I know it seems like 100% of the people on here recommend Moog ball joints and tie rod ends.

I am about ready the finish buying the stuff for my suspension rebuild and I am wondering about other options.

I was looking on Summit and seen many other ball joints that are priced over the Moog brand and we all know you get what you pay for most of the time.

Many are low friction some are adjustable. What gives? Are they better than Moog? Weaker?

 

What are your requirements?

What do you use the car for?

How long do you want them to last?

Do you want to fiddle around adjusting them?

Do you want stock height?

 

My answers in bold.

What are your requirements? I think this is answered below.

What do you use the car for? Weekend / AutoX car with a few road trips here and there.

How long do you want them to last? Forever. LOL I would like them to last as long as the stock ones did. But if there is something to be gained I could change my mind.

Do you want to fiddle around adjusting them? Depends on if its worth it.

Do you want stock height? I am going to use weight jacks so yes.

 

Then you don't really need anything special ie more expensive.

 

I hate to sound like a 5 year old but, WHY?

Really, what are the advantages and disadvantages of them?

I am just trying to learn.

 

Unless you are competing at a very high level in something where extreme lightness or strength is absolutely required then standard replacement parts should be fine and function and last to a reasonable degree. People have their favorites for various reasons but if you can't tell the difference then you may as well get the cheaper or at least not the most expensive. It may be the difference between a part lasting 19 instead of 20 years. A few weekend auto crosses won't do much if any damage. A wonder bar is a good to help prevent the frame cracking around the steering box.

 

Adjustable ball joints allow you to raise the roll center if you're lowering the car a lot. Dunno how familiar you are with suspension geometry, but there's an imaginary point called the roll center which is the point at which the car's center of gravity rolls around. The geometry of the Mcpherson strut setup (which thirdgens, Fox bodies, AE86 Corollas, Porsches, 240SX'es, 300ZX's, and similar cheap good handling 80's sports cars use) is such that when you lower the car, the roll center drops a lot more than the center of gravity, resulting in more body roll. Stiffer spring rates or massive anti-roll bars correct this but sacrifice some grip. You can probably calculate it mathematically or if you're a consistent driver on a professional level and you have a spare set of a-arms laying around you could probably do a fairly scientific test by driving the car with regular length ball joints and swapping a-arms and doing the same tests with the extended ball joints and measuring grip, track times, body roll angle, etc... One drawback to using the extended ball joints is that they do change the arc of the a-arm in relation to the tie rod end so they do cause bump steer, but apparently it's negligible until the extremes of the suspension travel range so it shouldn't be an issue.

Basically what Base91 said. Unless you're extremely competitive, your car is already tuned really well to eliminate a lot of the slop and the driver mod's been done... or you're going to run your car very low... you're probably fine with regular ol' off the shelf ball joints with regular length studs. MOOG's have a fantastic reputation and are what I'd go with but as long as you buy a set with grease fittings through a decent parts dealer with a lifetime warranty and they press in good and snug I wouldn't worry too much about it. I had factory ones wear out at about 93k, switched to MOOG, and had one of the studs get too messed up to get the nut back on when I put my weight jacks on at 96k and long story short, I have a greasable Duralast on the driver's side and a greasable MOOG on the passenger side. I can't tell the difference between the two... both are tight and are serviceable, though I may go to extended ball joints in tubular a-arms if I have the money next go-around since my car's pretty low.

 

Ok so they are adjusting the spindle height off the a-arm. I was thinking they where adjusting the tension it took to move them.

Thanks

 

I have HOWE Racing 0.75" extended ball joints (that actually lowered the car a real 0.5") and yes it raised the front roll center some, and feels "stiffer" when turning. I also have SPOHN bump steer kit so that corrects the geometry. Everything fits good and although it isn't the lowest drop, it's decent enough to go with my stock MOOG 5662 springs. The ball joints are very good quality and fitment was good, although the boots that they supplied me with did not fit properly and we had to find a boot that fit (from another car but I forget which one now).

The rear on the other hand.. I lowered the PHB 3.5" (or whatever the lowest hole is on the unbalanced engineering PHB relo. brackets) which lowers the rear roll center and so the rear now sticks like glue, even when flooring it through turns. On our cars, lowering the rear PHB I would say is a must for a V8 nose heavy car that you want to handle good because our rear ends are so light and tail happy. Maybe I lowered it too much but brake dive is minimal and when I turn it is MUCH grippier in the rear which was the weak part for my car.

This all made the car a much more neutral balanced handling car except the rear leans a BIT too much so I want to go with a bit stiffer spring in the rear to balance it out.