94 4x4 D35 ball joint recommendations

[jballard81]

I promise i searched!

found a thread from 2013 that recommended Raybestos pro ball joints, but it looks like Moog has bought up that line as well and quality has become questionable.

I believe in my research the other suggestions (spicer, napa pro) were all made by the same group (Affinia) which was then bought up by Federal-Mogul.

Anyway, i would like to only do this job once and would appreciate recommendations for quality ball joints.

Cheers!

 

[rumblecloud]

Can't comment on the quality, but I used the SKP versions from Rock Auto. That was in '22 and so far no issues -- fun job though.

 

[Curious Hound]

Getting ready to do my 93 soon. Haven't ordered parts yet.

 

[jballard81]

this will be my first time doing them, so i am going to keep doing research and will let you know what i find. thanks for the suggestion rumblecloud!

 

[jballard81]

Apparently a few years ago, all you needed to look for was the zinc anodized body and a blue dust boot to recognize a quality ball joint.. Scrolling through the options on RockAuto just about every other ball joint has a zinc body and blue dust cover. doesn't matter if it's 4$ or $40, guess that makes that distinction pretty worthless.

Maybe it's just this easy, but Bronco Graveyard has Spicer upper/lower kits (1 of each) for $43 each, so ~$86 for all 4

SUSPENSION BALL JOINT KIT-Broncograveyard.com

Original Equipment

shop.broncograveyard.com

as long as you are ok with non-greaseable

I was looking for Raybestos Pro new old stock on eBay and didn't have any luck. I've seen some good reviews on AC Delco gold, they appear to still be made in USA as well.

research continues

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

I wouldn’t run anything but Dana/spicer stuff. I’ve always used them and never had any problems.

 

[Shran]

Dana/Spicer are probably your best option.

I used AutoZone Duralast ball joints in my '88 about 10 years ago/52k and they have held up great. They were very expensive. I have also used the extremely cheap ones... I am pretty sure my crawler has the $5 RockAuto specials in it and those have also been fine for almost 15 years now.

Moog in general is now expensive junk. I can live with either of those but not both... it better be cheap if it's junk and expensive better be good.