hours of trial and error instead of the upper A arm falling off at 70+mph.
Im thinking on lunch today Ill go beat the guys Arse.

JoulesWinfield
07-26-2005, 10:06 AM
So its been a while,
Im looking into buying a full set of poly end links an bushings.

But since I have a lift they want me to measure the end links. The sway bar is supposed to be lined up with the mounting location and measured.

Any suggestions on how to line them up then measure?

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