Should I rebiuld my entire front end or wait for the rest to need it?

2002WRXSTi

2002WRXSTi

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So score so far is I put on new drivers LCA cause it was shot at friends house cause he had a lift. Today weather was nice so went out to put the upper and sway bar link on same side.

Now I had already opened the the pass side upper and it was a heavier looking piece than the stocker was. It also had a grease fitting for the top.
Now I have the air shock lowered and open the box with the other A arm and I see a stock looking piece with no grease fitting :mad:
Aarm.jpg

Since I have my car apart and no way to get to Autozone to say WTF, I install it and get it together before it gets dark out.

Back car out for a test drive and was like what the hell is the brake pedal so hard for? Pop hood and plug vacuum hose back cause it was the only thing I forgot :rolleyes:

Now it seems to track straight and the rattling seems to be gone so I am left with the decision on should I do the pass side or wait for it to go bad before I put in the new parts?
 
Just snapped a pic of the other A Arm with my cell. So can anyone see a difference in them?
Aarm2.jpg

If it wasn't such a PITA I would take the other one out and put one like this in it's place.
 
The first pic looks like a TRW/Moog part. Should not need a grease fitting. Cheap chinese crap needs them, not most good stuff. Old school thinking says grease fittings need to be on EVERYTHING. Its just not true anymore.
 
unity said:
The first pic looks like a TRW/Moog part. Should not need a grease fitting. Cheap chinese crap needs them, not most good stuff. Old school thinking says grease fittings need to be on EVERYTHING. Its just not true anymore.
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Yeah but the stock arms don't have them and are so dried out that they wore out. If they had fittings I would grease them and possibly have prevented them from dying.

I don't like the fact I cannot grease them and they have to survive on what they are shipped with :(
 
2002WRXSTi said:
Yeah but the stock arms don't have them and are so dried out that they wore out. If they had fittings I would grease them and possibly have prevented them from dying.

I don't like the fact I cannot grease them and they have to survive on what they are shipped with :(
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Up to you I guess. But also think how long the originals lasted. For most, 10 years or so with average milage. And there is the option of a syringe injection. My grease gun came with several.

I guess my concern would be less about the lack of a fitting and the actual brand you have. Uppers are less critical, they more or less guide the spindle. The weight is mainly on the bag. But cheap parts die quick, I would take a TRW part over an unknown greasable part any day.

Just my 2 cents.
 
There are no fittings on there for a reason. They are pre-lubed at assembly and have a seal around them that is very expensive. Having a fitting on there will just allow some grease monkey to over fill the boot and split it making matters worse for water and dirt to penetrate the ball joint. This is also why your front wheel bearings are sealed units. They last longer that way.
 
The first one appears to be the Moog/TRW/motorcraft/mevotech/DANA/etc. style OEM quality lifetime sealed boots. Boot rips, replace the arm. Those all have the standard thickness arms and typically non replaceable ball joints. Unfortunately the Chinese knock offs look very similar to that. I'd be interested to know what brand they are since I've seen all of that style from almost every brand with blue, black, and clear boots, some with and some without grease fittings.

The ones on the bottom appear to be my personal favorite style unfortunately yours also appears to be the cheaper of the two flavors so to speak. People here love the sealed OEM design standard replacement arm, which there is no problem with. I however love the second design that you have shown, they have thicker arms, and have a completely replaceable, greaseable ball joint. Those are typically made by Spicer/Raybestos, however like I mentioned before they do come in two flavors so to speak. Spicer comes in Economy line, and Professional line, Raybestos comes in service grade and professional grade. The Economy line/service grade line is identified by it's black boot and silver/aluminum ball joint top, the Professional grade on both of those come with blue boots, and a gold/bronze ball joint top.
 
Chris_Murder said:
The first one appears to be the Moog/TRW/motorcraft/mevotech/DANA/etc. style OEM quality lifetime sealed boots. Boot rips, replace the arm. Those all have the standard thickness arms and typically non replaceable ball joints. Unfortunately the Chinese knock offs look very similar to that. I'd be interested to know what brand they are since I've seen all of that style from almost every brand with blue, black, and clear boots, some with and some without grease fittings.

The ones on the bottom appear to be my personal favorite style unfortunately yours also appears to be the cheaper of the two flavors so to speak. People here love the sealed OEM design standard replacement arm, which there is no problem with. I however love the second design that you have shown, they have thicker arms, and have a completely replaceable, greaseable ball joint. Those are typically made by Spicer/Raybestos, however like I mentioned before they do come in two flavors so to speak. Spicer comes in Economy line, and Professional line, Raybestos comes in service grade and professional grade. The Economy line/service grade line is identified by it's black boot and silver/aluminum ball joint top, the Professional grade on both of those come with blue boots, and a gold/bronze ball joint top.
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The top one is TRW and I don't remember whatcolor the boot is on the repop? I'll scope it out tomorrow.
 
Chris_Murder said:
The first one appears to be the Moog/TRW/motorcraft/mevotech/DANA/etc. style OEM quality lifetime sealed boots. Boot rips, replace the arm. Those all have the standard thickness arms and typically non replaceable ball joints. Unfortunately the Chinese knock offs look very similar to that. I'd be interested to know what brand they are since I've seen all of that style from almost every brand with blue, black, and clear boots, some with and some without grease fittings.

The ones on the bottom appear to be my personal favorite style unfortunately yours also appears to be the cheaper of the two flavors so to speak. People here love the sealed OEM design standard replacement arm, which there is no problem with. I however love the second design that you have shown, they have thicker arms, and have a completely replaceable, greaseable ball joint. Those are typically made by Spicer/Raybestos, however like I mentioned before they do come in two flavors so to speak. Spicer comes in Economy line, and Professional line, Raybestos comes in service grade and professional grade. The Economy line/service grade line is identified by it's black boot and silver/aluminum ball joint top, the Professional grade on both of those come with blue boots, and a gold/bronze ball joint top.
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Thanks for that "mini-tutorial". My passenger-side front is doing the rattling thing, and I'm just now starting to educate myself on Gen 1 front-ends.

Good info, well presented.
 
The aftermarket parts are only thicker because they have to be. They are cheaper steel and I don't think they are even forged like the originals.

It's like cheap tools, thicker cheaper steel.
 
good tips, i'm soon to start buying parts for my first front end rebuild with a parts list from an older thread.
 
So here is what I have after doing the pass side UCA and LCA on my Mark. Bought the car with all new front suspension and Arnott on the front. Car had 87k and now at 129k I pulled this completely wasted junk out :mad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1phtulYtJ8
I don't wanna hear that 40k is an acceptable life for parts like this :confused: My first gen 96' had 209k on it and the LCA's were what I bought the car with at 130k :eek:
 
I bought my '97 with springs, not sure if the front end was redone also, but now sounds like a box of rox on bumps. Tires dont last long either.
 
DFlaJax said:
I bought my '97 with springs, not sure if the front end was redone also, but now sounds like a box of rox on bumps. Tires dont last long either.
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That's what mine was sounding like too. Checked to see how much tread I lost daily. Now with the new parts and not even aligned it's like a new car :D

I swear it even stops faster now :rolleyes:
 
i agree. 40k is a little short. i would expect at least twice that with quality parts.

but at the same time, you gotta stop jumping ditches man... :D
 
They are the Gold Standard for UCA's. Of course TRW and Moog have now become sister companies and I am told that most of these will now be sold under the Moog label. I am uncertain about Mevotech as they are a Canadian company who has a lot of stuff private labeled for them, and paying the price for new tooling to not have the TRW name on it is not cheap, but is possible.
 
Roadboss said:
They are the Gold Standard for UCA's. Of course TRW and Moog have now become sister companies and I am told that most of these will now be sold under the Moog label. I am uncertain about Mevotech as they are a Canadian company who has a lot of stuff private labeled for them, and paying the price for new tooling to not have the TRW name on it is not cheap, but is possible.
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Also makes me wonder as my LCA's where ordered from SuperCoupe quite a few years ago for my 1st gen. Car wound up not needing them so they sat till now but I remember a thread a while back with someone complaining that the Moogs were bad from SCoupe?

Guess I'll know in a while if they are good or not. Plus I will get to see if the TRW will outlast the Duralast UCA?
 
FYI: TRW was the OEM supplier for Ford with the Mark. If one pulls off original LCAs they should have a TRW stamp.
 
Roadboss said:
Notice pics above that clearly show the box and UCA.
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Ah, did not know that is what you were trying to point out with those pics. I thought it was just to compare, visually. Nice! I wonder why Ford did not make their own?
 
Got one of each????

Just got all my front end rebuild parts from RockAuto this week, $500 worth. Anyway I ordered all MOOG parts but got one TRW UCA and one MOOG UCA as pictured. Left is TRW and right MOOG w/ grease fitting. It's all good if they last as long as the stock ones @140K.

IMG_0376.JPG


IMG_0377.JPG


IMG_0378.JPG


IMG_0379.JPG
 
Well even tho my car didn't pull or wander plus the MPG came way up, I went and got an alignment today. They said it was out but the printer wasn't working so I would have to find the mechanic to ask him how much it was out.

Asked one of the mechanics in back of Pepboys when I went to pic it up and he said I don't know who did the alignment? Only like 5 guys back there today yet he doesn't know who was doing alignments?

So I just took it and it felt even more like a new car :D

Can't wait to take my cruise up Rt78 tomorrow and see how it feels :confused:
 
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