Parts Sourcing for Front Suspension Rebuild

I have no preference in manufacturer but I'm just gonna say this, from experience, just buy a complete, entirely complete, front rebuild kit. I tried piecing one together to save money, ended up forgetting a couple parts, more than once, so by the time I paid shipping, I'd been money ahead to have just bought the whole kit.


Hate to disagree, but I disagree.

Problem is that he's putting a '73+ disk set up on a '67. Sure, most of the stuff is the same, but if he buys a kit he will no doubt get something that isn't right for his car. I piece together all of my rebuilds. Part of that is all of my cars are modified with aftermarket parts, so there's no "kit" that covers everything anyway and usually I don't need a full kit because I've installed parts that came with new bushings or ball joint already installed. The other is, I know what I'm getting. Most of those kits don't specify the source or manufacturer of their parts. Some of them are good, some of them are not. If I put together my own kit, I know what manufacturer made each piece.

Moog quality has gone straight down the tubes lately. Their quality control has gotten pretty hit and miss. POL sells a bunch of cheap knock off type stuff, there's no way I'd use their kit. PST typically sources decent brands, but again, you won't know the manufacturers until you get the kit. And there's a decent chance if you order a 73+ kit you'll be paying for some parts that may not work for you.

I have had good luck with the Proforged brand recently for ball joints, the tolerances on the ones I've used were much better than anything I've gotten from Moog lately. Looks like they're also making tie rod ends and pitman and idler arms too, if their quality matches their ball joints I'd have no issue using those.

I've used Prothane poly LCA bushings in the past with greaseable LCA pins from Firm Feel. They held up quite well, and using those parts there's no need to pull any LCA bushing shells as long as the poly bushing fits tightly into the original outer shell. The prothane LCA bushings are $12. The greaseable pins from FFI are $125, but IMO they're worth it especially with poly bushings. Proforged makes a very nice set of poly LCA bushings, but they come with the outer shells so they require pulling the old shells. I use GMachineDartGT's (Bergman Autocraft) Delrin LCA bushings now. They're awesome. But they replace the outer shells, so, you do have to remove the LCA shells to install them. They're great, high quality parts, but they're not exactly in the "budget rebuild" category.

For upper control arm bushings, if you have the stock UCA's you want a set of Moog K7103 offset bushings. They'll let you get more positive caster, so you can actually run decent alignment numbers. Even if you go poly everywhere else, I'd use those bushings as Moog is the only one making offset UCA bushings that I'm aware of. Everything else out there is non-offset. I wish Moog wasn't the only source for them, but they are, and for stock UCA's they're a must have IMO.

And now you start to see why I don't buy kits. There isn't a kit out there that has the best of everything. Or that takes into account different model year parts being used on the same car. Or an assortment of aftermarket parts. It's more labor on the front end to find and order everything yourself, and it's usually not cheaper. But getting the right parts, not getting stuff you don't need, and knowing that you got the quality of parts that you wanted is important and worth the effort.


But if you can get a complete kit where everything is correct for your car it is a good idea to buy from all at once from one source like dukeboy says....