Getting ready for front end work

[BlinduL]

hello everyone! 1st post here! I have an 06 Trailblazer LT with the 4.2 that is my wife's. Recently bought, it has 147K miles, and already replaced a shot strut in the rear with Blisteins.

Took the car in for annual safety, and it failed. I suspected it would, mainly because car has a hum while driving, which I assume is because of the wheel bearing (Drivers side I suspect).

surprisingly, it looks like its because of the ball joints as well, although when I drive it, it drives nice and no shaking, unless under braking (feels like discs are warped).

Now, since I did the rear shocks, I planned on doing the fronts too with Blisteins. the ride is very mushy right now, and I like how the Blisteins changed the rear feel of the car.

so currently, the plan is to replace all 4 balljoints, 2 wheel hubs and 2 front shocks with Moog and Blistein Parts.

Anything else to look out for while im there?

 

[The_Roadie]

Welcome! Both upper and lower front control arms have mounting bushings that could be loose or deteriorated. That would cause an inability to get it realigned. And the shock struts have upper rubber mount bushings - same thing. And the anti-sway bar end links usually go bad before now, and the bar mounts to the frame with bushings that could also go bad, but those don't cause a safety inspection to fail.

Some owners replace the entire lower control arm WITH its balljoint and mounting bracket for about $150 a side. Saves some of the work of pressing out a tough ball joint. If you have ball joint experience and the press, no problem, then.

 

[BlinduL]

thanks! lucky for me I do have some experience with balljoints. I did all 4 of them on my 96 Ram, and what a pain that was, when every nut ended up getting rounded one way or another. ended up taking me 4 weeks to do that. I'm hoping I can get this one done in 4 days. Thanks to youtube, i get some good insight on doing stuff.

 

[BlazingTrails]

Welcome to the Nation!!!

 

[Texan]

Welcome to the nation.
Hint: Only use box end wrenches or six point sockets.
Good luck.

 

[BlinduL]

so here I am, almost a month later, and i finally started this task.

now i have this annoying problem, where the bolt won't come off the yoke at the bottom of the strut. on both sides too. i hammered one out, but now the yoke itself wont come off, and i somehow got a screwdriver stuck in there too. i had to remove both assemblies with the yoke attached to them.

does anyone know where I can buy 2 yokes? i searched advance or autozone, and nothing. its the one part they dont carry...other than that, it was going surprisignly smooth.

 

[The_Roadie]

Everybody removes the strut with the yoke attached, precisely because of the typical corrosion between the shock body and the yoke.

With some penetrating oil and time, and the safe application of power tools (never puncture the pressurized shock body without knowing it's pressurized), you should be able to separate the two.

Otherwise the yoke is GM #15743860 available from the usual on-line GM sources for about $70. Some Ebay sleazeballs are selling them for close to $100. I always seem to have one or two extra lying around. PM me if you'd like to buy one of them. Aftermarket parts stores aren't going to carry this GM-specific part.

Bolt: GM #11609232
Nut GM #11516078
Each about $3.50 online.

 

[BlinduL]

so a frustrating update, i got the shocks out, happily. i assembled them, and then proceeded to work on the balljoints. all 4 had to be replaced. i get to the last one, the drivers side lower one. and pressed it until one of the tabs from the control arm actually snapped (the one that the cup sits on). i was lucky my face wasn't close, i would have had a cut for sure.

now it looks like i have to replace the whole control arm. since I already did the passenger side with moog balljoints, would it be okay to just have one control arm with a different brand balljoint on the drivers side? im still looking at what to buy...

 

[The_Roadie]

Ball joints are ball joints. Saves a bunch of time when you get a pre-assembled control arm with new parts for about $150 total.