ball joints

Hello everyone,

I just bought a '90 full size blazer which turned out to have bad ball joints, Since I have worked on all types of vehicles on and off for 15 years, I quickly went to the parts store and bought all the parts I needed and some I didn't. I then attempted to replace the ball joints, I removed everything according to the "shop manual" but when I got to the point of removing the joints and knuckle I #1 could not get a wrench on the bottom ball joint nut, after about 1/2 hour I cut the nut off but much to my dismay there is not enough room for the ball joints and the knuckle, to come free, the shaft is in the way.

I am figuring that I am not doing things it the right order or there is a "secret" , rather than it just being an impossible job.

Meanwhile my poor Blazer has been upon stands for a couple of weeks. Please help


Thanks ahead of time.

Hi tom1337. You may have to drill them out.

I had to chisel 3 rivets out per ball joint to get mine out. I don't have air tools. I went through a few drill bits to drill them out the best I could. Then I proceeded to use an awl and hammer and banged them out. Got alignment done and it hanldes like it was new.

P.S. now would be a goood time to check the inner and outer tie rods!

Yes, they are riveted in. A cold chisel will work for this.

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ORIGINAL: 4lowlife

Hi tom1337. You may have to drill them out.

I had to chisel 3 rivets out per ball joint to get mine out. I don't have air tools. I went through a few drill bits to drill them out the best I could. Then I proceeded to use an awl and hammer and banged them out. Got alignment done and it hanldes like it was new.

P.S. now would be a goood time to check the inner and outer tie rods!

Werd on that bro...that's how I did it with a bud of mine to his suburban...found no other way...

I found it MUCH easier to deal with by pressing the driveshaft out of the steering knuckle. You don't have to completely remove the driveshaft from the wheel bearing, but it may just be easier to do so. Remember, if you do this, your steering knuckle will only be attached by the brake line and the steering linkage (tierod). This opens up TONS of room to get in there and do the work to the lower control arm.

Thanks for the replies.

I have seen the riveted balljoints before and are fairly easy to do but my '90 does not use this method. The upper balljoint is pressed into the knuckle, and after grease is packed into the joint, the zerk fitting is then removed and a plug put in place due to clearance issues with the shaft, and the threaded end then goes into the yoke where there is an adjusting sleeve and gets a castle nut and a cotter pin.
The bottom ball joint is also pressed into the knuckle and a snap ring is installed on the bottom, the threaded end is shorter and goes into the yoke (about 1/4" of the threwads showing) followed by a nut, which I can not get any tool on to remove it

I could solve the problem by using the plasma cutters on the shafts, but even though the whole thingwill just fall out, but I would be in the same trouble when trying to install.

I think I have an idea let me know what you think. I am not sure how the axle is classified (full or semi floating) but when I said I could not remove the axle (this just came to me and I ran out to check) this was by a small margin, the U joint connecting the inner and outer axle shaft are welded in place (probably a consumable part), I do not see this on new axleshafts as they have replacable U joints. Anyway I was thinking that if I ground down just a very little (and I do mean little) of the weld then the shafts would be easily removed giving me all the room in the world.

Are the axle shafts suposed to be removed before attempting to replace the ball joints the shop manual does not say if this is a step, maybe assuming that it would be obvious.

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Are the axle shafts suposed to be removed before attempting to replace the ball joints the shop manual does not say if this is a step, maybe assuming that it would be obvious.

Not on mine. I disconnected the ABS wire and had to remove the ABS wheelbearing/hub. It is attached on the spindle w/ 3 bolts. (remove the 36mm nut first,) I don't have a gear puller so I used 2 C clamps and a 2x4 to pull out the wheelbearing/hub.

I don't know if you have the same setup. With that out of the way I popped the joints out w/ a fork.

Same difference. Whether you press the axle out through the wheel-bearing/hub or pull the whole wheel-bearing/hub. It's just safer to remove the axle from the wheel-bearing/hub than it is to remove the wheel-bearing/hub. Technically speaking, the press ring around the hub should be only used 1 time and never removed again. It can be done, but if it gets nicked in anyway, you could open up the press fit causing the hub to not seat correctly and other problems could result.

I'm trying to remember the construction of the front axle on your '90 Fullsize. This should be the GM torsion bar independant suspension much the same as what the s-series 4x4s have. Here's a run through of what I found on FullSizeChevy.com:

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to replace the balljoints on an 89 4x4 you don't have to have a balljoint press, both the upper and lower balljoint's are riveted to the control arms with large steel rivets. All you have to do is raise the vehicle and support the lower control arms with jackstands,remove the wheel, remove your tie rod, then remove your CV axle nut from the center of the hub, and take your upper and lower ball joint nuts loose(not all the way off, just loose enough so you can see 4-5 threads between the nut and the steering knuckle) and at the steering knuckle where the stud of the ball joint goes through it, whack the hell out off the knuckle with a heavy hammer, at the upper joint and at the lower joint. Beating the hell out of the knucle will break the press fit tapered studs loose from thier holes, thus avoiding the use of a balljoint seperator, once the studs are loose remove the upper nut all the way and pickup on the upper arm, this will let the knucle tilt out towards you(your CV axle may take some persuasion to be pushed through the hub and out the backside) grab the knuckle assembly firmly and lift up a little bit and remove the lower nut, now rest th whole knuckle, rotor, caliper assembly on a large block of wood or somethin similar, but dont drop it because you will break you brake hose, now you will need to grind the heads off of the rivets with a small sidegrinder and use a hammer and punch to drive the rivets out of the control arms. your new ball joints will come with bolts, nuts, and lock washers to bolt them onto the control arms, once you finish bolting in the new balljoints reassemble the knuckle, axle, and control arms in reverse order, and repeat for the other side. If my explanation of hitting the knuckle with a hammer to get the studs loose from thier holes is good enough for you to figure out what I'm talking about then that will elimnate the use for a balljoint separator, and the fact that an 89 4X4 has riveted in balljoints rather than press fit eliminates the need for a balljoint press, so other than a sidegrinder and a large enough socket to remove the axle nut you can do this job with simple hand tools. hope this helps you out, and hope I explained it so you can visualize what I'm talking about, I have probably done 50-100 sets of balljoints on all different makes of trucks and cars, so if you have any questions feel free to ask, John

An '89 C/K 1500 pickup should have the same front suspension as your '90 Blazer. If you have a digital camera, please take a pic and post up if you have the capabilities (if not, PM me and I'll get it up here for you). Please let us know more.

*EDIT* - I just did some searching in the online parts stores and did find some available upper and lower ball joints for your '90 Blazer that were press in. I know that Autozone and Advanced Auto has a ball joint press tool that you can rent from them to make the job easier. I also found out that if you have the stamped steel control arms, you'll have ball joints held on by rivets. If you have the cast iron control arms, then you'll have pressed in ball joints. I'm not sure if this is entirely correct, but it seems that the General used these different c

Actualy my Blazer has a solid axle leaf spring shock combo. I think it was the last year these were made without independent front suspension. It is a beast even if the ride is a bit stiff.

The information you found is correct I have the cast iron setup arms, knuckle etc. I called local advanced auto to rent a press but they had none I called a couple more and autozone w/ no luck.

Tomorrow I will take some pics and try to post them (I have to use dial up and my lovely phone lines are in horrible shape and I have been having problems with them for the past few days.)

Wow Tom, I am sorry. All references that I had read through searching for solutions to your problem pointed me towards your Blazer having the IFS setup.

With that being the case, then to aid in removal of the steering knuckle, you really need to pull the axles out of the axle housing to get the room you require. I believe that this is done by pulling off the differential cover and removing the c-clips to then removing the axle from the housing. Looks like you got it off though.

Sorry for the mis-information...

The pictures you emailed me are attached below for the viewing pleasure of the public!

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*EDIT* - while you are at this stage, it may not be a bad idea to replace the u-joints in the front drive shafts. From here, it is a fairly simple task to complete.

Thanks for the info Kyle. No harm done with the IFS some how I always manage to get the last year or special equip. problems, just to keep me on my toes and my hair falling out LOL. The axles are actually full floaters (I discovered) so I actually don't have to go into the pumpkin to remove the C clips (some one likes me LOL).

I agree with the replacing the U joints on the axles however, tell me ifyou have ever heard of this, the U joints are welded to the axles. I know that there are other parts from the factory that are made unserviceable making you buy the whole thing after a few thousand miles ie. rotors, but I have never seen a major part like the shafts, that way. Interested in what you think.

I actually think that you may have yourself a heavier duty Blazer than originally thought. If it's based off the 2500 series truck, then that would explain why you have the solid front axle.

Hmm. Are you sure that they are welded. I know that it looked that way on my old '97 Ram when I replaced them, but they were retained with snap rings that were rusted up VERY badly and made it look like they were all one piece. I just chipped away at things with a small cold chisel with the axle in the vise. The u-joints are available as far as I can tell by looking at the major online autoparts stores. From the looks of the pictures they have online, they are the snap-ring retained type just like my old Ram.

So long as you stay away from the rubber seal when chipping away at them, you shouldn't hurt anything to the point of not being able to put it back together and have it work like it did before. Unless someone welded the cups in, they shouldn't be welded from the factory. That front axle design hasn't really changed much since the early '70s and I know for a fact that both of my dad's old farm trucks had replaceable u-joints in the front axle.

I have a feeling your right, every thing on the Blazer looks like it is heavy duty, when I compare it to my old 1/2 ton they are very similar.

I am going to spend the day in the garage and clean up the U joints to see if they have the snap ring, I touught it wasstrange to be welded in. I'll let you know what I find.

Well good news the other axle came right out, the knuckle fell off, and the ball joints came out. Not the easiest thing to do but definately better.

Your advice to check the U joints was pretty much right on. They have C clips on the back side (bummer), and they were REALLY rusted, when I started to chip away the rust I discovered that I really did not have any U joints LOL. Great catch, thanks for mentioning it.

Hope fully I'll have it back on the road next .

I'll keep you upto date on the great adventure LOL.

Again, glad I could help!

Good catch indeed!

Sounds like you would have been pulling things back apart again sometime soon if not attended to now.

New news from the front lines.

Went to a shop and had the ball joints and U joints pressed in, then went and installed them, almost no problems LOL. Now I have to replace the tie rods, they too were not in the best of shape. An interesting note from an earlier post, that I may have a heavy duty version of the blazer, turns out that the tie rods on the blazer as listed in the shop manual are from a V30. hmmmm

When I went to re-install the auto hubs, I began a really big nightmare, no matter what I did I could not get the little buggers back together. Finally my 14yr old daughter figured it out. LOL Turns out that they were never put together right in the first place.

I decided to look at all the receipts that the previous owner had. Turns out that "everything" in the front end had supposedly been replaced about 40,000 mi. ago. It was very obvious that there had never been any "real" work done on it but they did manage to charge alot to put it back together wrong.

Meanwhile my wife has attacked the poor body work or lack there of. So far two days in and still sane "kind of" LOL.

Anyway back to the front, another battle won, hopefully the war is almost over. LOL