Ball joint dust boots.......HELP!

[chevyrestoguy]

I am using an entire front suspension from a 1979 C10 under my '64, and I rebuilt it using all Moog components. Everything has been installed but not greased and torqued because the truck has been on jackstands. I am doing the final assembly and has discovered that all of the ball joint dust boots are torn and are falling apart. This isn't due to faulty installation. Those things are absolute garbage. Six months old, never been torqued or greased.

Here's my issue. Moog won't sell boots by themselves. The parts store boots are generic and thin and don't last long. I have checked both Energy Suspension and Prothane and they don't carry anything for a '73-'87 truck..They do have a chart that shows all of their universal boots, but none of them seem to be the right size.

Has anybody else had this issue on their '73-'87 trucks? What did you do?

[bdiamond]

I had the same issue. Mine were store brand O'reilleys joints. I have a few good parts guys I deal with there. I explained the situation and told them I wasn't pulling the joints to warranty them. So, I brought them the monkey'd up boots and they just gave me the new boots and kept their new joint to send back.

[Jeepwm69]

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Desimir24/m...._sop=12&_rdc=1

Guy on a Jeep forum just bought some of these and used them. I got the sellers name to try them when I rebuild my Dana 30..... His went together well and he's happy with them so far, but they haven't been installed long enough to report on how well they hold up.

[mattcrp1]

I bought some poly dust boots for tie rod ends from az pro performance, a vendor here. Give them a try, good price and very durable.

[chrismoore701]

I was installing my boots and one got a small tear in it. Do I need to replace it?

[andrewmp6]

Chris yes you should replace the boot if it has a tear in it.The boot has two jobs keep the grease in and the water and dirt out.