1998 Blazer front end clunk/thud...

I have a 1998 blazer that only clunks when cold and pulling out of the garage(reverse) that can be felt on both sides under the floor sometimes in unison and sometimes not. It does not do it warm. Mechanics have found nothing! Any help!!

If you have high miles and have never changed any rubber parts on the front end (control arm bushings are cracked), then you need to start there. Once they wear out, you get noises/clunks/bad steering. I would have to say, if you have bad steering and your tires in front are wearing abnormally, just change everything at once and get it over with; upper/lower control arm bushings, ball joints, inner/outer tierod ends, pitman and idler arms.

Upper/lower control arm bushings is what was making my truck clunk when I turned the wheel and backed up, I put together my own tool and popped them out, then popped them in. It took most of the day to do.

There is some stuff on this forum about a popping noise that you have to install a washer where the hood bolts in; also the steering shaft having a rag joint that in time wears out and has some play in it.

I have a 1998 blazer that only clunks when cold and pulling out of the garage(reverse) that can be felt on both sides under the floor sometimes in unison and sometimes not. It does not do it warm. Mechanics have found nothing! Any help!!

I've been up and down with this one. Bushings, Linkage, The hood thing,the tortion bar, Stablizers, cracked frame/cross member. Everyone has advice, unfortunately not one of those problems when fixed stopped the clunk 4 me. And I do wanna thank everyone for the leads. Cause I did have everyone of those problems. And now they're fixed. The truth the real cause for this annoying pop clunk, Ball joints. No shit! I've been a lil busy these past couple months. But I have'em and Im replacing them. right now when its raining they're sooooooooooo bad!!!!!! when its dry still pops and boy you can feel it but not as bad. Seriously Ball joints. Real cheap too. 2 year waranty $18 bucks each upper and lower. Got all 4. A good friend had same shit in his jimmy. brought it to a garage $500 big ones later no popping no clunking.

Yep a lot of the time it's just the old ball joints. And lord knows the Blazer is famous for those being bad. I had the same prob and after ALOT of grease and lube they STILL need to be replaced. But thats the way it goes I guess

Does this look bad??????????
http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/6281/clipboard014kh.jpg

BlazerLT, Im sure you fixed ur prob. Im not doubting u. You seriously are in my eyes The Blazer God. That said, I do however believe Your Clunk and My Clunk are 2 totaly different things. related to each other only in similar sound. But I will try ur tip/advice b4 i undertake the ball joint replacement. knowing it just cant b that easy. but who knows these damned blazer r so damn crafty.

Does this look bad??????????
http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/6281/clipboard014kh.jpg


HOLY SHIT!

DO NOT DRIVE THAT TRUCK FOR ONE MORE MILE, YOU ARE JUST ABOUT TO LOSE YOUR PASSENGER ASSEMBLY.

That does look horrendous. I would investigate that immediately before I drove the car again. I don't see any grease up there. Looks like that top ball joint may be all rusted and badly damaged inside.

ummmm yeah that looks REAL bad!

Heres the scarry thing, I took that picture about 4 months ago. Been from N.Y. to Boston more than once since. I brought the blazer to a local mechanic to impact my Bolts off when I did the plugs amd wires. he also took a look at it 4 me and mentioned the joints may need to replaced soon(Less than a month ago). had it up in the air too. he also said my idler arm was bad too.

Get that fixed ASAP, don't think just because it hasn't gone that it won't.

You go around a corner at a decent speed and hit a bump, you will be in the hospital.

Don't drive it anymore until it is fixed, consider yourself lucky that you haven't had an accident yet.

Just remembered another clunk I had was when I was braking, it turned out to be a broken motor mount.

Well boys i'm knee deep into the project now got the old upper off and 90% of the old lower off. Ill take some photos 2maro of my progress so far. only thing is, the new lower joint has no grease fitting. not sure what thats about.

Well boys i'm knee deep into the project now got the old upper off and 90% of the old lower off. Ill take some photos 2maro of my progress so far. only thing is, the new lower joint has no grease fitting. not sure what thats about.

It should be in the bag with the boot, nut, and cotter pin. It just threads in to the joint when you're done.

It should be in the bag with the boot, nut, and cotter pin. It just threads in to the joint when you're done.
Yeah, no hole either. i'm stumpped.

Yeah, no hole either. i'm stumpped.

I got the same ones. I added some grease under the boot before I put them on and they seem to be holding up just fine, but the upper balljoints I got are crap, I already had to re-grease them. I think I got all of them from autozone and I think that they all are duralast. Next time I have to change them, I'm going to spend a little extra $$ and get the oem ones.
You seem to be in the same position that I was in last fall/winter. I ended up changing all the rubber steering/suspension parts, I wish I did everything at the same time, would have saved me from taking the same things apart many times.

I'd only recommend replacing them with AC Delco, Moog, or TRW. The cheaper ones have been known to fail. I've seen it happen many times. A friend of mine had 6 upper balljoints break in less than two months, before he finally bought AC Delco and had no more problems.

Yeah, when I was doing some front end work, I noticed that the upper balljoints were not smooth. I don't think that they are going to last, I'll just have to keep re-greasing them until I have the time and $$ to change them again. I'm never buying crap parts again, it ends up costing more $$$ and more time in the long run.

Moog all the way here.

Lifetime warranty and exceptional quality for a little more money.

yup "MOOG". Thats what I was gonna get too. then I figured I'd just get the cheapo's for now. then when I do the lift I'll get the good shit. oh and the joint without the hole are"pregreased sealed ball joints". WTF cheap cheap cheap. o well they're in battery is dead so chargin it overnight test drive 2maro. Actually was fairly simple job. ill post some pics when my cameras disk is full. wont upload unless finalized.