MOOG Parts VS NAPA Parts

[racsan]

i find it odd that (at least at autozone) the cheapest ball joints are the only ones that come with grease fittings, however i will say that after 8 years, those ball joints are still good & still going, grease them twice a year (spring & fall) along with the steering grease fittings. ive found napa stuff to be the most expensive of all auto parts stores, but most of the time they are good parts, inspite of the acronym (N eed A nother P art, A $$hole) haha.

 

[upnsmoke]

I'm curious about this as well. Moog has long been one of my go to's for suspension parts.

 

[--weezl--]

Upnsmoke, same as me, this last bout looking for wheel bearings for my truck was when I started doing research

To whoever asked I Incan provide references, I'll take a look tonight when I get home and see what I can find...

As for greasing, I try to do it with every oil change...


Sent from somewhere naughty!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Personally, I prefer the greaseable stuff even if it's the "cheaper" part. Just seems to hold up so much better when you can hit it with a grease gun now and then. I think a lot of stuff went to "lifetime lubricated" because so many people are lazy and don't want to take a couple minutes to grease stuff. Hell, if it wasn't for the tire pressure monitoring systems now, I think most people would never know their tires were flat.

 

[holyford86]

Personally, I prefer the greaseable stuff even if it's the "cheaper" part. Just seems to hold up so much better when you can hit it with a grease gun now and then. I think a lot of stuff went to "lifetime lubricated" because so many people are lazy and don't want to take a couple minutes to grease stuff. Hell, if it wasn't for the tire pressure monitoring systems now, I think most people would never know their tires were flat.

sad thing is many people don't know what the light means, so I still see a fair amount of driven on (shredded) tires on newer stuff.

 

[shane96ranger]

When it comes to u-joints I prefer non-greasable for the added strength. Ball joints and tie rods, greasable is the only way to fly.

Sent while I should be doing something else

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Personally, I prefer the greaseable stuff even if it's the "cheaper" part. Just seems to hold up so much better when you can hit it with a grease gun now and then. I think a lot of stuff went to "lifetime lubricated" because so many people are lazy and don't want to take a couple minutes to grease stuff. Hell, if it wasn't for the tire pressure monitoring systems now, I think most people would never know their tires were flat.

If nobody is going to grease them IMO the non-greasable will probably last longer.

TPMS IMO probably isn't bad with modern tires, my brother picked up a nail with his Mustang. With the factory 19" rims it did not show any signs of being completly flat... but it was.

 

[triumphrider-1]

I know Moog has been under the Federal-Mogul umbrella for some time now (8-10 years at least, probably much longer). My luck with them has been variable... Their tie rod ends seem OK, but their ball joints lasted a mere 5000 miles or so on my D35 before becoming sloppy (all bought around mid-'04). Spicers on the other hand (which I bought under the Raybestos Pro Grade label around '09) are up to at least 15K now and still good & tight.

A lot of people (including guys on TRS) are now suggesting the Raybestos Professional Grade over Moog.

Where do you guys get the Pro grade stuff?

Personally, I prefer the greaseable stuff even if it's the "cheaper" part. Just seems to hold up so much better when you can hit it with a grease gun now and then. I think a lot of stuff went to "lifetime lubricated" because so many people are lazy and don't want to take a couple minutes to grease stuff. Hell, if it wasn't for the tire pressure monitoring systems now, I think most people would never know their tires were flat.

I know for the duralast gold u-joint they went to non-servicable because they found that people had a tendency to over grease the joints and pop seals.

Lazy and/or it takes too much time to go around and grease everything on the vehicle.

 

[shane96ranger]

Where do you guys get the Pro grade stuff?

Rock Auto and Amazon.

duralast gold u-joint

For the record, these are Chinese made (at least the joints for my F150 were). The lady at Autozone was peeved when I made her pull the part to see where they were made. I told her to put them back when they said China on them. Then I went to O'Reilly's and got Precision U-Joints (another Federal Mogul Brand) that are USA Made for the same price because they price matched them.

EDIT: While we are on the subject..... Does anyone know of a brand of USA/Canada made radiator?

 

[94 lngbd]

Hell even some of the best winches sold are made in china, Smitty Built,CSI, Badlands. Just to name a few,but theres more.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

sad thing is many people don't know what the light means, so I still see a fair amount of driven on (shredded) tires on newer stuff.

True 'nuff. Either that or a sensor goes bad and they don't want to bother changing it (until the tire goes flat and shreds). People that lazy and stupid should not have a drivers license....

Just saying...

Where do you guys get the Pro grade stuff?



I know for the duralast gold u-joint they went to non-servicable because they found that people had a tendency to over grease the joints and pop seals.

Lazy and/or it takes too much time to go around and grease everything on the vehicle.

I don't know about other people, but when I do my oil change, I pull the drain plug then go around checking and greasing stuff. By the time I'm done, it's ready to put the drain plug back in and move on to the filter and filling it back up. And I know U-joints take just a wee little bit of grease. Not much room for more.

Rock Auto and Amazon.



For the record, these are Chinese made (at least the joints for my F150 were). The lady at Autozone was peeved when I made her pull the part to see where they were made. I told her to put them back when they said China on them. Then I went to O'Reilly's and got Precision U-Joints (another Federal Mogul Brand) that are USA Made for the same price because they price matched them.

EDIT: While we are on the subject..... Does anyone know of a brand of USA/Canada made radiator?

Most big chain stores get Chinese, Taiwan, Korea, etc stuff. At least from what I've seen. I've grudgingly bought that kind of stuff from Autozone before (there are no O'reillys here yet), mostly just because it was lifetime warrantied and I figured I would probably be bringing it back at some point or other....

IIRC, Spectre radiators and fuel tanks are mainly made in Canada.

Hell even some of the best winches sold are made in china, Smitty Built,CSI, Badlands. Just to name a few,but theres more.

Sadly a lot of companies are moving overseas largely because our Government has made this a very inhospitable environment for them. But I'll leave it at that before I spark a political war here in General Discussion.

 

[shane96ranger]

IIRC, Spectre radiators and fuel tanks are mainly made in Canada.

I'll have to go bother the people at Autozone again. I bought a heater core for my Mustang a couple weeks ago that was a Spectre and made in China.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

IIRC, Spectre radiators and fuel tanks are mainly made in Canada.

And IIRC my Carquest radiator was a Spectre, I won't swear it had a made in Canada sticker on the box though... I was thinking it was somewhere else.

Burnt the box and put the rad in the truck over a year ago so my evidence is long gone.

 

[AllanD]

When it comes to u-joints I prefer non-greasable for the added strength. Ball joints and tie rods, greasable is the only way to fly.

Sent while I should be doing something else

The "weak link" on some greaseable U-joints is when the grease fitting is mounted in the cross itself.

This is often aggrevated by people mis-installing the U-joints so that the
drilled hole (a stress concentration even though it is usually in a reinforced boss) is installed in the wrong position so rotational forces place the hole under tension (under compression is better)

Greaseable joints with the grease fittings in one of the caps is a
superior method to a fitting in the cross.

I will not install a non-greaseable U-joint in a driveshaft or as the "Center"
U-joint in a TTB setup

The ONLY place I would use Non-Greaseable U-joint is as an "outer"
in a TTB and even then I disassemble the joint, carefully wash it in solvent
to remove ALL of the "cheap as snot" factory grease, then carefully grease it with marine-grade synthetic grease (do it right or don't bother)

There is a way to have greaseable joints with no weakening of the joint...

And it's what I'm doing the next time I rebuild my outer shafts.

On TTB outers drill ALL of the caps (on a lathe) for flush mount grease
fittings, it makes it a tedious process to grease the front axle but you
KNOW the bearings get greased.

And the comfort of knowing the can be regreased.

BTW, when I want the RIGHT part I go to NAPA, if I want to have a long arguement about
which part is the right part I go to Advanced.

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