I'm putting a 1966 Dodge Coronet Deluxe two door sedan together for street use,(former six cylinder 3 speed car) 440 pump gas motor with a NP833 O.D. tranny with a Dana 60 rear with 3.54 gears and Mopar road racing replacement rear leaf springs. Nothing serious for at the track racing I'm a drag racer and I want this car to handle well on the street and for the parts to last a long time. My question is for the front suspension parts and rebuild kits, which brand parts are the best and who's the worst I used a "Just Suspension" Poly kit in my last street car, the idler arm didn't last 3,000 miles I found Moog, AC Delco and other brands that I don't know ,so who is good now and who is not
Thanks in advance for any help

Firm Feel can get you exactly what you need and sell you stuff that is NOT junk.

Last kit I got was from FF, along with some other goodies. Wear parts were Moog and have held up well. Also competitively priced as a package. Not sure what they are using now - probably Moog - but I would work with them again.

My last look into this was Moog still was decent brand. At the time I recall folks spoke well of Morris_Quay (sp?), but I have no experience with them myself.

In fact right now, my recollection is that every ball joint and tie rod end on my car is Moog. Idler probably is too. Had used some TRW at one time. Like you, I bought a kit that had some real junk mixed in with the decent stuff. Either "Mr Suspension" or PST - I bought from both when I started on the car. I thin they were both actually Kanter operations. "Mr Suspension" almost certainly was. I remember greasing the inner tie rod ends and the grease came out in circle around the seam. Those tie rod ends saw zero miles!

I have a Spicer idler arm, replaced a TRW that was shot in probably 1000 miles of ONLY street driving.

I run the Moog stuff also. I even paid double for a K783 lower ball joint at NAPA auto parts
that wasn't available at the time anywhere else.

Put me on the list for buying one of those garbage kits. I forget if it was just suspension or pst. 2,000 miles and the ball joints were rattling more than the parts I replaced. Since then I've been using moog with good results.

i use moog with good results.

i also started saving good front end components from parts cars, because well i am cheap, and i know the used parts are still tight and probably better than most of the junk you can get now a days.

I went with Spicer, but have to wait until its on the road before I can truly test it. Tim

Thanks to all of you for the help on making the proper choice on which brand to buy I ended up ordering all Moog parts, ball joints, idler arm, upper and lower bushings and the special offset upper A arm bushings to improve the caster. I have not yet decided on what to do about the lower conrol arm struts yet, what do you guys recommend? Stock or better ones? Thanks again in advance

the moog improved design strut rod bushings are good and are not much more than the standard bushings. Rock auto has them listed for ~40 bucks

Hello,

According to a recently retired moog engineer "if it does not say made in america on the box its junk". They were bought and the new people running the show are bean counters. The engineers used to run the show for decades and now he could't believe the decisions being made. That was a big part of why he opted out.

Damon

I went and bought some Moog ball joints because of this thread
still Made in USA


I don't need them but its good to have spares

I went and checked my upper ball joints on my Hotchkis A arms as I don't ever remember seeing this "Moog problem solver" mark on the top.

I doubt even the Hotchkis Mopar upper A arm ball joints are Moog

Better stock up fellas

We used to use Moog until we started having consistency/longevity issues. We've moved on to a more consistent/higher quality manufacturer now.

http://proforged.com/

According to that post it says that the Moog stuff is "assembled" in USA or Mexico, not actually manufactured here, and I'm not sure where they source their materials and machining from?

The next step up would be Howe stuff, but that would bump the cost of a set of upper control arms 100-120 bucks?

I've seen the Howe stuff and it looks good
Pricey though at $74 for the regular upper ball joint and $84 for the extreme duty
https://www.howeracing.com/p-7921-howe-22320-fits-k772.aspx
Just not sure if they have a lower ball joint though?

Wonder if my wheels could clear a +.3 or +.4?

MOOG (recently purchased by Federal-Mogul in the late 1990s) has its reputation as the dominant aftermarket supplier.. and highest quality, in particular with their "Made in USA" products. In fact, MOOG still supplies nearly 100% of the NASCAR parts... there IS a difference and MOOG has the advantage.

TRW has been the dominant OE domestic supplier for the big-3 car/truck mfgrs... Look for TRW parts with "Made in USA" on their cartons. You can't go wrong with either MOOG or TRW with "Made in USA" products.

Others??? Good luck and at your own risk.... very simply, you pay for what you get.