Well that time has come for new ball joints and I went out and purchased 4 new ones. I noticed neither of the two uppers or two lowers looked the same. The lowers look Ok, one has the contours cut out of the base, the other is more trapezoidal in shape, both should bolt up fine. The uppers are another story.

I have one upper ball joint that resembles the OEM and follows the profile of the spacers. The other, however, looks a heck of a lot more like a 2wd pick up ball joint. The bolt holes line up but the joint center is closer to the center of the truk and it does not follow the spacer or OEM profile. It has a smaller footprint which is bad. That smaller footprint ncreases stress on the a-arm or spacer if you have it.

I *think* the truck will align with the odd upper joint but I would have to crank the adjuster cams in a lot to compensate for the change in joint location. However, I'm not going to find out. I'm going to find the correct joint. Making the wheel track width narrower is not what one would typically recommend for a truck with lift.

So far I have had my eyes and hands on just about every ball joint n the area and am left with ordering one from the dealer if the local Napa doesn't carry one.

I would like to suggest to anyone that is replacing upper joints to make sure you get ones that have the OEM profile. I believe, but am yet to prove, that the aftermarket parts suppliers are cutting corners (literally) trying to pass off the 2wd pick up joints to 4wd truck owners which is not good.

Frank

 

Well, the wife went to Napa with a ball joint spacer to match up and sure enough, first time is a charm and she gets one that matches like it should. It is not a Moog though. I think I will call around this week to try to get the stright story from Moog as to why they are skimping on their ball joints or, if they just have a lot of stock mispackaged.

Frank

 

This is good to know. I may be replacing some bj's on the '92 relatively soon. I was going to go with Moog, but......??? Hmmm....are you sure it wasn't just a case of wrong part/wrong box?

 

Same here! I was thinking moog because i heard they were good, but if not then i don't know. I could move the Ball joint around pretty easily but for now the bj's feel fine, but im going to replace them soon anyways,

 

i got 2 from the local napa store both same part number for my uppers and ended up with a t100 bj in one box (didnt think to open the second box and check) quite abit bigger but im glad all our autoparts stores like me as they didnt have another and i had to get one delivered from the other side of town

 

I have moog balljoints, upper and lower, no problems at all???? On a side note, i'm pretty sure Napa's parts are spicer parts, which are made by Dana, so they are also really good quality.

 

I don't think the Moog joint is bad, I think it's mispackaged. I haven't had a chance to prove this but from memory what I pulled out looked a lot like the 2wd pickup upper ball joint. Now, if a load of Moog uppers are mispackaged, well, you might find you have to go with another brand.

If you are installing spacers, just bring one with you and make sure the uppers you get have the same profile as the spacer.

If ordering online, beware, it could make returning them difficult and it is unlikely the person on the other end will know enough to make sure you are getting the correct part. All they will see is the part number on the box.


Frank