Quality lower ball joints.

I'm looking to buy new lower ball joints for my cuda. I've been searching for American made moog ball joints for it, but I can't seem to find any online, only the uppers. Are there any other quality replacement brands?

Check with Firm Feel?

https://shop.rareparts.com/MVMK781-...RIGHT%20LOWER&veh=1973-PLYMOUTH-CUDA

https://shop.rareparts.com/MVMK783-...0LEFT%20LOWER&veh=1973-PLYMOUTH-CUDA

Sometimes pricey but Quality and a lifetime warranty cost $$

Search Advance Auto Moog K781 or Moog https://www.moog-suspension-parts.com/search.asp?pg=1&section0=&stext=K781

Advance Auto's price is $74 at my local store. What I did a few years ago was ordered some Moog parts and they actually had them in stock at two local locations. My closest store had one part of the pair I need made in USA and the other made in Mexico. I called the other store and both parts were manufactured in USA......guess where I went.

Moog lists the price as $81.01 on their site.

Before you decide what to buy, at least find out what NOS parts cost. The price might or might not be as crazy as you might expect.

I bought NOS lower ball joints for my car and was surprised that the movement between the ball joint stud and housing was 0.030" - 0.040" when new. The factory service manual says to replace lower ball joints when this reaches 0.070".

The original factory lower ball joints on my car arrived at 0.070" play at 160,000 miles.

If you want a hex tri-slot nut with SAE threads as original on your ball joint, note that many aftermarket ball joint studs have metric threads.

I had very bad luck with Moog ball joints, as have many others on this board. The last ones I bought fell apart in the box.

i have been crabbing about moog quality for at least the last 15 years.
the rubber boots crack in less time than it takes to think about the word "crack", even without driving the car and having it stored in the garage.
the joints themselves also seem to wear out super quick.
i don't know what to recommend for quality joints these days, although ProForged seems to have a reasonable reputation.
it almost seems EVERYTHING is junk anymore.
just my opinion as an old guy mumbling in his cheerio's. your results will vary.

Same here moparx. Moog rubbers suck now. You can email their customer service from their site and ask about a specific part number and they'll give you the country of manufacture. American made stuff usually good except the rubber; it'll still crumble apart likely within a month or so. I also agree with kentj340. I always try and find NOS first, mostly on ebay. I've been able to find stuff now and then and can't go wrong with that.

Is this a manufacturer or just supplier for different manufacturers? I notice they have the larger 11/16" tie rods for my AHB Diplomat. Interesting.

they are a Mfr, and rebuilder of unobtanium parts. hence the name RARE PARTS. Top notch outfit in my years of doing business with them. They do not try to compete with Moog, TRW etc.
Only other suggestion would be Kanter or PST who BTW are one and the same. I haven't had any issues with their "kits" (knocking on wood). They both also offer lifetime warranties. Haven't had to use that and hope I don't. I should clarify on the PST side I have stuck with urethane

and have seen the same on many vehicles. Almost seems as though the formula for rubber that lasts was discarded. Likely by a newly hired graduate trying to get the GOLD STAR award by saving them a few pennies. BTW he replaced the OLD man that made too much money. The rubber components on new vehicles last so I don't think it's an EPA thing

Yea used Moog, but every box was made somewhere else than USA. Hopefully dont have any issues. Dont think theres a good one made in USA

A lot of aftermarket companies (e.g., Ridetech) have gone to ProForged. They are made offshore in Taiwan, but the manufacturer claims they are in a high quality manufacturing area since Taiwan is a democratic country. I did research last year and couldn't find anybody saying anything bad about them, so I went that route for my E-body. They look decent, are pretty tight out of the box, won't be in service until the salt is off the roads here...

On a related note, when you grease your lower ball joints, be sure the front wheels are off the ground. That allows the grease to get between the internal contact patch of the joint. Until you lower the car at least.

I used these guys ball joints on my Mopars. They are holding up dramatically better than the Moog parts.

http://xrfauto.com/

I need to replace my upper and lower ball joints too. Is the stuff that PST sells any good, and who makes their stuff? Thanks.

Speaking of all this suspension stuff, I bought a Kanter front-end kit back in 1991 & installed on my AAR. Ball joints, tie rod ends, control arm bushings, etc. I bought a separate idler arm - probably Moog (I think Moog was good quality back in 91), & re-used the original fast ratio pitman arm which appeared to be good condition.

Anyway, the car has not been completed STILL! (I know, I know.....). Anyway, many of the dust boots have already split, & the rubber bushings for upper control arms look to be visibly splitting/deteriorating. Mainly though, did Kanter kits use good quality components?

From just sitting? That is not good. I bought some complete TRW front end kits in the mid '80's that are still on a shelf in my garage. I'm going to have to open up a couple boxes and do a look-see.

They have a lifetime warranty or have had for many years. Not sure about that far back though.
See my first earlier comment (there are 2)

moog rubber parts started to go downhill in the mid to late 80's.
at first, it was just the occasional tierod boot, but i thought it was just a possible bad batch.
then it started to show up as cracked control arm bushings in a car that was freshly restored, zero miles, and garage kept.
and yes, these bushings were installed correctly, and tightened with the full load of the car on the ground.
it has gone downhill since. i have voiced my displeasure about this for at LEAST the last 15yrs, and probably closer to 20.
however, it was happening long before i started to publicly complain about it !
almost every replacement part for our favorite toys has some form of overseas involvement in it, and since these parts are such a tiny, tiny part of any corporate profit, any complaints are just ignored.

"you need it. we got it. no one else has it. just buy it and shut up."

sad it's come to this, but it has, with no good outlook going forward.
just my opinion while mumbling in my cheerio's...........not sure how your mileage will compare..........

Anybody?

Jumping in here and hoping I stay reasonably on topic.

The next step in my front end rebuild is... replacing the lower ball joint arms. I purchased Moog K781/K783 assemblies last fall after one of them finally came off back order. They definitely look beefier than the parts on the car now.

I also purchased some NOS TRW lower ball joint arms while waiting to see if the one missing Moog part was ever going to be available again. The TRW stuff looks basically like what's on the car now, and I have no idea how old it is. The instructions in one of the TRW boxes has a 1978 date on it.

Threads like this always throw me off since I was sure I was buying the "better" parts w/ new "Made in America"-labeled Moog. The boots on the old TRWs should be replaced, but otherwise they're just new old standard stuff. Now I'm second-guessing myself on which parts to install.

Oh, I'm pretty sure I read that there's something different about the Proforged lower ball joints' geometry than OEM. I'd like to be more explicit, but didn't keep my notes from when I was researching parts.


EDIT: I think we already installed the Moog lower ball joints and were only waiting on the correct tie rod ends to complete the reassembly. That's what happens when you don't wrench on the car when the cold weather sets in.

I'm just going to go with nos ball joints for the lowers. Has anybody tried qa1 for the upper ball joints? They're usa made and all of qa1s parts I've used so far are excellent quality. Also, has anybody used the polyurethane boots that energy suspension sells? I was looking into a set of their ball joint and torsion bar boots.

I would go with NOS first although I think the American made Moog stuff is okay EXCEPT the rubber in the grease boots, which of course almost makes them useless if you have to still source those. I looked for just grease boots for my AHB Diplomat and someone was selling NOS ones for $60 a piece!!! Just the boots! No thanks.

The QA1 upper and lowers are my answer when I go to rebuild the front end on my Demon the lowers in the rare parts links are half the cost of QA1 and if you're not building a concourse restoration I'm certain they have better engineering/design.