Sorry to hear that. But figures. I have two freeze plugs that blew out of my boats inboard engine and impossible to replace right without tearing it out. So I use the rubber "easy button" ones with the nut/washer that tightens them. I know these rust up and/or the rubber decays quickly and become a pita, so I replace them every other year.

It was a great experience. Went to replace a wheel hub/ bearing and ended up replacing 4 shocks, plugs, wires, distributor cap and more. Never tore down a control arm before- didn't really know what a ball joint was or did before. Wish I would of had upper and lower ball joints, I would have replaced them while I was at it- they are known as high failure in Blazer/ Jimmy/ *-10 Bravda- likely because they are a lot of work to lube (for a quickie lube or dealer).

I will soon write a post on my experiences of the last 4 days. I think some many find laughable and a few might benefit from lessons learn. I am going to suggest a new monthly category and self nominate myself BHNHOTM (Bone head, knuckle head of the month- only be self nomination). One of the greatest (of many) bone head things I did was try to clean the grease that sprayed out from the axle with brake cleaner while sitting on the floor wearing shorts. Next thing I new my inner thigh, butt and nuts were burning out of control- and i had to run through the house naked and full of grease to the shower....

LOL, we have enough contest and badges to format and run. Besides we all have our BHNHOTM moments. Nobody is born mechanically brilliant. Everyone has their trial and error incidents. Thats what makes an active Forum so great. That we share the bonehead moments and enlighten others.

Quickboots have been around for a while. Although at the cost of an axle these days..I'd replace an axle before getting messy and frustrated with a boot.

They need to make a zippered one. Sounds dumb I know. But it seems they could make one that has tabs that would snap into holes and retain a sealed surface.

John..it would probably be like trying to zip up a size 2 hottie in a size 0 dress w/o the enjoyment of helping smoosh her in.

I like the zipper idea. Gluing on a halved boot is near impossible as no matter how good you are, grease from the bearing is ever present and will get on your seam prior to gluing. And then you have to limit the amount of grease you use because of risk of seam getting grease on it.