I've got some "made in the USA" ball joints that came with my front end rebuild kit from one of the supporting vendors. The ball joints are brand new, but not Moog, so I'm afraid the quality is less than desirable. It's high time I swap out the ball joints, and the Moogs are rather expensive. I just bought a new motor, new front coil springs, tons of accessories and parts for the new motor, etc, so right now my budget for the Vette is rather small.

TL;DR - Is it worth it to swap the OEM rivetted ones with the ones I have, while I wait until I can buy the Moogs? Or will they just fail, possibly causing more damage than good? Thanks in advance.

-Damon

 

if you've got it apart for motor and springs and such, now is the time to get the old riveted ones out of there and bolt in what you've got. Even if they wear prematurely, and you only get 60,000 miles out of them instead of 100,000, it will be easier to change them next time if/when you need to.

new lower quality ball joints are better than old worn out ball joints in my book...

 

What makes you think they are lower quality?

 

The originals were made by the lowest bid supplier GM could find. Might have been Moog, might not. If yours are American made they are likely up to OEM standards.

 

Replace them with the new ones u have. Get rid of the rivits.

 

I most likely have those same ball joints in my car and they are holding up well

 

Awesome, thanks guys. I was planning on it, but didn't know if anyone out there had any horror stories about these ball joints. I only assumed they were inferior to Moog because of the recommendations and such from other forum members. It's probably best to pop out those rivets now to make it easier next time.

Thanks!

 

So you'll spend 'good' money on the engine and 'go faster' parts, but not on the working parts that keep you safe and allow that engine to actually move the vehicle around on the road????

Spend the money for good quality steering, suspension, brakes and other important systems on your car. They are JUST as important as the drivetrain.

 

You don't mention how many miles are on the current ball joints, but I can tell you I replaced the OEM ball joints on my 78 (all 4 of them) in the 80's with 35,000 miles on the car...roads though in the northeast are crap and really beat up the ball joints, especially the lower ball joint with the pressure from the coil spring on the lower control arm.. The uppers usually last much longer without the coil spring pressure. About 5 years ago, I replaced the front coils and replaced both lower ball joints again since I had 2 lowers for years that I never used and it was so easy since the ball joints were bolted in from my previous replacement in the 80's...replace the ball joints now and get rid of those rivets.

In terms of quality, I would be comfortable with USA made ball joints even if they are not Moog....They almost certainly better than the foreign junk that is often sold today. I would also say that the materials back in the 70's were again almost certainly better than the non USA junk sold today even from the factory. I personally buy moog today for my daily drivers exclusively if the part is available..their parts are simple superb and worth every dollar more you pay for them. I replaced the OEM outer tie rods on my 2001 Grand Prix at 60,000 miles with Moog and today at 180,000 miles on the car, those tie rods are perfect....grease fittings versus no grease fittings on the GM tie rods. on my 2008 Chrysler 300, the OEM outer ties rods were shot at 40,000 miles and replaced with moog...perfect today at 125,000 miles. Just last night replaced, the OEM upper control arm/ball joint assembly (sealed ball joints again...no such thing BTW) with moog and the the pass side one was so loose that it separated from the socket removing the nut with an air gun...scary! The drivers side upper control arm/ball joint was not dangerously loose but still had noticeable play in the ball joint...crap. I have also replaced the front tension strut with moog parts on this car...my experience with moog is you do it once and never again which is why the parts are expensive....If the OEMs used moog quality parts from the factory, moog would be out of business...

 

I bought a moog steering stabilizer kit for my lifted dodge truck... and the same time I bought some economy shocks I believe were made in china.... I was surprised to see that the "moog" shock was identical in every way with the same type of identification markings and welds, paint you name it.... Moog is one of my clients so when I was at one of their locations working on their equipment I asked about it and basically got the response that like anything else these days not everything with their name on it is made by them.... (They are into everything from space and defense to medical)

Look at Timken bearings... One of thier employees told me the same, They now lease the rights to their name to some other Japanese bearing company for the automotive line so they could focus on the industrial bearing lines where they told me the real money is...
I asked about it because a shop that races told me they always used timken bearings because they held up longer than any other and then something changed a few years ago and the bearings no longer hold up as well....

its all marketing these days... many one the old trusted name brands are no longer physically making products but instead the brand name is now been bought and foriegn and often generic parts are labeled with these brands like autolite. (I tell this story a lot but I bought 4 spark plugs for a wv kit car I owned and 3 of them were all made in different countries "under license" to use the autolite name by honeywell (the owners)

I repair electronics like tv's as a hobby and see this shell game all the time... Same tv sold for 1,500 is also sold in a different case with a different badge for $800..
also OEM is not always better,
My father bought a Polaris (made in the USA) side by side four wheeler... I was surprised to learn that all the original suspension parts lacked grease fittings but the genuine polaris replacement parts were different and had them? Genius way to make more money?

 

I'd guess the parroting here that states moog is superior to all other brands?

 

The Chinese parts will always LOOK just like the well-made American parts. That's what they use to copy the "appearance" of good quality parts. But, the chemistry of the material used for those parts and the heat treatment applied to them are more costly and CANNOT BE VISUALLY DETECTED. So many of the foreign (low cost) parts use cheap (and weak) metal and don't heat treat them at all. No, an American company couldn't get away with not heat treating parts; but who is going to do anything about a factory in China that makes junk parts and sells them here? Especially when the folks ordering/purchasing those parts DON'T CARE!! All they want is a cheap-a$$ product that they can sell at "The ZONE". And idiots buy them! {Of course, their car is 'on the hook' sometime down the road because of failed parts. The owner may be in a 'box', too.}