Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

Well,
We just verified what problems some other people have had and posted about earlier. In putting a pair of drop spindles on a 67 C10 last weekend, we decided we should replace the ball joints while we were at it. Hearing others issues with parts store ball joints not fitting their spindles we did some checking. All the parts stores in Marion that we checked... none of their standard ball joints would fit properly. When installed, the hole was too far off for the castle nut to do its job. They didn't even fit our original spindles right. After questioning the guy behind the counter at Autozone, he said he could get Moog joints from their commercial line of parts. He got them in within a couple days... and they fit perfect. Of course they were a little more expensive, but they worked. So keep that in mind when you are buying replacements for yours.

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

I replaced half the parts in my CPP spindle/disc brake kit because they were no-name Chinese junk. Went all moog on suspension parts and ditched their no-name Chinese wheel bearings with Timkens (stamped "made in the USA"). The Chinese brake pads they sent didn't fit in the wilwood calipers over the Chinese rotors they supplied so I ditched those in favor of wilwood pads.

I replaced so much junk in their kit it would have made way more sense for me to just buy their spindles and buy everything else separately.

I wrench part-time at work as well (little and big diesels) and it drives me insane how 95% of the repair parts I get (from Napa or o'reillys) are the same offshore manufactured junk. No wonder I have the make the same repairs over and over.

Maybe trump will build a wall in the ocean too that will stop all this cheap crap from coming in.

(And in a completely unrelated note- anybody want to buy some brand new control arm shafts, wheel bearings and brake pads? All top quality, I assure you! LOL)

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

I have priced moog parts at Autozone & advanced auto & summit racing is almost half priced compared to the other 2 stores

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

Aftermarket parts in general (at low end of the price range) seem to be going downhill. I'm talking about for my later-model daily drivers too.

The parts store is always willing to give a new part after the one you just bought and installed failed, but no one refunds the time you spent doing the job twice. I barely had time to do the job the first time!

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

Some house brands are just re-boxed Moog as well. I always compare them side by side.

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

Should have tried the ones in Wabash, they send all the good stuff there

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

Some TRW parts are actually Moog, as they are both made by Federal Mogul. When I bought all my front end stuff about 6 years ago from Advance Auto the boxes said TRW but the parts were Moog.

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

Thank you for posting this bit of misfortune!

My daily driver car needs new ball joints and now I'll just go with OEM parts from the dealer. Oh yes, they'll nail me a bit with charges but at least I don't have to launch into a lot of Honda Accord discussion forum searches for good ball joints.

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

CPP's ball joints fit very nice and seem like good quality. I recently used a set on my 72 swb and have no complaints at all. There aren't any markings on them, so I am not sure where they were made.

Re: Beware of cheap imported ball joints
 

I actually bought Moog components for my truck and 2 turned out to be bad. I asked and it turns out (says the counter guy) that Moog sold their name. Bought the NAPA part and it was MUCH better so I don't know. I do know that quality seems to be going down on everything. A name is made then sold and the quality is lessened. Another example - went buy a Carhardt after my 20 year old one was given by my son. The new Carhardt, the exact same model and it was just lesser material, not full brass zipper, thinner canvas. We have to examine everything this day in age.