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Moog (555) lower ball joint

8K views 17 replies 4 participants last post by  Davf24 
#1 ·
My stock bj popped on the passenger front the other day, so I debated spending close to $100 for OEM replacement, or $46 for Moog. I went Moog as I am not going to be doing any serious wheeling any time soon, and this truck gets barely any use. Save the bucks and go OEM later if all that changes.

Anyway, I thought the Moogs for this ('97 2.7L DLX) were non-greaseable but there was a port on the side. Sweet. Put in a zerk fitting, squeezed a little more grease in there, swapped in it. Was surprised by the grease port.

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#5 ·
I have always had good luck with MOOG (ran them on my wrangler), good parts.
The general consensus I have heard is the same, but then you see people screaming about OEM only. I figure this: the truck is my backup, and will get very little use other than when we as a family decide to go camping. So wear and tear wise - minimal. That extra $40+ per bj I can use elsewhere to mod it up :)
 
#4 ·
Everything is black on the bracket, but the ball joint itself was silver on this one. I was just very surprised there was a grease point, as everything I see about this part number I ordered does not have that. I ordered the driver side tonight so will replace it next weekend (Friday probably) so will see if that one has the grease point as well or if there was a fug up at the shipping place. :)
 
#6 ·
I go with greasable every time.
 
#8 ·
I had searched for a greaseable bj (there is a joke in there, I know), but the interwebs came back that there were none, but they were wrong :) I have been looking to see if these Moog 555's have a spec sheet indicating the grease port, but have not found that. My next one should come in by Tuesday so hopefully that one is the same. Feels good to load more grease in there!
 
#11 ·
That's what she said.


I do see fairly often people over grease them and the boots rip because of it, it's easy to do. You can use a little 90 degree pick to lift the boot at the end of the stud to let out excess grease, also a good idea to do that if it's been submerged so any water can push out while grease is being injected. Luckily those are the sealed style of Moog boots, not the old style 'rubber cups' with no sealing on them.
 
#12 ·
One odd thing I found - I cannot get the cotter pin in. For some weird reason the castle nut slots don't seem to line up properly. Very odd. I figure when I put in the other bj this coming weekend I will back the nut off and try to line it up again. It is not cross threaded or on improperly, the slots just don't seem to truly align to allow the pin to push through. I torqued it to spec (103) and then turned the nut a bit more to line it up better, but no joy. Used the nut and pin that came with the new bj. I'll back it off and do a betetr check next weekend - it isn't being driven now anyway.
 
#13 ·
Not lining up height wise or rotationally? I've had to shim short nuts to get the holes and slots to line up height wise, just use a hardened washer under the nut. Rotationally they should line up, but its' easy to look lined up and be a hair off OR to have a cotter pin that's just a little too wide for the stud hole but wide enough for the nut slot.
 
#14 ·
Rotation-ally would be the best description. I can slide the pin in the hole, but when it tries to exit the stud it is hitting the flanges on the nut. If I move the nut any more to better line up the back, the front is no longer lined up. The pin they sent is about as wide as the hole, so not a lot of slop there to bend/adjust it. I'll snap pics this next weekend to make it clearer. Not an issue at the moment as I am not driving it, and even if I were, would not be overly worried about the cotter pin.
 
#16 ·
The way the hole is facing I can't get a tool to tap it from the "front" as the dust shield on the wheel is in the way, so I will have to do so from the "rear", which means adjusting the nut again. I'll play with it this coming weekend.
 
#18 ·
I have had this issue in the past, go to harbor freight and pick up the cotter pin assortment pack, try a slightly slimmer cotter pin. It is only designed to stop the nut from backing off.
 
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