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Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions?

Posted By: moparAL

Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/18/18 04:49 AM

I am rebuilding my complete front suspension and came across this Afco 20034LF upper ball joints. They included a dust boot, did not require a preload adjustment, and low friction design. It specified circle track use. Could I use this for a street/autocoss application? Your thoughts?
Posted By: RylisPro

Re: Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/18/18 05:18 AM

I have never used any AFCO products before so I can't really comment. Where are they made? If they are good high quality parts I don't see a problem.

Personally I use Howe 22320 upper control arm ball joints

http://howeracing.com/index.php/precision-ball-joint-screw-in-upper-fits-k772.html
Pricey yes, but the quality is all there and buttery smooth.
Howe is the same company that builds the TA2 Challengers

Best of all Made in USA
Posted By: moparAL

Re: Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/18/18 05:53 AM

I have seen the Howe and QA-1 low friction ball joints (super cool)but they are really race pieces and require periodic preload adjustment and don't have dust boots.
Posted By: RylisPro

Re: Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/18/18 07:44 PM

Admittingly I haven't even touched my ball joints as they have been on my car for 3 years since install haha! That's with two track days at Big Willow, two at Sonoma Raceway and one at Laguna Seca, with driving to and from each location and 3 years of street driving in between. So my Howe upper ball joints are probably all jacked up from all that mileage. I haven't adjusted or lubed them or anything as I have simply forgot about them until now haha!

They have worked fine so far though, have never had any problems with my front suspension. Nevertheless I will open them up this weekend and check them out. I will probably get a new set and install those and send my current set back to Howe for inspection.

Oh yeah the dust boots are sold seperately part number 22399 for regular and 22399V for Viton heavy duty version.
Posted By: moparAL

Re: Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/19/18 12:43 AM

I hope your parts can be reused.
Posted By: RylisPro

Re: Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/29/18 09:05 AM

My new Howe upper ball joints arrived in the mail and I took off my old upper ball joints for inspection. Mind you these things have never been touched in 3 years haha!

Brand new upper ball joint to the left and old on the right. I installed the new ball joint so my car is ready to go.

Old ball joint disassembled and grease cleaned off for inspection. Everything looks good from the housing, ball/stud has no major galling or nicks still very smooth, o-ring still good. You can see the areas of wear on the ball as it has a mirror finish as well as slight wear on the housing. Other than that there is no damage whatsoever.

Re-assembly and setting lash is very simple. Tighten cap down with 1/2" drive until it comes contact with ball, then back off 1/8 of a turn. I have to get some Redline CV2 and re-grease but I would not hesitate to re-use these upper ball joints in the future. They will be spares on hand ready to use.

Last tip is to not use the Howe dust boots as they do not have a metal insert in the top portion to keep things sealed. I instead used a Moog dust boot and these are still great after 3 years of use/ kept all the grease inside.

So there you have it. You can run Howe upper ball joints on the street for 3 years if you had to, but I don't recommend it haha! I just have to remember to inspect these every January.
Posted By: 68rrunner

Re: Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/30/18 05:58 AM

Good to know! I need to put together another set of control arms soon and these may have to end up on the list!
Posted By: Mopar Mitch

Re: Low Friction Upper Control Arm Ball Joints, Opinions? - 01/30/18 08:03 AM

Question to all -- I've just reinstalled one of my spindles (no rotors etc) and the one spindle I installed is hard to turn/move freely. Could over-tightening the two nuts (uca, lbj) for the spindle cause this? 100 top, 80 lower. I have yet tried to the other side. I'm thinking that maybeeeee as its tightened against the extended height rubber snubber which i use against/under the UCA, that maybe that has caused this situation.

No motor yet as the kframe was just recently reinstalled after the engine bay was redone.
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