new lower ball joints worn out in 4000 miles?

I thought of that. I told them it had all fresh parts with less than 4000 miles on them. They check everthing before they align it and said the parts were worn. Then they invited me down in the pit to watch while the mechanic moved my wheel all over while it was in the air. He grabbed the tire and wiggled it back and forth. Then pryed it up and down. The play was at the lower ball joint and movement was about 1/8" in each direction off center, plus up and down. They both moved a lot!

I didn't look for the play in the idler arm. He said it was moving up and down when the sterring wheel is moved back and forth. He explained the new bearing design moves up and down significantly after a short while, but is otherwise not sloppy laterally. He says they are weak that way, and it's a problem due to the angle of the tie rods.

The cool thing that happened on my visit there, was that they had to fire up a late 60's Hemi 4-speed Satilite to bring my car in. These guys have worked on my stuff before, and they were good. All they do is front ends, and are happy to show the slop in worn parts. So, I think they do legitimate work...

the parts in a JUST SUSP kit are made in China.... They are not MOOG....

well, that rules out that possibility. at least you have found a good, legitimite shop, especially if they invite you down in the pit to look at the problem, that way you know they aren't BSing you.

I should have known that at the first machine shop I took my engine to. they wouldn't let me in the back because "their insurance won't allow anyone back there, and won't cover anything if I got hurt"

the new shop gave me a grand tour when I walked in the door!

I did the tie rod ends on a newer sebring. he bot the parts at advance and in a little over a year i was doing them again

before you replace the parts, check them yourself.. cuz i have been thru this before, took my old dodge in, they said it needed everything, I then asked them to show me how they checked them (new parts) and the man checking them checked the joint with them unloaded,(with it in the air)(joints are basically pulled away from thier sockets) and the wheels moved all over the place, and according to the manual some are supposed to be checked loaded(with the weight of the car on the joints)(joints are pushed into thier sockets) then you can check for wear and play and check your wheel bearings, they may be a little loose..

Hope this helps, PM me if you want the instruction from a shop manual on how to check the joints.

Thanks for saying something Don! I broke out my old, yellowing-paged service manual and it gives a .070 spec for axial runout from the arm to the ballstud with the weight of the car on the control arm and the wheel being lifted. I'll get out and check that this morning.

Oh, the ball joints were part of a street/strip suspension kit from Just Suspension. I gave tehm them a call this morning. They were going to exchange them without question. I got my car up in the air per the manual with the weight on the lower control arms with the front wheel "dangling" and the Axial runout was .025 to .035 . The spec is for .070, so they are good.

I did find the idler arm was way sloppy on the bolt that passes through it with the ball stud part of the arm moving up and down 1/3 of an inch or more. I'm going to put my original one back on for now. I'm told the bushing is serviceable, so I'll shop for that part before throwing it in there.

your welcome, glad you checked it out before replacing them

there should be no play in any joints...no play in the ball sockets and no plays in the tapered shaft..in the shaft could be a worn out hole in the other unit...

a buddy rebuilt the front end of his '71 road runner a few years ago. Just Suspension parts. doesn't have 4000 miles. just had to rebuild it again. parts were shot.

three cheers for Chinese parts!!

The idler arm is easy to check. Hold onto the bumper with one hand and grab the idler arm in the other.
try to move it up and down. Any play is bad.

I am going through the same thing right now. I rebuilt my Entire suspension with everything new.In less than 200 miles my upper and lower ball joints are shot. They are new TRW. I think they sold out to a Chinese company.

I just stumbled across this information on the differences etween MOOG and the Just Suspension ball joints over on the Slantsix. org page. Interesting reading. You'll have to copy and paste I think.....http://www.cbodydrydock.com/content.php?article.20

As I understand it if you raise the car on the front arms that takes up play in the lower ball joint you can have up to 50 tho play in these joints ( like the old VW beetle ones ) if you have the car with the front arms hanging free you will get lots of movement and think your ball joints are shot in the UK we have to have an MOT every year that includes front end inspection lights rust all sorts of things including a brake test and many inspectors fail my Barracuda on lower balls until I show them the correct way to test them acording to the workshop book hope this helps

Intersting! I'll check them both ways in the morning. It could explain why I could not duplicate the looseness that I saw when the car was on the shop's rack.