Front end / wheel alignment issues

Yeah I was wondering about doing the other hub as well. Thing is that I'd have to order one online again so I would be driving everything unaligned for at least another week. I'd have to bring it back to that shop to get the ball joint replaced (warranty and all) and maybe aligned but I'd probably not go back there after. I've also been looking into ball joint quality and apparently Moog is the best. When I originally asked this shop about what wheel hub brand they would put in, they wouldn't give me a straight answer other than whatever replacement part they could find. Frankly $500 to do the wheel hub and $200 for each ball joint sounds nuts (CAN$) when I can get high end hub for $160 and joints for $30. I'm really learning all of this as I go along so I'm going to avoid shops from now on.

Here's a video on how to check the ball joints yourself. That's the great thing about Youtube. Just about any repair job out there is on here. I never let a shop do any work to my vehicle. I do everything myself. On rare occasions I have to take it in for things like an alignment. But that's only to guys I know personally. Here's how to check for yourself if loose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkHeDQomX0k

Yes I've found such videos myself, which is very handy (imagine life before Internet!). I only had it at the shop to fix a coolant leak but then they discovered other things that I had little knowledge of at the time. It was practical to just let them do it at the time but I would definitely do it myself from now on. Like you said, alignment needs to be done in a shop. Some friends say we can do it with a tape measure, and that may be fine before I get on a highway. So here's another question, do you think unaligned tires can damage components of the suspension system over time? Everywhere on the net it says it only affects the tires but it must do more if you can't drive in a straight line.

If anything, it will destroy the tires first. They are the softest material. Having a snow plow will ruin a front end faster than anything else. To really mess up the front end, you would have to be so far out of alignment that you couldn't even drive the vehicle. Pretty much the only thing that is really done in an alignment is just the camber and castor of the tires. In other words the pitch in or out.

I'm assuming it is a 4x4. If the rims stick too far out it stresses the ball joints. They are already a weak design. The 2 worst things you can do to these ball joints is crank the torsion bars for hieght and put wider setting rims on it.

Former owner said he wanted to put a lift kit on it but never did. It doesn't appear lifted at all. The rims do stick out but not that much. Shop said the tires are fine but the rims are not the correct size. It is a 4x4 blazer but the 4x4 doesn't work anyways and even if it did I wouldn't use it much. Personally I think the issue is poor quality ball joints that local shops were putting in. New parts like that around this city are typically sold by parts stores in unmarked packaging, so obviously not the best quality. The mechanic even said this ball joint should have lasted more than a year, instead of just two weeks on this vehicle. I think I'll just buy some Moog ball joints and have them handy for when this happens again. Just to note, this is in western Canada and I have seen people put Blazers through all kinds of terrain without any issues, typically with their own low-tech modifications and no shops involved. I've had issues with shops before where they just make anything up to demand more money, especially if all I wanted was a simple alignment done. I'm also curious if a sway bar link could affect other suspension parts, especially while turning. These links look like they have seen better days.