Ball Joints Dont Fit

[Foster48x]

Can one of you suspension experts help me identify these. Which ones are upper and which ones are lower? It's my understanding that the pair in the pic on the top are upper and the pair on the bottom are lower. Here's the problem... if that's the case the uppers dont fit through the hole on the A-arm, they're too big and the bolt holes dont match up. Putting the ones that I think are the uppers (in the pic) on the lower A-arm they fit through the hole but the bolt holes don't line up. The lower ones in the pic (two different brands) fit fine in both the upper and lower.

Any ideas? Did the vendor give me the wrong ball joints or am I doing something wrong.

On a side note: should you grease the ball joints before installing the boot. New they look like they dont have any grease in them?

Thanks, Rick

[manoa matt]

The ball joints in the picture on top are the uppers, b-joints in the bottom are the lowers. Did the vendor send you two different lower ball joints?

Check out the diagrams to see wich side of the arm the joint is intalled on: http://www.mirafiori.com/faq/content/el ... isusp.html

There used to be a FAQ on Mirafiori.com that showed pictures of various known bad quality ball joints. I'd show that second picture to the vendor and see if they will refund your money. Then buy from someone else. I believe IAP sells "Frap" brand joints. Moog are the best.

[Foster48x]

Yes the vendor gave me 2 different lowers. Disregard the "if that's the case the uppers dont fit through the hole on the A-arm, they're too big" statement. I actually had the uppers in on the wrong side of the A-arm. They fit but even installed on the right side of the A-arm the holes on the uppers still dont line up

Sucks! My project is on hold once again

Thanks for your help Matt.
Rick

[NolanB]

I just received the Moog ball joints I ordered from Rock Auto, and they arrived the same way as yours. The uppers were the same and stamped "Moog" but the lowers did not match each other although they all came in a Moog box. I had no problem getting them fit, so I just went ahead and installed them. They're all probably the same quality..... I hope.

[Foster48x]

Nolan, I dont know enough about ball joints to know which ones are better than others. Read Matt's post above. Somewhere on mirafiori.com is a write-up on the differnt ball joints that might help you out.

I'm going to install my odd-ball lowers. Hopefully they're both good quality.

Rick

[mdrburchette]

One of our projects on the Lemons car was installing new ball joints. The ones I got from one of our vendors had to have the holes drilled out for the bolts to fit into. I've never run into that problem before.

[Foster48x]

Denise, not sure where you got yours but mine were the same way. I also contemplated drilling the holes out but decided against it. Come to find out the vendor had received an incorrect shipment of ball joints from the distributor. They look exactly the same but the holes are just a few fractions of an inch off. Really, unless you were to install them you would never have been able to tell the difference.

I notified the vendor of the issue, they apologized and happily replaced them with no problems.
Rick

[mdrburchette]

I just thought it was something else we had to deal with on that Lemons car. Heck, nothing went right so I didn't think nothing of having to open those holes up.

[manoa matt]

Can you guys and gals separately email me regarding the vendor who you bought the joints from? I need to purchase some upper and lower ball joints as well as control arm bushings for a fiend’s car who I work on. I'd like to buy everything from one vendor and avoid this miss-matched ball joint issue; I'd also like all the joints to be from the same manufacturer. No miss matched joints, that’s ridiculous

thanks

matt.scarton@gmail.com