Which axle joints and spindle bearings ??

can someone tell me the best brand axle joints and spindle bearing and seals are the best ? or are there much difference in brands ??
Dana 28 1988 ranger.

will Ford or Moog outlast advance autos ?

Yes they will. Advance here sells moog. I try to get timken bearings and spicer joints. Although I am Leary of brands these days because there seems to be lots of remixing of foreign junk going on. Moog is supposed to be good too.


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Kirby N. said:

Yes they will. Advance here sells moog. I try to get timken bearings and spicer joints. Although I am Leary of brands these days because there seems to be lots of remixing of foreign junk going on. Moog is supposed to be good too.


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what he says

I meant reboxing not remixing. Auto correct


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FOR SURE I'd go with store brand with lifetime warranty. Chances are great you will not wear out any brand.
Big Jim

Moog probably was once good, but lately they've been nothing but trash (3 lower balljoints gone kaput in 15,000 miles ).

For axle u-joints, hands-down it's Spicer (#5-760X for the D35, not sure what the D28 uses... 5-456X I think?)

For ball joints: Raybestos "Professional Grade" (these were formerly Spicer ball joints).
Look for the bright gold-zinc plated body on the joint... If it's not gold-zinc colored, it's not a Raybestos Pro Grade (Napa Premium I believe are reboxed Raybestos Pro Grade joints). Rockauto.com has actual Raybestos-branded joints.
I have 80K on one set of these and 30K on another and all are still tight as the day I put them in.



Agreed, Timken for bearings & seals.


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Raybestos ball joints likely haven't been Spicer parts since Dana sold its automotive aftermarket to Cypress Group in '04, prior to Dana's chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in '05. Raybestos brakes still appear to be made by Brake Parts Inc (same organization Dana sold off), but Raybestos chassis parts were sold to Federal a Mogul, who also owns Moog. It seems the direction the automotive aftermarket is heading is that parts, regardless of brand name, are made overseas by the same company.

When I worked for Dana Corporation, one engineer once remarked to me "In five years, I've worked for five different companies and sat at the same desk."

It appears Dana retained ownership of the Spicer branded aftermarket parts. I'm not sure where they're presently produced, at a time I believe they were made primarily in Lima, OH, Pottstown, PA, and possibly Ft. Wayne, IN.

AndyB. said:

Raybestos ball joints likely haven't been Spicer parts since Dana sold its automotive aftermarket to Cypress Group in '04, prior to Dana's chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in '05. Raybestos brakes still appear to be made by Brake Parts Inc (same organization Dana sold off), but Raybestos chassis parts were sold to Federal a Mogul, who also owns Moog. It seems the direction the automotive aftermarket is heading is that parts, regardless of brand name, are made overseas by the same company.

When I worked for Dana Corporation, one engineer once remarked to me "In five years, I've worked for five different companies and sat at the same desk."

It appears Dana retained ownership of the Spicer branded aftermarket parts. I'm not sure where they're presently produced, at a time I believe they were made primarily in Lima, OH, Pottstown, PA, and possibly Ft. Wayne, IN.

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Wow, I just looked this up, all this selling off looks like something recent (Raybestos had been under the Affinia Group umbrella since '04). It's as if the whole company dissected itself. WTF?

Very disappointing...
I guess our only hope is that Federal Mogul continues to use the same tooling for the joints, however my hopes are not real high they won't try to cheapen something up or ship their production offshore. Their Moog line is pure garbage in my opinion.

(this has me wondering where OEMs such as Dana and AAM are sourcing joints for their production axles from now, I can't imagine they'd use stuff made overseas, but maybe they are?)

I imagine OEMs are still sourcing their ball joints from tier 1 manufactures like Dana, who likely manufacturers them or purchases them from vendors made to their specs.

Ball joints are a funny product. The OEMs all use sealed joints because they last longer and are a better product. In the aftermarket in the US, no one will buy sealed joints because of the perception they are inferior. Ford ball joints are sealed, Motorcraft are greaseable. I can't imagine it being very profitable to be making aftermarket ball joints due to the low production volume.

I think Dana only owned Raybestos for maybe 8 years. Before that, they were part of Echlin, there was a hostile takeover attempt and Dana was the white knight. When they purchased Raybestos, they also acquired their asbestos liability. It looks like the Raybestos brake parts (Brake Parts Inc - BPI) are still made at the same plants. I imagine Federal Mogul was only interested in the Raybestos chassis brand name.

4x4junkie said:

Moog probably was once good, but lately they've been nothing but trash (3 lower balljoints gone kaput in 15,000 miles ).

For axle u-joints, hands-down it's Spicer (#5-760X for the D35, not sure what the D28 uses... 5-456X I think?)

For ball joints: Raybestos "Professional Grade" (these were formerly Spicer ball joints).
Look for the bright gold-zinc plated body on the joint... If it's not gold-zinc colored, it's not a Raybestos Pro Grade (Napa Premium I believe are reboxed Raybestos Pro Grade joints). Rockauto.com has actual Raybestos-branded joints.
I have 80K on one set of these and 30K on another and all are still tight as the day I put them in.



Agreed, Timken for bearings & seals.


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I was under the impression that Timken is reboxed Duralast stuff...

AndyB. said:

Ball joints are a funny product. The OEMs all use sealed joints because they last longer and are a better product. In the aftermarket in the US, no one will buy sealed joints because of the perception they are inferior. Ford ball joints are sealed, Motorcraft are greaseable. I can't imagine it being very profitable to be making aftermarket ball joints due to the low production volume.

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That really depends on where/how they are used which ones are better or will last longer.

On a street-driven vehicle that is never used off road, I would agree sealed joints are generally better (at least for the automaker anyway, as I would also agree a neglected greasable joint isn't long for this world). But when subjected to the dust, dirt and mud that offroad use brings, there's no equivalent for being able to expel any dirt or water that gets in past the seals by flooding them with a shot of fresh grease, as no seal is 100% perfect. Mud also has an uncanny ability to 'suck' grease right out of any joint too, sealed or not. So being able to replenish it makes all the difference here.

Noflers said:

I was under the impression that Timken is reboxed Duralast stuff...

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Oh, no... Duralast is Autozone's house brand. Almost all (if not all) of it is reboxed/rebranded stuff. Many Duralast items are of decent quality, but a lot of it you can still do better. Never touch anything there with the "Valuecraft" brand though, almost all of that stuff is imported garbage.

Autozone does sell timken. Timken is a us brand. The guy timken even patented/ invented the roller bearing iirc. I read a while ago that timken was bought out by koyo, though and that quality hasn't been there. Timkens always used to say USA on them, now you will find India etc on them. I have had good luck with them. I haven't had any good luck with anything dura last so I avoid it like the plague.


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After all the various posts I am convinced that buying the store brand with a lifetime warranty is the best way to go. You don't know what you are getting anyway.
Big Jim

I convinced you incorrectly then! I still go for the name brand stuff and avoid the store stuff. Napa premium stuff aside, I have found store stuff usually weighs heavier on the cost then the quality. Rockauto is a good source for quality name brand stuff.


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