Has anyone had any problems out of the front ends that Southern Rods is selling? The reason I ask is, a friend of mine is coming down to Daytona and I just received a call from him. He is in Commerce, GA. and as he was backing out of the motel parking place, the lower ball joint broke off just below the nut. The front end of the truck dropped and that is what let him know he had a problem. The front end was purchased less than a year ago and installed and he has had no problem with it up to this point. He is one lucky person, as they were running Interstate the day before at 70-75 mph. The frontend is under a 37 Chevy pu with a 327 and 700r4 ******, if that makes any difference. I'm beginning to wonder if the ball joint was made in China??
rej, as far as i can tell, most suppliers of that front end use mopar upper balls for both upper and lower(correct me if im wrong please). upper balls dont take the abuse that the lowers do so they are usually weaker.the fat man front on my chevy uses rather wimpy ball joints top and bottom , thats why im religious when it comes to inspecting and greasing them.i plan on replacing them soon even though they havent many miles on them. better safe than sorry. plus it is usually unknown if the parts are from offshore suppliers or not , that makes a huge difference in reliability. with it breaking just below the nut as you say, id say he either torqued it down waaaay to tight or the ****py ball came from our favorite country CHINA. hope this helps, mike
I have had a Chinese made Mustang II replacement lower ball joint do exactly as described in the first post. Ever since I learned my lesson to never buy completed control arms from vendors. I build or re-build everything in house using real name brand parts like MOOG or Sealed Power. Mitch, you are partly correct on the Mopar joint. However it has been used extensivley as a lower ball joint and has proven it's strength. If I am not mistaken it also occurs in earlier small platform Mopars as a lower.
After talking to him yesterday afternoon, it is a Mopar ball joint off of a Volare. I have not seen the ball joint in question, but he is bringing it down with him. He did replace it with a moog joint he had to order as no one in Commerce had one. Maybe I am just a tightwad, but I have never used an after market Mustang II front end, I go to the junkyard and pull one and have never had a problem. I always rebuild before using and try to use "name brand" parts, if there is such a thing still. I told him he needed to buy a GA lottery ticket after driving from Indiana at 70-75 and it breaking as he was pulling out of a motel parking lot!!
That's the truth! While on the subject of ball joints, has anyone had any experience with the Howe (IIRC) ball joints speedway sells (witht the teflon race and rebuildable)? I know they are supposed to be for race only (not DOT approved) but I was thinking about them for a flyweight rod in the future (less friction).
QC problems with eom replacement parts is normally just a headache that we all experience. Sometimes these problems cause costly repairs, sometimes they are just an annoyance. When the parts in question are suspension/steering components a potential life threatening condition is created. I try to stick with name brand steering and suspension components. I have no experience with the Southern Rods unit. How old was your friend's suspension and many miles were on it?
ne**ussian, no problem with the hijack, but I have not heard anything about those ball joints. I would worry a little as they are not DOT approved, but then again, I use a lot of non DOT approved parts on my cars. I get all of my steering components from a local stock car supplier. I figure if they use them on race cars, they ought to work on my street cars. As far as the age on the frontend, it was put in a little over a year ago, and I doubt he has over 5000 miles (if that) on the truck. He does not use this one as a daily. I have had several people PM me telling me that a lot of the after market suppliers are using inferior parts on their stuff, so they can make a profit. By inferior, I mean made in China and Mexico.
August before last as I was pulling into the gr*** field at the Nats in Louisville I had a lower ball joint break. This was on a set of completed control arms I had replaced a few years earlier. I was fortunate it broke there and not on I-64 or I-65. In the exhibition hall NAPA ordered me a ball joint. I bought an old chisel in the swap meet area and by the time I had the old joint and rivets removed my new ball joint had arrived. Needless to say when I got home I promptly replaced the lower ball joint on the other side. Not sure if my control arms were made in China or not, but I'll never run with "unknown" ball joints again. It wasn't too bad having it break where it did and I was able to change it out OK, but to have one break on the highway would not be a pretty sight. REJ, I'm glad the ball joint on your friends car broke before he got on a highway.
napa suspension parts have a lifetime warranty! i have purchased vehicles with worn out balljoints took them back to napa and replaced with no ********,free! says quite a lot about the quality of their stuff.
I would sure hope that NO aftermarket supplier is having the A-frames or control arms made overseas in any Oriental(Asian, South Pacific) country. Bad enough that some choose to use the cheaper imported components such as ball joints, tie rod ends etc. I've been to "plants" in Taiwan and Hong Kong and seen the welders at work.
Sorry to tell you but the majority of inexpensive tubular control arms and new repacement stamped steel control arms as well as steering boxes, rack and pinions are coming from overseas. The major problem is most US or Canadian manufacturers are not willing to do short runs of a particular product. Not necessarily a cost per part thing but when you talk to these guys they want 1000+ per part runs and quite frankly most of us shops cannot afford to buy a couple of million dollars worth of front end components just to satisfy demand.
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