New control arm...dry ball joint?

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GRWeldon

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I've been chasing a creak in the front suspension since I changed the upper and lower control arms. At first I thought I may have induced some tension in the upper control arm bushings by tightening the bolts while the front end was on the lift. So I loosened the bolts while the car was on the ground and re-tightened them.

That didn't fix the creak. I also replaced the sway bar bushings with polyurethane from SCP but didn't lube them. Yesterday I did what Grog did, installed grease zerks on the swaybar bushing brackets with a hole through the bushing to get grease to the bar.

This didn't fix the creak. It happens when the front suspension has to travel a lot like going down my less than flat driveway. Hardly happens on the road but it can.

I'm beginning to suspect a dry ball joint in one of the new Mevotech control arms that I used to replace the old ones.

Has anybody had any occurrence of squeaks, groans or creaks due to suspected ball joints that were new but may not have been lubed properly?

I'm really starting to lean heavily to this being the cause of my noise. Looking for opinions...
 
Did you grease the new Mevotech arms?
 
They are sealed. No provision for grease. I'm amazed you would ask this.

Before I decide that I need to replace, I'm going to attempt to install a fitting, however I would imagine it will destroy the joint.
 
GRWeldon said:
They are sealed. No provision for grease. I'm amazed you would ask this.

Before I decide that I need to replace, I'm going to attempt to install a fitting, however I would imagine it will destroy the joint.
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I ask because all the Mevotech arms I’ve seen have provisions for zerks, unless they changed designs within the last year :confused: but most aftermarket control arms I see in general are greasable, it would surprise me if they truly weren’t
 
Passenger side are available with zerks. I wasn't able to find any driver's side with fittings when I was shopping for them in March. I was told in my discussion (thread on this site) that they were no longer available.

My plan for replacement is to take an old OE set and replace the joint and bushings.
 
There's a thread on TSTSNBN about this. Mevotech discontinued the Supreme line for our cars. Any arms you find with zerks today are leftover NOS.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
I ask because all the Mevotech arms I’ve seen have provisions for zerks, unless they changed designs within the last year :confused: but most aftermarket control arms I see in general are greasable, it would surprise me if they truly weren’t
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I got some of those about a month ish ago for my SC... Now get this one upper had the zerk fitting the other was sealed and they are moog...
 
My question was, has anybody received any dry brand new ball joint / control arms?
 
GRWeldon said:
My question was, has anybody received any dry brand new ball joint / control arms?
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I haven't installed mine yet so I can't say, but I'll shoot some grease in all the joints at install just to be sure.
 
Usually the creaking noise is at the end, when the ball is working its way out of the joint. I'd call it bad, and replace it.
 
Exactly; you can't. The hole for the zerk fitting has to be made before it's sealed. Replace it; you don't know you didn't get some one's failing joint.
 
GRWeldon said:
I've been chasing a creak in the front suspension since I changed the upper and lower control arms. At first I thought I may have induced some tension in the upper control arm bushings by tightening the bolts while the front end was on the lift. So I loosened the bolts while the car was on the ground and re-tightened them.
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My rattle was the front bearings. Could be your Strut Rod Bushings.
 
89 TBIRD said:
The Mevotech arms I posted above have zerks.
Click to expand...

I posted somewhere around here that I had to really search to find both lower arms with grease fittings. Dorman makes them, AutoZone lists them but they switch over to a different part without them. So I wound up calling Dorman and going through their parts list, the woman there was baffled because it shows that they supply those exact parts to AutoZone. Whatever, she said the best option was to buy off of Amazon, those are definitely the right ones (Dorman Premium, sintered bearings), which I did and, yes, they both have Zerk fittings.

 
White Lincoln said:
My rattle was the front bearings. Could be your Strut Rod Bushings.
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Thanks for the post. This isn't a rattle, it's more of a groan or a deep-pitched rattle. Strut rod bushings are intact but it certainly could be a lack of lubrication. I'll add some grease when I have it on the lift next and try to add a zerk to the LCA on the noisy side. I should have replaced them when I did the front suspension rebuild.
 
GRWeldon said:
That wasn't my case.
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So you ordered greaseable arms and received something else? Did you try to get an exchange or refund?

I ordered Dorman Premium lower arms from CARiD, they were out of stock on one so they substituted an SKP. It was identical to the Dorman so no harm there, but the SKP was cheaper so I got a refund for the difference.

I also ordered AC Delco Gold upper arms from RA, what I received, shipped from AC Delco in AC Delco Gold boxes were SKP. But not identical in this case, thinner arms and no zerks. I returned these and got the Mevotech Supremes from the Amazon links I posted, and received the right ones.
 
The only prob I've ever had ordering stuff was ra, but I was to busy at work to send it back at the time. my great nephew was looking for a tool in my garage, saw it and said "Why do you have a uca for a 2012 f- 150?" :) Instant Christmas present, lol.
 
89 TBIRD said:
So you ordered greaseable arms and received something else? Did you try to get an exchange or refund?

I ordered Dorman Premium lower arms from CARiD, they were out of stock on one so they substituted an SKP. It was identical to the Dorman so no harm there, but the SKP was cheaper so I got a refund for the difference.

I also ordered AC Delco Gold upper arms from RA, what I received, shipped from AC Delco in AC Delco Gold boxes were SKP. But not identical in this case, thinner arms and no zerks. I returned these and got the Mevotech Supremes from the Amazon links I posted, and received the right ones.
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Exactly. There's another thread referenced in this thread where a guy ordered the Premium Mevotech LCA with greasable joints. Received a sealed unit. Sent it back for exchange and got exactly the same thing back.

This also happened to me, dealing with Rock Auto. It's the situation that pretty much ended my purchasing with RA since you can't actually talk or text anyone or get ANY questions answered or situations explained.

It comes down to this: At least for the driver's side LCA, there are no more greaseable ball joints to be had.
 
GRWeldon said:
Exactly. There's another thread referenced in this thread where a guy ordered the Premium Mevotech LCA with greasable joints. Received a sealed unit. Sent it back for exchange and got exactly the same thing back.

This also happened to me, dealing with Rock Auto. It's the situation that pretty much ended my purchasing with RA since you can't actually talk or text anyone or get ANY questions answered or situations explained.

It comes down to this: At least for the driver's side LCA, there are no more greaseable ball joints to be had.
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I posted above, both LCAs are available with Zerk fittings from Amazon. Dorman brand, with sintered bearings.
 
I contacted RA through this email to get my refund service@rockauto.com
A web search also turned up this email hr@rockauto.com

The issue with my RA order was AC Delco's doing, they substituted the wrong upper arms. But RA accepted the return and paid for return shipping.
 
89 TBIRD said:
I contacted RA through this email to get my refund service@rockauto.com
A web search also turned up this email hr@rockauto.com

The issue with my RA order was AC Delco's doing, they substituted the wrong upper arms. But RA accepted the return and paid for return shipping.
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My experiance with RockAuto is a love / hate relationship. They sell what THEY are told will fit by the vendor and they post it as such. You have to be careful with what you order and make sure it matches what other stores are selling. I have a record of about 9/10 items being correct. I think you have all heard this from me before.
 
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My largest issue with RA has been threads... Anything I've ever gotten has had bad threads on them from loaded struts to ball joints and everything else you can imagine but I've learned that if I wire brush the threads first it typically works from there. One of the loaded struts I got the large nut on the top was only a few threads on so I installed it that way and once I had it off the jack I could tighten it up to match the other side... Nothing has been too big of an issue but something to look out for.
 
97teebs said:
My largest issue with RA has been threads... Anything I've ever gotten has had bad threads on them from loaded struts to ball joints and everything else you can imagine but I've learned that if I wire brush the threads first it typically works from there. One of the loaded struts I got the large nut on the top was only a few threads on so I installed it that way and once I had it off the jack I could tighten it up to match the other side... Nothing has been too big of an issue but something to look out for.
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Good ppint98teebs,
I have a multitude of bolt issues. Either negligent (missing) or they don't fit right. Usually a return that returns office never checked and threw it back on the shelf or return that someone didn't bother to put the right bolts in.
 
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