Which Ball Joint?

[coffeegoat]

I'm in the middle of sourcing all of my parts for a suspension refresh (Thanks Jamie Poulos & Leo Volk Matus and the Third Gen Suspension sheet) and have everything else sorted out but the ball joints. The recommended brand is ADV Driven Design, but it's out of stock. I've heard stories recently that the Moog's have been failing early and the OEM upper ball joints have been discontinued. Rock Auto carries some "PROFORGED" uppers and lowers but I'm not finding any reviews for them. Any recommendations from the collective?

 

[ARDOR]

Someone more knowledgeable please correct me if I'm wrong, but am fairly certain the cromoly ball joints offered by ADD are actually Proforgeds units and the design, at least for the Gen 2 and MS versions, was fairly recently updated, within the past year or so, to include grease zerks.

I sent them an email at the end of Jan '19 after noticing variances in the images on different sites, some with and others without grease zerks:

My inquiry, 1/24/19:

Hello, I was wondering if you recently updated the design on ball joints 101-10281 & 101-10282 to make them greasable?
If so, when will the new versions be available to purchase?
Thanks.

Proforged's reply, 1/24/19:

Yes, both have gone to greasable design. Some of our retailers may still have the older version on the shelf.
Who do you plan to order from and we can let you know if it will drop ship from our warehouse.
Thanks for considering Proforged parts!


As to whether they're stronger, more durable, or a better value than the OEM units, I couldn't say, but is something I'd like to know myself; new balls joints are on my short list of purchases too.

 

[ChrisCosta416]

Hi there!

Glad the sheet is working out for you! For OEM ball joints I would recommend using partsouq or amayama. Both sites have them in stock. I will be selling my upper ball joints (new) soon as I am testing new Uniball upper control arms for a popular control arm company.

 

[Toasty]

Go OEM unless you can't afford them then I'd recommend a local AutoZone lifetime warranty balljoint and just replace them every year. None of the aftermarket joints are great, if you're lucky you'll get Threefives (555) joints in the Az or Moog box but it's a gamble. You can get threefives joints on eBay i hear.
The chromo joints aren't any better, i can ask Turbo how many miles he got out of them but I think it was around 7k and that only included a few wheeling trips.

 

['round n' back again]

I get my gen 1 triple 5's all day from carquest.
they are thru I believe, world import but not sure.
I can find out.

 

[coffeegoat]

Thanks for the input, I put a full order into Partsouq.com and will get this stuff installed soon. It's been years but I'm getting close to being done with back maintenance....

 

['round n' back again]

I meant gen 2 triple fives in my above post. the bolt in ball joint.
my rig is gen 1, but I had forgotten I'd switched to gen 2 control arms, (which I'm gonna ******** can soon in favor of some custom junk), at least for the uppers.
so for the record my triple 5 gen 2 ball joints came from carquest in triple 5 boxes made in japan.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

I'm in the middle of sourcing all of my parts for a suspension refresh (Thanks Jamie Poulos & Leo Volk Matus and the Third Gen Suspension sheet) and have everything else sorted out but the ball joints. The recommended brand is ADV Driven Design, but it's out of stock. I've heard stories recently that the Moog's have been failing early and the OEM upper ball joints have been discontinued. Rock Auto carries some "PROFORGED" uppers and lowers but I'm not finding any reviews for them. Any recommendations from the collective?

When you get a chance you should pull up pictures of the Proforged and adventure driven design joints and compare, rumor has it they may be the same part....

 

[dos531]

When you get a chance you should pull up pictures of the Proforged and adventure driven design joints and compare, rumor has it they may be the same part....

I've heard the same. Pretty lame if you ask me.

 

[plh]

I've heard the same. Pretty lame if you ask me.

Lame how? ADD is a very small company, its not like they would have the resources to tool up balljoints.

 

[SONICMASD]

Isn't this the OEM part you need?
4010A137
part souq has em

 

[Oso]

Lame how? ADD is a very small company, its not like they would have the resources to tool up balljoints.

lame as in same part repackaged with a significant mark up is my guess. i can't testify that it's the case, THIS time - but if history has taught us anything it's that ADD likes to take advantage of our blind loyalty by rebranding and adding to the cost. Kinda like their $7 rock auto brake lines that got the "ADD treatment" and listed for $100 or some-such nonsense.


anyway. proforged from rock auto should do the trick.

 

[Toasty]

Ha Ha Ha, there goes this thread...

 

[Toasty]

Three Fives makes really decent balljoints at a reasonable price, you can get them from eBay but i would also talk to Cruiser outfitters.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Man imagine what a shock it would be if we found out that stores bought things for less money from their suppliers and then sold them for more money to their customers.

Profit motive is fine but in the Internet Age when inevitably the circle is closed trying to do 1400% margins doesn't project a good image.