"New upper ball joint" bad

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moparmandan

moparmandan

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Bought a complete front suspension rebuild kit off ebay. Left installed fine. Right almost finished when I tried to grease the upper ball joint and it wouldn't take grease. Short story, pulled ball joint back off of spindle and it is shot. Loose like it had 100k miles on it. Probably china junk. Buyer beware check them close before installation.
 
Most of those front end kits contain some if not more China Junk. Buy brand name or NOS and you won't have that problem.
 
This is why whenever people on here say stuff like "hey I need to replace a tie rod end, should I just replace everything?" my thought is NO

All of our stock front-end components are made-in-China garbage, and yes that includes Moog. It's a sad situation. IMHO if you're staying with stock front-end components I wouldn't replace any part unless it was worn, and then only replace the worn part.

Sorry that happened to you. It's a common story.
 
Yeah I know. Every tie rod end and rubber bushing was shot. you would think moog was good but not anymore I guess.
 
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lemondana said:
Most of those front end kits contain some if not more China Junk. Buy brand name or NOS and you won't have that problem.
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Funny, don't remember mentioning a name brand. but thanks for your input.
 
pishta said:
Does Kanter still sell front end kits? I bought one >20 years ago and it went in fine. Dont remember any names on the box.
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Thanks I'll check that. Also searching the forums now for recommendation on the better quality stuff. Evidently you CAN'T depend on moog anymore.
 
None of the standard, off the shelf stuff is US made anymore guys. Name brand or not, none of it is made here.

If you want US made parts, you’ll have to double or triple your costs and use race specific stuff. The upper ball joints on my Duster are by Howe, and they more than double up the cost compared to Moog.

The other thing is, there aren’t a ton of different manufacturers for the standard replacement parts. Yeah, there’s a bunch of different name brands, but some of that stuff is the same part in different boxes. Inspect your parts before install, and know the return policy of the place you buy the parts from. Quality control isn’t perfect and never has been, you can argue whether it’s better or worse now, but it doesn’t really matter much. Just keep in mind you may have to return a part or two in order to get something up to your standards.
 
Is race specific stuff always better? I thought the old adage was "A race car is over-engineered if it doesn't fall to pieces after the finish line" heim joints come to mind as race suspension pieces.
 
Good advice right there, bluNblu. Also read in another thread to remember that front end parts are replaceable for a reason. They don't last forever.
 
pishta said:
Is race specific stuff always better? I thought the old adage was "A race car is over-engineered if it doesn't fall to pieces after the finish line" heim joints come to mind as race suspension pieces.
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No, race specific stuff is definitely NOT always better, especially on the street. The Howe upper ball joints are adjustable for height and drag, you can actually adjust how stiff the ball joint is. And they’re rebuildable, you can actually take them apart and replace individual parts.

Now, in this particular case case I think the quality is better. The adjustment is totally overkill and adds complexity to a simple part, just another adjustment to pay attention to. But overall the design is similar so it’s not like replacing bushings with heims, which I don’t usually recommend for a street car.

moparmandan said:
Good advice right there, bluNblu. Also read in another thread to remember that front end parts are replaceable for a reason. They don't last forever.
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Exactly. They’re wearing parts, they have to be replaced at least occasionally, they don’t last forever. Just be prepared to return parts. Maybe that means paying a little more to go with a supplier that has a better, or easier, return policy. Maybe that means Summit or Amazon with defined and proven return policies, maybe it means buying local so you can open the box or drive back to the store. That’s personal preference, but I wouldn’t just source the cheapest parts online from some random seller.
 
Any pictures of the ball joints?

I had a new set that didn't have the crimping operation done correctly. It was the crimp of the body to the flat insert piece that the zerk acres into.

So they were loose right from the start.
 
moparmandan said:
Thanks I'll check that. Also searching the forums now for recommendation on the better quality stuff. Evidently you CAN'T depend on moog anymore.
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I remember reading a post a few years back about some employees of Moog that went off and started their own brand and were better quality, but can't remember the three letter name that they go by...
 
autoxcuda said:
Any pictures of the ball joints?

I had a new set that didn't have the crimping operation done correctly. It was the crimp of the body to the flat insert piece that the zerk acres into.

So they were loose right from the start.
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Sounds very similar. Won't take grease and sloppy like If I tried I could pop the ball out of the socket.
 
krazykuda said:
I remember reading a post a few years back about some employees of Moog that went off and started their own brand and were better quality, but can't remember the three letter name that they go by...
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XRF out of Canada only used them once for LBJ on a Taurus seemed well made
 
XRF is out of China! Quality is low... Don't hesitate to use Moog, quality will be fine. I have used Moog for 40 years on every B body & A body made with no issues at all. Install them properly & grease them every 3500 miles & you should be fine. 90% of Moog is still made in the USA & the rest is out sourced. Is the old Mopar stuff outsourced? Probably but at least Moog monitors quality. The Moog box will say country of origin on the outside & really that doesn't matter if Moog (FM) monitors quality for Asia, Mexico ect. My 2 bits..Good luck with your project!
 
I had a bad batch of Spicer brand ball joints about 10 years ago for a '70 Dart.
3 out of the 4 failed miserably with zero miles on them so i got new ones under warranty. (I bought them locally)
Put the 3 new ones in, and 2 failed again. I mean, they had 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch slop each!
I brought them all back and got Moog instead, the parts store warranteed them and gave me a refund for the difference in price.
End of problem.
I then phoned the customer service line for Spicer to notify them/complain and they couldn't have cared less.
I was shocked and insulted by this, as i was under the assumption that the Spicer brand is supposed to be a premium brand of all parts not just suspension. I paid about 20% more for them because of this and thought i was doing the right thing.
Sadly, i will avoid all Spicer brand parts from now on.
BTW, the Spicer tie rod ends were good from the start and i pit a lot of trouble free miles on the car and everything is still in good shape........
Go figure...........
 
CL3406 said:
XRF is out of China! Quality is low... Don't hesitate to use Moog, quality will be fine. I have used Moog for 40 years on every B body & A body made with no issues at all. Install them properly & grease them every 3500 miles & you should be fine. 90% of Moog is still made in the USA & the rest is out sourced. Is the old Mopar stuff outsourced? Probably but at least Moog monitors quality. The Moog box will say country of origin on the outside & really that doesn't matter if Moog (FM) monitors quality for Asia, Mexico ect. My 2 bits..Good luck with your project!
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What Moog did 40 years ago has no relation at all to their parts today. 90% of all Moog stuff is made in the USA? You have their production numbers then? So let's see them. Because I can tell you all the Moog parts I've purchased recently are not USA made.

I still tend to think their quality is better than some of the other stuff out there for standard replacement parts, but I've gotten ball joints that didn't have the threads cut properly, a castle nut for a lower ball joint that had no threads at all, and other minor defects with Moog brand parts. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but I have definitely needed to return Moog parts because of quality control issues. I would still buy Moog parts, but, like I said earlier, I also plan on having to return parts when I buy them.
 
We have been supplying quality replacement and performance suspension parts for now 33 years. We offer single parts as well as kits. All the products that we offer are QC'd regularly and we offer a lifetime limited on all products that we sell for as long as you own your vehicle.

Plus for members here we offer a discount on order of $200 or more and FREE shipping.

James
 
Thanks James.Will DEFINITELY consider PST in the near future. Seen some good reviews.
 
72bluNblu said:
I would still buy Moog parts, but, like I said earlier, I also plan on having to return parts when I buy them.
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Guess that's the way it is. Good news is I live in the country, but have an O'Riellys, Autozone and Advance on my side of town within 10 minutes. Already had to take back a Dakota lifetime warrenty mini starter bad right out of the box also. Forgot about that one.
 
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