ball joints - phew

[John A. Heer]

Frank:

For better or worse, I feel like I am the expert in ball joints (watch
the snide remarks, you buffoons). I went through at least 3 sets of
ball joints in about a year at one stretch and replaced them several
other times, too. As a result, I was finally persuaded that installing
aftermarket ball joints into the stock control arms is a large waste
of time and money. The sockets get too loose (not Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec) to handle any type of stress on the ball joints. If
you do any kind of performance driving (i.e. autocross, track, etc.),
then the new ball joints will go bad very quickly.

The Moog ball joints are great parts, but with the loose socket in the
LCA, they cannot withstand the forces. It's much better in the long
run to just get new stock control arms with the stock ball joints
already installed. They last a long time and are more than adequate.

John Heer
07 Mazdaspeed3
93 SE-R (sold 12/06)
91 SE-R (R.I.P. 8/03)
98 SE (R.I.P. 11/04)

On 3/13/07, Frank Ewald <frank_ewald at sympatico.ca> wrote:
<snip> After that scenario I
> got the auto parts store I got the MOOG ball joints from to have
> their machine shop install them into the LCA for me.