Suspension Parts

[66 C10 383]

Some time back I bought everything to rebuild the front suspension on my 66 C10. All new Moog parts. I had some health issues so things got put on the back burner. Long story short, I can only find 1 upper K6098 & 1 lower K6147 cross shaft that I bough. They are the older Made in USA shafts.

I'd heard about Moog outsourcing their parts manufacturing to China and sure enough when I go to Amazon and put in the Moog numbers, they say country of origin China.

I need 4 new 73 - 87 ball joints too for the spindles I'm running.

Does anybody make good USA parts anymore? Would you run 2 US cross shafts & 2 Chinese cross shafts?

This will be just a daily driver. I've always trusted TRW/Moog but I've heard horror stories about the Chinese Moog parts.

What to do?

Who to buy from?

[theastronaut]

I've had good luck with Mevotech Supreme parts so far. I'm up to 11k miles on the Mevotech cross shafts on my '66 with no issues. Also have Mevotech upper control arms on our '79 C30 but it doesn't get driven enough to really wear anything out.

Your stock cross shafts are probably still in good shape, the ones out of my '66 had 150k on them and the threaded wear areas were still in great shape with play and no visible wear. If you're worried about part quality then you might be able to get away with reusing your old ones with new seals.

We had Moog ball joints wear to the point of causing tire wear issues within 30k on my sister's TBSS, and Moog control arm bushings split on my Festiva after a very short period. They're definitely not the go-to suspension parts company anymore.

[66 C10 383]

Thanks for the reply and heads-up.

The cross shafts's don't seem to be too loose & I don't have a clue as to the mileage, the speedo was already gone. i just thought while I had them out I'd put in new cross shafts. They may be better than the Chinese Moog's I'd replace them with anyway. Going back to Amazon website it did say the Moog ball joints were Made in USA. If they are I'll use them and if not, then I'll look to the Mevotech. Ball joints are easy enough to replace.

Thanks again for the reply.

[66 C10 383]

Update -

I went ahead and ordered the Moog cross shafts (upper & lower) and the Moog ball joints before theastronaut had sent his reply. The Amazon website said the Moog ball joints for the 86 front spindles I'm using was "Country of Origin" was USA and the Moog cross shafts were China.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the Amazon boxes that BOTH the ball joints and cross shafts were in fact marked with Made in USA on the end of the boxes.

Hopefully the USA made Moog parts haven't lost any quality control.