The Spohn front end kit including ball joints is $60 more than the same Moog parts from Rock Auto, except for the adjusting sleeves.

The cost difference is not that much, but my car is a street/strip car, and will not benefit much from putting the same amount of time and effort into steering as a road race/ auto x car would.

Are the Spohn components really any better than the Moogs?

 

go to rock auto and pick up the Mevotech parts. made in canada.
and alot less then moog. (i have used moog has well)never agen.

i did a side by side. cutting with a band saw tie rods from moog and mevotech. they are like twins.w/mevotech looking better inside. and mevotech was putting a. Black oxide coating and adding blue boots to theres. (and the parts are thicker) then what GM was installing on the cars has well.

i had all my parts done in Gold Zink. to match my canton oil pan and timing cover. it snow balled into every thing i could take off and could get plated. is now rust proof forever!

http://www.mevotech.com/

remember about 15 years ago TRW. was like moog is today.

 

Either way you should have years of usage. I chose Moog myself.

JamesC

 

Moog. Searched around about Spohn and have heard more bad then good. Atleast with Moogs I can go down to the local store which is 5 mins away and get it replaced. If its not there one within 15-25 will.

 

I haven't heard anything bad about Spohn steering components. Most of the issues were with their k-member. I would much rather have personal experience than hearsay.





Any other votes for Mevotech?

That would save me $70 over Moog, and $130 over Spohn's kit!

 

I have the Spohn kit on my car . The reason i went with Spohn was the quality of the parts and I knew they were the correct parts for my car. Also it was one stop shopping and not touring parts stores for what they thought would fit.

 

And how does the spohn stuff compare to the Moog?

 

My opinion is most of the of the Spohn kit are Moog parts. The ball joints even have the Moog p/n on the box. Spohn sell a KIT with parts that fit a 3rd Gen models which may be made by someone else. You want Moog parts then track down everything yourself and the person behind the parts counter.

 

You sure about this? I recall before they were just Moog parts but on their site they have updated the pictures and called their suspension parts Spohn Precision which seem to be in-house made instead of a get together kit from Moog like before.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...d-rebuild.html

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/afte...front-end.html


Just a few I found from a simple search, I have heard no bad things from Moog parts, even then getting them replaced should be easy which might be the same case with the Spohn parts.

Edit: I just checked their site and it seems they have changed or replaced their silver coated parts which have been known to have fitment problems.

 

i can assure you Spohn does not forge their own steering parts. they are relabeled parts from somebody.

 

I'm sure they don't forge them in-house, but that doesn't mean they're relabeled parts, there's a few steps in between. The forgings may well be unique to spohn, and made in the same facility as moog parts, who knows.

I'm leaning towards the moogs at this point. Still hoping for a second opinion on Mevotech though.

 

Can't speak to the quality of other brands, but Moog parts have been nothing but perfect for me, and I've been using their brand for the last 30 years. Never had any problems with them. GM used a lot of the same stuff for just about everything from 1970 to 2000. You can use 69 Chevelle lower ball joints in a third gen, so I doubt someone is going to tool up in an already saturated market for yet another offering directed at only third gens. I agree with those above, they are probably relabeled Moog.

 

I am the author of one of the threads above. I had problems with my Spohn steering parts. See the pictures in the thread linked above. They are clearly not relabeled Moog parts. The forgings may be the same, but the internals are not.

However I see that Spohn has changed their steering parts yet again. They are no longer clear zinc plated like mine are. Who knows if there are any other changes.

John

 

Exactly 87350.

The price of the Spohn kit is what got me interested but looks like Moog is still the top choice for me. I have also heard about Napa having a higher quality line of steering parts, still looking into that.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of Spohn parts and they are great, Spohn is really an innovator that the other companies copy. But I just can't recommend their steering parts.

I believe the higher end Napa line is rebranded Moog. Do some research on your own to confirm.

 

I agree, Besides their K-Member and A-Arms I hear nothing but good things from Spohn.

If what you say is true then Moog parts is pretty much the go to brand for me. The local Oreilly's has everything besides the centerlink and idler but said they can have it the next day in the morning or I can just take a 25 min trip to another one that has it. Gotta love that.

 

the reason i went moog over any other option was ease of replacement if something fails. all my local auto part stores have moog, so warranty replacement is a piece of cake (not that i've had to take advantage of it yet).

 

When we were putting my dads car together I ordered the Spohn kit for it. I layed the new stuff next to the old to get a close alignment and then installed it. We loaded it on a trailer and took it to the alignment shop. Everything lined up perfectly and nothing is loose or out of whack. The only issue was that one of the grease fittings was broken off and I had to tap it and put a new one in. Other than that I was happy with the kit.

 

Well I went with Moog parts, with the exception of UMI adjusting sleeves. Nobody could really point out any particular advantages to the Spohn parts, so I couldn't justify the extra cost.
My new steering linkage, ball joints, and springs are installed and the biggest surprises were a cotter pin that was the wrong size, and a grease zerk that had a 7mm hex on it instead of a 5/16.


word to the wise: DON'T ORDER THROUGH SUMMIT OR YOUR LOCAL PARTS STORE.
Summit had o'reilly beat, but was still at least $10 per part over the price at rockauto.com where I ordered everything from.

 

I ordered few weeks ago Moog front end parts(tie rod ends,ball joints,centerlink etc) from Rockauto.Funny thing those Moog problem solver tie rod ends(outer) have three different sizes at ball joint end when I measure them (41mm,43mm,46mm).
Originals were 36mm,so if you have wide wheels tucked inside fenders,you propably hit to tie rod ends.