Idler Arm Failure

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Here is what was found inside this moog idler after cutting off the rolled over lip holding on the top plate on the drag link end of this part. Note the "Poly gusher bearing" is nothing more than a plastic washer under the top plate with three slots in it for the grease to flow around from the flat top of the pivot stud. The nasty shredded black part that looks like dried up grease is actually what's left of the other plastic part that the pivot stud rested on. It was most likely some stiff elastomer part designed to keep the parts tight inside. It perhaps disentigrated from excessive heat generated by the exhaust headers. Ole Cooter would have said "what you've got is one dried out busted bearing and that will be $500.00 to get'er fixed."

Some folks might call this a ball and socket design but it is definitely designed to rotate rather than swivel side to side hence the flat on top of the part. Surprisingly no spring inside to take up the slack. Looks more like a tapered shaft bearing than a ball and socket. All I know is no matter what you call it when they get loose there goes the toe setting and the edges of your tires.

So 7,500 miles and my chinese plastic bearings let loose. Was it due to poor lubrication, heat, inferior design or all of the above?
 

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Do you have close ups of the metal to metal wearing surfaces?

The wear on the plastic I don't think it going to be improved by moly grease and the extreme pressure additive. The scar test is a metal on metal test.

Is there a wave washer or spring that applies pressure against the pin to keep the pin to idler arm housing bearing surface tight?

Or is it the crimp on the plate with the zerk that applies the pressure?

I've recently had a pair of Mopar UCA ball joint that wear not crimped completely/correctly from the factory. The joint got loose with very little miles on the car.
 
Seems to me that there are enough of us here to start one hell of a letter writing campaign to folks like

Holley

NAPA

Moog

Airtex

etc, etc, etc, etc.

Maybe we should put the Waltrip family, Lowes, and a few other corps that are big NASCAR and or NHRA sponsers
 
Do you have close ups of the metal to metal wearing surfaces?

The wear on the plastic I don't think it going to be improved by moly grease and the extreme pressure additive. The scar test is a metal on metal test.

Is there a wave washer or spring that applies pressure against the pin to keep the pin to idler arm housing bearing surface tight?

Or is it the crimp on the plate with the zerk that applies the pressure?

I've recently had a pair of Mopar UCA ball joint that wear not crimped completely/correctly from the factory. The joint got loose with very little miles on the car.


Hi Autox, No wave washer or spring was inside this part, as far as I can tell the black, fragged piece of material was most likely designed to keep the part tite by being slightly oversized when new.

While I do not have close ups of parts, I most certainly can take more pictures and post them later.

An extreme pressure additive is not going to keep plastic parts from disentigrating but a high quality carrier such as lithium complex and a group three oil in the lithium may help preserve the plastic. Just guessing. Also, if the oil was running out of the grease and leaving the parts dry on the bottom as mine was maybe that caused the black material to get pulled apart during use. Black part may have been slotted too but it is too mangled to know.

Further, the new moog parts are adverstised as having a powdered metal gusher bearing, which means my new TRW(moog and trw owned by federal mogul) part simply has the old problem solver plastic bearing like the one I just tore apart. Also, the gusher bearing as I understand is simply the slotted washer under the top plate. Most likely the black material supporting the tapered shaft was some type of polymer or hard rubber material which probably is the same part in the new moog. That was the part that failed and caused the slack in the part. The gusher bearing or white part looked to be in perfect shape, no gauling, crushing or melting. Not sure what good a metal top plate bearing will do if the rubbery part on the bottom remains.

One last thing, advance auto has a drive works brand idler arm, their house brand name and it says it has a spring loaded bearing. No mention of poly. I guess if you are going to use Chinese parts you may as well use the good ones. I am not sure any of the moog components discussed are made overseas either. TRW, Federal moguls other brand, the one I just installed now says poly gusher bearing, not sure where it is made. Will study the box and report back.

Oh yeah, scar test is irrelevant on steering joints, used more for high speed bearings, weld test is what seems to be looked at for chassis items.

Edited in:
Box says USA as shown

Close ups of stud shaft top, no gauling present, second pic shows plastic bearing, no scuffs or smears. None of the metal wear surfaces had visible wear other than slight polishing.
 

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Marine Valvoline red grease best I have ever used, drip point 600 deg, salt water will not wash away. I have use this grease since I rebuilt my 1969 Dodge Dart 340 Swinger frt end in 1980. I have not replaced any frt end parts since then, 268,000 mile so far, hard mile at that... I have been a auto tech for 38 years, I do a lot of frt end work. I recommend Moog parts only, most Moog parts are US made they all have grease fittings, some counterfeit Moog parts do come from China same box’s but no grease fittings...!
 
Since heat from the nearby header is the likely root cause of the failure, can’t you simply rig up a heat shield or use a heat containing coating or wrap on the section of header nearby ?

And FWIIW, I had a leaking power steering pump that I thought that I bought from AZ in about 2010, they looked it up in the store records and confirmed that I had purchased the pump in 2007 and honored the warranty without issue.
And I am currently going through a warranty replacement with Rockauto, follow the on line instructions, for this one also I did not need the original receipt, the records were online.
 
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LOL!!!! Rachel Veitch might be able to give you some pointers on how to collect on a life time warranty.:)

The NAPA guys where I used to live hated when I would collect on the life time warranty stuff. They started making me wait to collect on the claim until the part was determined a "warranty replacement" by the manufacturer. Yeah, they would send the part back to the factory and make me wait for a response. I got like three master cylinders out of them, suspension parts, you name it. Not worth the battle.

The box stores use fade away paper now, and they do not keep your stuff on record over 2 years if they can't read your receipt, that is what I have been told anyway. Maybe someone should define what "Life time" means for a car warranty.
Yes I have also noticed retailers using the fade away ink on receipts! Beware of this trick, maybe laminate the receipt with clear shipping tape to preserve?
 
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