Right wheel play

'97 Blazer w/97k miles. Replaced upper & lower ball joints 6 months ago.
I just recently did a tire rotation and there seems to be some play in the right front wheel when I put my hands on the tire vertically and wiggle it in and out. Wheel bearing hub assembly shot?? The other side is fine, no play at all.

'97 Blazer w/97k miles. Replaced upper & lower ball joints 6 months ago.
I just recently did a tire rotation and there seems to be some play in the right front wheel when I put my hands on the tire vertically and wiggle it in and out. Wheel bearing hub assembly shot?? The other side is fine, no play at all.

you can damn near fail a new blazer front end for inspection the day you install it.

there is allowable play in the balls and in the idler arm - even when brand new.

i believe the balljoints have zero tollerance for side to side play but allow 1/8" up& down for the lowers. get someone else to move the wheel and look for the play. the front ends do pretty much fall apart in these things. it's normal for one bearing to go out while the other sides like new.

check on your tie rods inner and outter, pitman arm and your ider arm... ball joint is up and down movement should not move at all. A good tight front end should have NO movement.. IF it was your wheel bearings you would hear a groaning noise in that wheel!
IF some moron thinks there sould be play when new you dont want his advice

every s-10 i've ever had on a lift has had some up& down play in the lower balljoints even ones with only 4,000 miles. every company has an allowable tolerance for axial(up&down) and lateral(side to side) play. they are both checked with the balljoints unloaded using a dial indicator mounted on the control arm. you'd go broke if you replaced your balljoints everytime there was any up& down play. call your dealership and ask them what the tollerances are.

You are able to move a brand new blazer tire 1/4" on any axis - with a PERFECT wheel bearing. As for the S/T and C/K1500 Idler arm - it has appx 1/4" allowable up and down movement from the compression of the lower bushing, this will translate into pretty scary movement of the centerlink, but is it designed to be that way

in addition, when you have a S/T and 1500 on the lift and the front end unloaded, you can also move the upper copntrol arm against the camber bushings a noticable amount. As I said before, to the untrained, an S10 would likely fail vehicle inspection, they are easy to fix, but they are easier to convince yourself that they need fixing. Leave the diagnosis to someone who has seen a few hundred or so or else you will sink $300 in hardware in every year.

When you replaced the ball joints, did you replace the idler arm. These two go hand in hand and need to be replaced together. I replace both myself these days since the job costs so much. Every 2 or 3 years now I have had to replace both uppers and lowers along with the idlers. After market parts give a lifetime warranty so you only pay the first time if you keep your receipt. Its about 75 bucks per side to complete. Hopefully you already know about the recall and got GM to pay for the first replacement. They claim its very rare for uppers to go bad but they are full of it.

Was the recall on the ball joints or the idler arms?