Best front suspension rebuild parts?

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Bossanova5

Bossanova5

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Hi All,
I'm looking for quality:

Upper ball joints. Are the Moog K704's any good?

Upper control arm bushings Moog K7103 Offset Bushings? or the Moog K408's?

Lower control arm bushings? (I think I'm going to buy the Proforged POF-115-10015 bushings from Summit)

I'm putting PST 1.03 Torsion bars, KYB gas adjust shocks and BF Goodrich 205/70/14"s on the car as well.

I know I should replace the 59-year-old leaf springs as well. Perhaps Eaton ML 373's (Which I don't really want to spend $700 on leaf springs)

Not looking to spend a fortune, just trying to stay away from the cheap Chinese parts if possible.

This is for a 65 Valiant - Slant Six

Thank you all in advance.
 
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As old as these cars are id still take moog. There's bound to be old stock available somewhere. Next would be trw.
 
the quality of moog has gone down hill and some of their stuff is all over the place fit and finish wise. about the only thing i'd trust from moog is the offset upper control arm bushings (K7103), which i highly recommend.

for lowers if you want poly, prothane, proforged, PST are all good. for rubber, AC delco gold, mevotech(orig. grade) and dorman are about the best i've seen lately.

on ball joints: delco gold, trw (made in canada), mevotech (supreme), mcquay-norris if you can find them. centric stuff is okay, but it can be kind of hit or miss.

these are just widely available stuff that i use, i'm sure there's OE, NOS or better stuff out there if you are willing to hunt it down. but any of that stuff is good quality for a driver.

rear leafs, i'd go espo. or see if i could hunt down a pair of MP circle track springs.
 
i won't use moog again. read for quite some time about how the quality dropped. then i did the front end with all moog parts.. was never right, couldn't figure it out. ended up being a bad brand new lower ball joint.
 
Bossanova5 said:
I know I should replace the 59-year-old leaf springs as well. Perhaps Eaton ML 373's (Which I don't really want to spend $700 on leaf springs)
Click to expand...

i ave ML5659 i think on our dart. they work very well.. bought them from bergmanautocraft.com. pricey though like ya said.

something thats good and more inexpensive is the 6 leafs from espo. ry good spring. springsnthings.com
 
Again for newer cars I've seen some pure crap from moog. I've been able to find plenty of moog for the older cars made "back then" before they turned to crap.
And they've made gazillions of front end parts. Even back then you're bound to find a bad part here or there. And "abodyjoe" what was wrong with that ball joint?
I've gotten several ball joints from Napa at work (I have no choice but to buy there for work)
Especially if they send me the cheapest line, when they don't have the regular line in stock
Most of these say "Taiwan" on them.
They are way too tight and bind, the car pulls the last way it was turned, the steering wheel doesn't "return", have to fight it to keep it straight.
I've had to re replace quite a few. I have no idea who makes these.
On the high end they have (something like)"ftx" "stx" which can be quite pricey. I believe they are mevotech brand in a Napa box. Those I haven't had a problem. I change ALOT of ball joints on ford vans and f series trucks.
Besides that cheap line at Napa McQuay Norris is my other "never used again" brand.
When I was an alignment guy (spent 20 years there) auto zone was next door, and when we would deny an alignment because of worn out parts many customers would go right next door and buy the parts we found that needed changed, (they carried McQuay back then) put them on and bring their car back to be aligned and the new McQuay parts would be "barely acceptable" borderline for the amount of slop they had brand new out of the box. Even if we actually measured by some instrument besides the eyeball, compared to factory allowance.
Especially on parts such as idler arms.
They only parts by that company I didn't mind using were parts like bushings and sway bar links. I've seen a bunch, I haven't had to do much front end work in my own vehicles in a while but like I said based on what I've seen I'll take my chances with moog. I've used too many of their parts over the years and not had a problem "not to" keep using them.
 
I have had a problem with previously replaced, front end parts on one of my vehicles exactly once. I have an 01 Durango, going on 12 years. We've put over 100k on it ourselves.
When I bought it 3 of 4 ball joints were shot. I had it all of 3 days before I replaced them. The uppers had been replaced with I don't know what, some time before I got it. (They were bolted in instead of riveted) I went to buy the parts and the parts store didn't have any moog uppers in stock.
I do know there was a recall on upper BJ's on them back when they were a couple of years old.
I was changing a lot of BJ's on Dakota's and Durangos back then. In fact the local Dodge dealership was subletting them to us for a while especially ones that were out of warranty or the recall didn't apply.
At the heavy suggestions of a buddy who worked in that dealership, when I needed them for my Durango, (this was some years after the recall had blown over) to go to the dealership and get the "recall package" ball joints. They were like 1/2 of what moog wanted, and available. He claimed to have used "lots of them" both at work and in his side work and not had an issue with them.
I went ahead and got the ones he suggested, have no idea who made them.
I put them in and 7000 miles later we had taken that Durango to Houston. A 19 hour drive each way.
While in Houston we had to cross a set of RR tracks. I was only going 20-25 mph, and all of a sudden the steering wheel went sharply to the left, the RF corner dropped and I was hearing a grinding noise.
We got off the tracks and pulled in to the first place we could get out of the road. I looked to find that RF upper ball snapped off at the base of the threads and dislodged from the spindle.
The Durango had a whole 7000 miles on it since id replaced those ball joints.
My son found the closest parts store via his phone.an O'Reilly's 2 miles from where we were stuck. So we left my wife and his girlfriend behind in the Durango and walked the 2 miles there and back to buy a replacement. (Not the combo I wanted to make that walk but I got out voted) I was going cuz I had to buy the new parts but wanted my son to stay back because I didn't want to leave 2 women alone on the side of the road.... In unfamiliar territory. I wanted his gf to come with and my son stay with his mom. Anyway we got to O'Reilly's and bought 2 new uppers and walked back. The counterman wanted to sell me"store brand" but I refused. I asked again if he had moog, and yeah they cost more but he brought me out 2 very dusty moog boxes.
We changed the busted one right there (like we had a choice) and when we went to check out of the motel while the other 3 checked out the next day I replaced tge other upper bj right there in the parking lot before we left. 100k miles later those moog BJ's are still on there and in good condition, no "play". I'll stick with moog, thanks.
 
The Energy suspension bushing kits are not bad also. As for going through all of this to put some junky KYB shocks on there. Look at the Bilstin RCD at a minimum.
 
I stay away from Moog when possible. Their stuff is crude and inconsistent at best. I handle these parts on a daily basis and speak from experience. The cheapest is what most want. The best always costs.
 
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