What do you guys think of this?

[DeanMoriarty]

I had a mechanic friend do the lower ball joints on a 92 Jimmy, as I've never done them myself and he did it for cheap. I'd had the tires checked up on a lift beforehand and everything else was tight. Anyway, I took it to get it aligned a few days later and after a long wait the mechanic comes to me and tells me I have a bad right upper ball joint, pitman arm, and control arm. Now both tires have movement to the left and right, and very very slight movement up and down. The ball joint for sure was fabrication, I can tell it's not bad, unless he sabotaged the damned thing to make sure it will go bad. My first thought was that my friend screwed something up, now I'm thinking maybe the mechanic did something to it.
Now, a few days later, when I turn moving slow, I'm hearing a rubbery, squeaking noise... Not a squeal like the power steering pump. Doesn't do it if I'm parked and turn the wheel. Is there a way he could have sabotaged the thing? How can I tell, what should I look for? I hate to think people would do something like that, but I don't know how the thing could have gone bad overnight. I don't know enough about cars to argue it at the time, but now I'm wishing I had.

 

[mudnsnow]

To check the ball joint under a Jimmy you have to lift the wheel of the ground by the lower arm. Normally when i replace a lower ball joint on a Jimmy almost everytime i have to replace the upper one too cuz it's bad too. And its very improbable that someone have saboted the ball joint and the other part. I don't know any manners to sabote a ball joint with no trace at all.

 

[DeanMoriarty]

I got under there and checked it out today. Btw... It was the Pitman and Idler arms I was told... Not the control arm.
From what I can tell; It looks like the idler arm IS bad, but the Pitman looks fine. Idler has play in it when I jerk the wheel back and forth, from underneath I got a little bit of up and down play in it.
What if they poked holes in the rubber seal of the ball joint?
The thing was solid, the guy before me had replaced the upper's and the tie-rod ends not too long before I'd bought it. Now it still seems solid, but the seal is leaking grease in what looks like pin-pricks around the bottom of the seal... Is this normal for a blown seal?
The guy at Midas seemed totally shady. Plus, he rocked the wheel from side to side to demonstrate to me that it had a bad ball joint. Then he got an attitude with me after I refused to let him do the $900 of work on the spot, that he'd quoted me.
Then, maybe I'm just pissed off and paranoid.

 

[krugford]

I really don't know of any way to intentionally damage those components and make them look like normal wear and tear. If it does have slop in anything, it's time for replacement. Poking holes in the boot isn't going to do any harm in the short term. It'll just increase the risk of getting contamination into the joint and causing premature wear. Nothing in two days. Those holes are probably from somebody with a needle on a grease gun. You'll see that a lot when you combine an avid DIY'er with ungreasable joints (or they're just old boots and leaking a bit).

Having not met the guy, I can't speak to his honesty. At least he checked out the suspension before doing an alignment (standard practice). Some places will do the alignment anyway, then when you REALLY need new components a few months later, they'll get to do another one after replacement.

I recommend taking it around to several shops and get more opinions. If all the shops come up with the same broken parts list, then they need replaced.

Good Luck!

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Ah yeah... True enough.
That's kind of what I wanted to know... If there would be obvious signs of sabotage, and if the leaky boot would cause the ball joint to go out real soon. It does have a grease fitting in it, I shot some more in there today. I had the thing in my hand last week when the lowers were getting changed, I couldn't move the bolt with my hands so I assumed it was still good.
I'm going to take one more look and probably do the Idler arm today, since that definitely seems to have play in it... Then hope it doesn't need the Pitman replaced too. All of the play seemed to be coming from the Idler arm though. I'll deal with the ball joint another day.
Thanks for the replies.

 

[Joshs93four-oh]

Not to knock the vehicle but all jimmys and blazers have inherently bad suspension geometry and will require new ball joints, idler and pitman arms very frequently when compared to all other vehicles. I've never seen a bad tie rod on a jimmy or blazer, ever. You will get about 60k miles out of the stock front end parts on one of these and if you dont use good replacement parts you will be doing it all again very soon. You have to jack the vehicle up by the lower control arm right next to the lower ball joint to check the ball joints. If you jack it up even in the middle of the arm you will not find any movement at all even if they are loose. You have to use a jack with a small lifting cup because the swaw bar links are close to the lowers. Josh
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LAUNCH BOX VAPORIZER

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Thanks for the reply. That goes along with what I've been hearing.
Really, I just wanted to get this thing fixed enough to drive for a few months until I can get my ranger fixed... But I can't seem to get the Jimmy to the "fixed" well enough to drive point.

Any idea why a person would weld BOTH sides of the rear lower shock bolts on this thing? It was a nice surprise for me yesterday when I got under it to change the shocks.
I'm getting the bolts cut off tomorrow... but I can't help but wonder why they did it to begin with. Just to keep the bolts from snapping maybe? I've heard they break easily on these... I'd think they'd just weld the mounted side if that were the case and leave the open side with a nut, so a person could still change the shocks. *shrugs*