Well, along with replacing my front rotors on my '84 T/A, I'm going to go thru and replace all the ball joints, tie rod ends and bushings. Any good manufacturers out there (or at least any bad ones I should stay away from)? I'm looking for a stock rebuild, btw if that makes a difference.

Thanks!


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Original owner - '84 T/A w/stock 305HO 5-speed

 

Moog is good stuff. Stay away from the cheap chinesium, basically what you pay for is what you get.

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91 Z28
Come see The Vicious...

 

Yep, Moog is the best stuff.You can mail-order 'em now from Summit,too.
Otherwise, most stores carry TRW,which aren't bad,but definitely stay away from any offshore manufactured stuff( especially Chinese),the metals overseas are pretty soft.
Rich

 

MOOG BABY!!!

 

Hehe,

I'm designing tooling for Moog products as we speak!

We build good stuff!
A LOT of the chain store brands are made by moog also. Check out your store's house brand and see if it's moog. This is many times the low line stuff, but still good and may be had at good prices!

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Clem
SCCA TransAm Series Race Mechanic/CrewChief
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1983 Z28 with LG4, 5 speed, and (unfortunately) T-tops
1983 Z28, NO T-tops, (unfortunately) Auto Transmission (hopefully not for long)

 

Yea I'm leaning towards Moog right now over what other brands I've seen out there that's available for Firebird front-end components.

One thing I noticed tho- Moog has 2 different ball joints available for '84 T/A- a standard version and a 'improved design' version. Does anyone have any idea as to what that 'improvement' is?

 

If you can email me the part numbers, I'll look up the part prints and can tell you what exactly is different about them. It is probably a difference in the internal components (spring types, material ect.) but not sure unless I look.

thanks
Clem

 

Does Moog have a web syte??

 

Well, they're a Federal Mogul company, so hop to http://www.federalmogul.com. On the left, click on "US & Canada", then click on "Chassis (or Moog)". Then, if you want to go into their electronic catalog, hunt down "Chassis & Steering".

The normal lower balljoint is K6145, the "enhanced design" one is part # K6145T. Summit actually wants $2 more for the normal balljoint... go figure. (For SummitRacing.com, put "MOG-" in front to search for part #'s.) And wow, we've got a common balljoint, eh?


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l)

 

Clem, Tom hit it on the head- those are the part numbers. I was snooping around carparts.com when I came across the listing. So you think physically they look alike and the enhanced version just uses higher quality materials?

 

I think the "enhanced version" is actually a slightly heavier-duty application for light-trucks, but work on F-Bodies as well. That's what the guy at the store told me when I bought my Moog balljoints.
"You want the standard, or the good stuff?"
"The good stuff, why what's the difference?"

 

Hey,

Sorry, turns out those parts are built at another plant and I don't have access to the prints on them . Usually it seams that the heavy duty or enhanced versions do indeed have a design improvement incorporated in them.

Clem

 

Ah, ok- thanks for checking, though. It's not important- just curious.