Aftermarket A-arm Ball Joints with 16mm x 1.5 thread

[bigblockbanshee]

I did a short search and couldn't come up with anything so maybe this will assist someone. I just had to replace all 4 ball joints on a set of A-arms that I bought. Once the arms were delivered to me I noticed that the ball joints looked exactly like a tie rod end from a light duty car/truck. So when my previous parts-pro experience kicked in I got out the calipers and catalogs and found that the ball joints that I had were 99% identical to a tie rod end from a '89-97 Geo Tracker 2 or 4 wheel drive. Autozone sells them for $20 each and they were in stock compared to the cheapest of $27 each that I could find which would've also had about $15 shipping added on not to mention the down time. Just thought I'd pass the info along in case no one had noticed before, I hardly believe I'm the first one.

 

The Moog part number, ES3045RL, should cross over to any other brand that you may prefer but they are considerably more expensive. Although if you've used Moog before you know that you get what you pay for. I chose Duralast from Autozone because they were relatively cheap and as I said earlier they were in stock. I'm more of a Moog kind of guy but when the Duralast pieces were $14 cheaper each and still came with a lifetime warranty I couldn't pass it up. The Duralast pieces don't have a grease fitting but with the removal of a small "hog ring" around the pivot stud you can easily get a grease needle into the boot to re-lube them. All a grease fitting does IMO is provide something else hanging down low to the ground for a rock or stick to break or rip out and then you've got grease flying out everywhere and possibly contaminants getting into the body around the pivot stud, you don't want that. Hope this can help someone. Chris

 

P.S.- Don't go into the store telling them that it's for an ATV or they WILL void your warranty and yes they do have the right to do so. Use common sense and go in and ask for a tie rod end for a '90-something Geo Tracker and you'll get full warranty to use if anything ever goes wrong.

[Burt Reynolds]

I had to do the same thing. This used to be a pretty common thing. Amstarmanufacturing (ASR) also sells these ball joints.

 

The cool thing about asr is a lot of the old aftermarket a arms have oversized ball joints where you had to reem your spindles,but the asr ball joints have a stock taper on the ball joint and 16mm threads.

[bigblockbanshee]

Ya those were the ones I was mentioning for $27 each plus shipping. I just couldn't see the need in paying that price plus shipping plus the wait for them to be delivered so I decided to try to find something else.

[badassbanshee479]

thanks for the info!

[bigblockbanshee]

No problem at all, just passing on the info!

[shoopie]

i wish i had known this before i reamed out my spindles for the ES2074R joints....

[Phelps]

thanks!

[camatv]

wow didnt know that!

 

also TIM at stellar sells ball joints like these for 20 bucks each. he ships very fast also. just for a thought..