GoFastBroncos.com

Which do you guys think are better? Spicer, or the napa ball joints?

I can get Spicers from bronco graveyard for $55 a side, uppers and lowers. It looks like the napas will be double that price.

what about Moog?

redwagon wrote:what about Moog?

I have no personal experience with moog, just what i've read on the net, and from what i've seen, their ball joints aren't that great. And you know, if it says so on the net, it has to be true!

Napa will last the longest and are the most expensive. Spicer is second best, but not as good as Napa. Price through West Coast Differentials is about 1/3 the price of Napa, and less than what you quoted (late last year prices). Don't waste your money on a Kragen version if you are going to race it.

If you beat as hard as teh desert guys you will be replaceing them regularly. Go with NAPA.
PW

Nick wrote:Which do you guys think are better? Spicer, or the napa ball joints?

I can get Spicers from bronco graveyard for $55 a side, uppers and lowers. It looks like the napas will be double that price.

That's a good price. Order those and be done with it. Spicer and NAPA joints are the exact same parts.

SteveG wrote:

Nick wrote:Which do you guys think are better? Spicer, or the napa ball joints?

I can get Spicers from bronco graveyard for $55 a side, uppers and lowers. It looks like the napas will be double that price.

That's a good price. Order those and be done with it. Spicer and NAPA joints are the exact same parts.

Napa and Spicer are not the same. Napa may be made by Spicer, but the Napa will have grease fittings, Spicer will not.

300 wrote:

SteveG wrote:

Nick wrote:Which do you guys think are better? Spicer, or the napa ball joints?

I can get Spicers from bronco graveyard for $55 a side, uppers and lowers. It looks like the napas will be double that price.

That's a good price. Order those and be done with it. Spicer and NAPA joints are the exact same parts.

Napa and Spicer are not the same. Napa may be made by Spicer, but the Napa will have grease fittings, Spicer will not.

I think that's true. Looking at the napa joints they do have grease zerts, and the bronco grave yard bj's don't.

Btw, nice to have you here 300!

I talked to mike at West coast, they have the same bj as bronco grave yard, for the same price. They don't carry the napa style bj.

Doing a search, and came across these http://www.worldsuspension.com/ShopByVe ... ms&mode=PA

It says "oe brand" Spicer was the oe brand correct? And they have grease zerts.

Poly performance has the hd spicer bj's for $125 shipped.

300 wrote:Napa and Spicer are not the same. Napa may be made by Spicer, but the Napa will have grease fittings, Spicer will not.

I'm going to very respectfuly disagree.

I just did some research to verify what I thought was still true. NAPA chassis parts are identical to what used to be Spicer chassis parts. I called my local NAPA and my local wholesale undercar parts supplier (sells Spicer which is now Raybestos) and had them describe the ball joint to me. Both are greasable, both have the gold-ish colored Zinc plating and blue dust boots. I can have them sent over and take pictures if you guys are interested.

I don't know what JBG is selling. I called JBG and had a guy pull his part of the shelf and verify that it does NOT have a grease fitting. It is sealed.

I called Affinia to get some first-hand information on all of this. About 2 years ago, Affinia bought Spicer's chassis parts division and now sells the same chassis parts under the Raybestos label. Affinia also supplies the same parts to NAPA stores which sell chassis parts under their own label. NAPA also has an economy line (Master Ride) which we should stay away from. As a side note, Affinia also owns McQuay-Norris which is also an economy line. McQuay-Norris has an "Extreme Chassis Products" line which is identical to NAPA and Raybestos (Spicer). Some of you might remember that NAPA used to do the same thing until the split their chassis parts into two separate lines... economy and premium.

The tech at Affinia said Raybestos (Spicer) does NOT make a sealed ball joint for this application. I asked him if it's possible that Spicer is still selling ball joints and he said no. What is left of Spicer (Drivetrain Components) does not make ball joints. I don't know what this means for JBG's ball joints.


So where does this leave us? I don't know. I just figured I'd gather information. Do with it as you please.

Nick wrote:Btw, nice to have you here 300!

Ditto.

Hmm...according to poly performances site, the hd spicers that they carry are sealed. http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/Cra ... 20000.html

I only inquired about our specific application. It is possible that Raybestos makes a sealed unit for other vehicles.

For whatever it's worth, I have sold and installed a ton of the greasable Spicer/Raybestos/NAPA chassis parts. I won't use anything else on my own cars and refuse to install anything else in a customer's vehicle unless it's an emergency and the vehicle needs to go NOW.

Ok, so other than at napa, where can i get these ball joints? I did a search for McQuay-Norris, that led me to a few manufacturer sites, but also to rock auto, which looks to be internet only. they carry the raybestos bj's, which are the gold colored zinc plated ones that have the blue dust covers. Are there any other parts store that i can walk into that carry these?

What were the OE Balljoints on out trucks? Mine have no zerk and have no play with 155K on them. I was going to replace them until I figured out they were still good.

They were probably Spicer. That may be what JBG is selling. Maybe they bought a bunch of new old stock? My Bronco still has the stock ball joints. They're holding up great. It did lead a very sheltered life before I bought it, though.

Napa ball joint


Raybestos ball joint


JBG ball joint


Poly peformance ball joint

Nick, does your truck even need ball joints?

SteveG wrote:Nick, does your truck even need ball joints?

Not really, but i figured since it's going to be apart to put the new beams on, i might as well.

Nick wrote:

SteveG wrote:Nick, does your truck even need ball joints?

Not really, but i figured since it's going to be apart to put the new beams on, i might as well.

Since you'll probably destroy them trying to get them out. Ha!!

Personal experience - The original sealed Spicers didn't hold up too well for me. In 2007? I went through 3 sets. Since changing to the Napa yadda yadda yadda sooper doopers, I have not had any more issues. The ones I have in there now have been through quite a bit, including taking that 30-0 hit at the 500 last year that broke my steering box. To my surprise, they are still very tight. Good stuff.