jtfoxman

Long post here but its a 98 Blazer and we just replaced the lower control arm on the drivers side. It snapped at the ball joint and the wheel angled to a 45 with the bottom of the wheel out and dropped the front corner to the ground. He had it towed to my driveway thinking it would be gone in a few days. Well its 2 weeks now and we still cant get it right.

Now I wasn't there for most of the repair and I do not know much about the older style Blazers but he removed the lower control arm, disconnected the sway bar, shock, torsion bar from the control arm and got the remainder of the ball joint off that was still attached.

I was there for the install and we got everything back together. Installed front of torsion bar into control arm, connected it, installed shock, sway bar, brakes and wheel. Lowered it to the ground to torque the bolts and the wheel now almost hits the top of the wheel well. Wheel sits straight up and down now but the front corner is now a low rider that cannot turn.

I asked him what he did and the only thing odd was that he turned the torsion bar a few turns while it was disconnected from the control arm but attached in the rear. Can this cause it to lower by taking the load off of the bar? He's stumped and it blocks my basketball hoop which my daughter uses all the time. I'd like to get this fixed for him for both our sakes.

cleveland63b

sounds like the torsion bar wasn't installed correctly, that or something got bent/damaged when the balljoint broke

jtfoxman

So you're saying since he spun the bar while disconnected from the arm that it unloaded the bar. Anyway to put it back to the original without ripping the whole darn thing apart again?

edac

This might help Lower control arm repair - Blazer Forum - Chevy Blazer Forums
"Captain Hook" post shows the link to the proper tool

jtfoxman

Thanks for the link! The only problem though is he removed what was left of the control arm and the t-bar just slid right out of the arm.

cleveland63b

it was probably already unsprung from when it broke. Ride height is controlled/adjusted by the torsion bars theres not really much else that could be wrong unless something is broken or severely bent

edac

You will need this tool OTC GM Torsion Bar Unloading Tool OTC7822A: Advance Auto Parts Probably on the loaner program. I think the key should still be in there. You'll just have to take it apart again to load up the (linear spring) torsion bar.