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Ball joints....?

Blue90

Blue90

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I wanted to get your guys opinions. I think I'm gonna get the summit brand ball joints but I wanted to run it past y'all first to see if their actually worth the money. Or are they just low grade crap?:confused: Moog sounds nice..... but a little spendy at the same time. :dunno:
This is a mild wheeler (hells revenge, poison spider, fins) , mostly road trip/ daily driving K5.
 
The real difference to look for would be the grease fittings in the upper joints. I used cheapos in mine and can not access the upper bj grease fittings unless I remove the axle shafts. They are plugged with little tiny pipe plugs now. I greased them after install but before the axles went back in. The lowers are fine and the grease fittings stick straight out the bottom.

The Moog uppers have the grease fitting coming out the side and as long as you index it properly during install you will be able to grease the uppers without issue.

If I have to replace them again, I will spend the extra for the Moog joints.
 
Rockauto beats the local parts houses on moogs by a lot. Moogs are very nice. Dont forget to google for a discount code incase you havent used Rockauto before
 
spend the money and get the moogs especially since you wheel the vehicle.

Ive got the moogs on my wheelin rig and a cheap set of greasable ball joints on my dd. Like mentioned, the moogs are much easier to grease the uppers. Ive also heard that the moogs will take a lot more abuse.
 
I have Moogs waiting to go in my Blazer. My s10 already has them, but the truck has horrible tire wear and noises after 30k miles, so I'm not sure yet if it's installer error or these Moogs.
 
moog it is then!:thumb:.... I know they are worth it. I just cant believe no one on here has used or tried the Summit brand ones.
 
all that work and people still cheep out on store brand or cheep crap. :whistle:

and me just do it 1 time the right way. prem parts like moog. :thumb:
 
Go for the moog's, thats what Im planning on for the blazer.

Put a set of Premium TRW's in the K5, they lasted a year of driving with very little wheeling. Not overly impressed with um.
 
I used to beleive Moog was the best--and once,they WERE..now I've heard of some Moog stuff being re-boxed china made items and a friend who installs a lot of front end parts reports many things he replaced not more than 1-2 years ago are coming back with unhappy customers...I think today you pay for the NAME on the box,not so much for the "quality" parts that may or may not be inside of them...

The advantage of the upper ball joints being more easily greased is one "plus" about a Moog joint,but I wouldn't expect them to be better than any other brand name nowadays...BTW--with a needle tip grease gun fitting you can grease the "cheap" ball joints without much hassle,no need to remove the axle shaft....
 
Think we need a long running parts thread on quality, price, part number, retailer..etc. Perhaps a section, like the tool thread, broken down into componet categories for easier searching.

So someone can say today's date I bought this product for this price for this application, and perhaps in a few months or a year update it on how it held up. Especially if it was an off brand. Perhaps down the road we can have a comparable standard, hey this off brand is $20 less and has held up just as good.

Everyone said Moog all the way, but how many have a real comparison. I'm looking at Moog upper ball joints for the GFs Cherokee, but think I might try out a certain greasable off brand for S&G's. I mean, I pull up searches from 01, 03... it'd be great to look up a product and have someone say ya this ball joint has held up fine the last 8 years.
 
Has anyone tried the Raybestos ball joints? I searched Rock Auto and saw them, nearly identical price, then searched them on the internet to see what kind of reviews the Raybestos are getting. They get good reviews, and like has been mentioned, the Moogs seem to be mixed where before they were the top of the line ball joints. Being able to grease them easier is definitely a plus for the Moogs, but in my opinion if there is a better product out there, for very comparable money, I would like to investigate. This is a job you want to do once and do right the first time IMO.
The Raybestos units, according to the internet, are re named McQuarry-Norris HD ball joints. I think that name is correct, if you google the Raybestos ball joints, you will come across some real good reviews and also pretty convincing marketing on them.
Just my 0.02, I would be interested in a long term update from someone who installed them though. Moog was the brand I planned on until I came across some of the grumbling of late on the Moog units.
 
Think we need a long running parts thread on quality, price, part number, retailer..etc
Click to expand...

Normally that would be a great idea.

But, the way things are going these days, by the time a part has accumulated enough miles or time for a good sample, they may not be being made in the original place.

Look at all the comments to the effect of XXXX parts used to be great, but now they are being made in YYYY so they are cr*p now.
 
I spent way too many hours researching balljoints for my ram 2500 (has a bad reputation of destroying balljoints) before I came to my decision of XRF. I'd never heard of them before, but with the exception of dynatrac and other rebuildable balljoints at 4 times the price, the XRF's had the best reviews. I was finding 2 bad reviews to 1 good review on pretty much every other brand including moog. I had found a cutaway of an XRF and a Moog and that finally made my decision. It seems that most manufacturers only have a bearing surface directly over (or in the case of d44/10b under) the ball stud where the XRF fully encapsulated the ball stud with delrin (plastic.) through my internet research I found that some of the Moog's used delrin while others used a soft metal (brass? bronze?) which really points to them being relabelled parts from whoever is the cheapest supplier at the time. So untill someone builds a quality rebuildable ball joint for a d44/10b (like Ballistic fab was rumored to be doing), my vote will stay with XRF.
 
diesel4me said:
BTW--with a needle tip grease gun fitting you can grease the "cheap" ball joints without much hassle,no need to remove the axle shaft....
Click to expand...

I demand PICS !!! :D

I have a needle tip grease fitting on one of my guns and there is no way it's fitting in there.
 
mrschaeferpants said:
Think we need a long running parts thread on quality, price, part number, retailer..etc. Perhaps a section, like the tool thread, broken down into componet categories for easier searching.

So someone can say today's date I bought this product for this price for this application, and perhaps in a few months or a year update it on how it held up. Especially if it was an off brand. Perhaps down the road we can have a comparable standard, hey this off brand is $20 less and has held up just as good.

Everyone said Moog all the way, but how many have a real comparison. I'm looking at Moog upper ball joints for the GFs Cherokee, but think I might try out a certain greasable off brand for S&G's. I mean, I pull up searches from 01, 03... it'd be great to look up a product and have someone say ya this ball joint has held up fine the last 8 years.
Click to expand...


Sir you are a genius:thumb:
 
Fordum said:
Normally that would be a great idea.

But, the way things are going these days, by the time a part has accumulated enough miles or time for a good sample, they may not be being made in the original place.

Look at all the comments to the effect of XXXX parts used to be great, but now they are being made in YYYY so they are cr*p now.
Click to expand...

This is very true. However, you imagine the part number would change then? That'd be helpful. We would need a way to keep up with that aspect as well. I imagine certain Proudly made in the USA parts would keep that from happening, but those are few.
 
I didn't say it was EASY to grease them with a needle point grease gun tip--just that it can be done without removing anything...I put the grease fittings that look like a countersunk hole,like they put on the front driveshafts CV joints centering yoke--by turning the axle shaft so the U-joint isn't directly in line with the fitting,the needle point tip can be inserted at a slight angle and you can get the grease to go in..I had one tip that was large enough to let you pump grease right into the hole the fitting threads into also,you didn't even need a zerk to do it!..
My experience with ball joints on my trucks is I usually have to teplace them,then I grease them maybe once again,by then the trucks either get sold or junked!...
 
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