Where to buy ACdelco upper control arms?

[TonkaToy]

My tire shop just informed me I should replace my upper control arms w/ball joints soon. I know ACDelco is the best but not finding any. Anyone know where I can get my hands on a pair? If not what is good brand replacement alternative? I don't want cheap knock offs. TIA

 

[Jeepwalker]

IDK how much it matters honestly. I think even the AC Delco's were made in China...if I remember right. But it's been a while since I bought mine. I'd probably get a brand which has a polished stud, and avoid one with a black stud. But in UT, IDK if THAT even matters. They probably won't rust there anyway. Rock Auto or Amazon...or Summit Racing, even Ebay are places I'd look for probably a middle of the road to higher end UCA's.

The reason they don't live very long is modern grease-less joints (incl tie rod ends) use a highly polished ball at the end of the stud and clamped (compressed) around a teflon cup. With a little grease in there. When water gets in there, or just age, the nylon/teflon wears out. And Hummers use larger tires that often have higher air pressures (harder on the suspension). That's one part GM probably should have made larger and more robust (you can't win them all!). Not much you can do. Or the ball becomes rusty (from a torn boot) from water crossing, the moisture causes rust scale which tearss up the teflon prematurely. If a guy periodically removed the upper ball stud from the knuckle, say, every 10k miles, and rotated the stud while pushing *in* on the boot with the other hand...he could work grease back into the joint. But that's not really practical to do and it would throw off the alignment.

Greaseless joints aren't new tech. Every car in the world practically since the mid 90s has been using them. They last long enough. Heck my H3 has all original steering on 200k miles! Still good. My Ram tk has 175k on original UCA's. So, if you get 40-50k out of a new set,... that's not too bad. So if it were me, I would look for one which has a higher quality stud, not one which was black and "possibly" more prone to rust. Even then IDK how much of a difference that's going to matter. You can usually remove the boot from the new upper ball joint and peek inside. Or look at your old ones when you get them off. I wouldn't add anymore grease unless you're sure your grease will mix well with what's in there (not all greases play well together).

Fortunately they're easy to replace.

Cheers!

 

[Jeepwalker]

THESE ought to do the trick. Or the Delphi's HERE. Delphi used to be part of GM. Who knows, might be the same as what the Delco's were. Delphi might have procured them for AC Delco??? If I was trying to get as close to the old Delco's I would think Delphi would be the next best thing. Honestly, IDK if it makes a big difference. The UCA's in the two links above appear the same to me. Probably the same part from china and one compny is marking them up 5x while another company is only marking them up 3x. I've been to China countless times (due to wife) over the yrs. You can find the same things there for a fraction of what companies here mark up ...sometimes 10x, sometimes a lot more (on like clothing, etc). Not kidding. Why do you think everything comes from China/Asia? They're very ambitious, organized, work 'together' as a team ....do the hard work, make it cheap, and companies here turn around and mark up a LOT and make money for not doing any work, or invest in manufacturing/people. That's why things on Temu are a fraction of Amazon (they're marking it up less).

Some guys might say xyz control arm doesn't last, but what is their use and conditions?? Are they running 35's? Or larger? I'd probably remove the clip and pop off the dust boot & inspect the joint of whatever you buy just to make sure the teflon cup isn't half-spit out from it's seat when it was 'pressed in' during manufacturing (meaning it probably won't last very long). And get a replacement if you discover that.

 

[alrock]

Looking at Rockauto.com, parts like these come and go in availability. Hopefully they are not gone for good. I'd be comfortable with the Delphis, Moog or Mevotech ones they have listed. Probably all made in China, but place of manufacture alone is not the concern, at least for me. There's a big difference between a product made in China to high American standards (Timken is an example for me) vs. a cheap Chinese knockoff meant to capitalize on the success of the American part with much lower quality materials.

I just put some Mevotech lower control arms on a Nissan yesterday and they seemed well made. Good castings, good movement of ball joints, no odd elements to them, good fit.

 

[TonkaToy]

Looking at Rockauto.com, parts like these come and go in availability. Hopefully they are not gone for good. I'd be comfortable with the Delphis, Moog or Mevotech ones they have listed. Probably all made in China, but place of manufacture alone is not the concern, at least for me. There's a big difference between a product made in China to high American standards (Timken is an example for me) vs. a cheap Chinese knockoff meant to capitalize on the success of the American part with much lower quality materials.

I just put some Mevotech lower control arms on a Nissan yesterday and they seemed well made. Good castings, good movement of ball joints, no odd elements to them, good fit.

Thanks for the recommendations. I totally agree with your "China made to American standards" statement. So much is made in China for American companies. I try hard not to buy crap straight from China, like from Temu because it is cheap knock-off crap made to look like the quality product, that's way it's cheaper but is not backed up zero customer service. I speak from experience since my products unfortunately are made in China but we keep our thumb on them for quality and back our products if there is a problem which cost money to provide that service.

 

[H3Hummer]

Go for the Delphi's, have them on mine when i change them. Found them on the Rockauto web site

 

[H3Hummer]

And who knows....maybe we got some spare parts from here, yes from Luxembourg! We have a DELPHI production Center here , check this out

DELPHI - Customer Technology Center Luxembourg, Bascharage

 

[08H3]

Just stay away from Dorman. I made that mistake once. I would probably go with the Delphi as well. They were recently acquired by Borg Warner, and I think they are probably one of the best aftermarket parts manufacturers.

 

[JPaul]

Do NOT go with the Moog. As nice as Moog can be, the upper arms have a problem from them. Instead of a cast inner bushing flange like OEM, they use a mild/mid hardness sheet steel (more or less). The problem with that is if you look at the OEM flange it has a number of dimples that serve the purpose of helping make sure that once you set the alignment and tighten down the bolts, it will not move from that position. Since the Moog flange isn't thick cast steel but instead much thinner sheet steel, as well as having fewer and less pronounced dimples, it cannot properly handle the clamping forces and will deform to the point that the dimples do pretty much nothing. Eventually you'll get out of alignment and start damaging the upper arm mounting bracket on the frame.

For the longest time I was hearing a knocking sound from my front end while on the trails or when I would back up from a parking spot and start moving forward. Finally, after wearing my front tires horribly enough due to misalignment to get me to really start looking at everything going on with my front end (and thinking it was because of dropping my nose on very large shelves, twice, once on each frame horn) that I finally discovered my upper control arm as shifting in the frame bracket. It didn't matter how much I tightened the bolts, I could still get it to move. That's when I realized the Moog control arms I installed were the source of the problem due to their cheap design.

I ended up replacing them with Mevotech from Rockauto, which have the correct OEM design. So whichever ones you go with, make sure the inner bushing flange is made from cast steel and not stamped steel.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Good info. Thanks!

 

[TonkaToy]

Do NOT go with the Moog. As nice as Moog can be, the upper arms have a problem from them. Instead of a cast inner bushing flange like OEM, they use a mild/mid hardness sheet steel (more or less). The problem with that is if you look at the OEM flange it has a number of dimples that serve the purpose of helping make sure that once you set the alignment and tighten down the bolts, it will not move from that position. Since the Moog flange isn't thick cast steel but instead much thinner sheet steel, as well as having fewer and less pronounced dimples, it cannot properly handle the clamping forces and will deform to the point that the dimples do pretty much nothing. Eventually you'll get out of alignment and start damaging the upper arm mounting bracket on the frame.

For the longest time I was hearing a knocking sound from my front end while on the trails or when I would back up from a parking spot and start moving forward. Finally, after wearing my front tires horribly enough due to misalignment to get me to really start looking at everything going on with my front end (and thinking it was because of dropping my nose on very large shelves, twice, once on each frame horn) that I finally discovered my upper control arm as shifting in the frame bracket. It didn't matter how much I tightened the bolts, I could still get it to move. That's when I realized the Moog control arms I installed were the source of the problem due to their cheap design.

I ended up replacing them with Mevotech from Rockauto, which have the correct OEM design. So whichever ones you go with, make sure the inner bushing flange is made from cast steel and not stamped steel.

Good to know becuase that is what the tire shop is recommended. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this with Moog?

 

[Jeepwalker]

I have not used their UCA's. But I have regularly used many of their other products, esp steering and ball joints, products. And some wheel hub assemblies...over the years. Their core business has typically been hard suspension parts, like ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings etc. That's probably why the shop recommended them. They've always been the go-to place for quality suspension parts (Steering/Suspension). Some parts like UCA's for H3's and probably other vehicles, I think they're just buying and reselling. I mean, how many independent companies are going to forge upper and lower control arms separately? Doing cast aluminum and cast iron would be like two different plants. That's real expensive.

I used to say, "Choose the 'right' grade" (mid-grade/high-grade) of Moog products. Like AC Delco has their Silver and Gold grades. BUT.....I just looked at Moog's website and various vehicles on Rock Auto ...and did NOT any Moog products listed as 'cheap' or 'economy' grade like they used to have. I wonder if was diluting their brand image (of quality) and they got away from that?? And just went back to only selling 'good' products? Have you guys hearding/seen that?

 

[Maria80386]

I just put uppers and lowers into both H3s. The Delphis are the GM parts, just not labeled OEM anymore because “Government Motors.”