I’ve searched but a lot of older threads came up and I’m sure things have changed. I’ve bought upper ball joints before that seemed to not fit correctly into the upper control arm. Is there a go to solid fitting ball joint that most would recommend? Obviously most would say one with a grease fitting. Another thing is it seems most comes with a grease fitting that you have to manually screw into the tapped thread yourself. I’ve done that several times before and it never seems to go in smooth if not I’ve stripped threads before and then basically deems the fitting useless. TIA

 

oem ball joints?
I know I beat the drum a lot on using oem, but when it comes to ball joints I highly rec. using factory.

 

Agree 1000%, I recently did upper and lowers a while back and used Moog, while they still seem ok and I don’t daily it anymore after reading some threads about Moog I wish I would have just gone OEM. Time will tell but I use OE parts on anything if it’s available, I will even further my search at the yard or eBay if it’s discontinued. My opinion of course

 

As previously mentioned OEM. More expensive, definitely but well worth the investment. My stock ones lasted over 200000+ miles and look forward to getting 200000+ miles out of the OEM replacements

 

the last I bought was actually Moog and didn’t seem like they fit correctly. I know everybody swears by them or OEM.

where do you guys buy your OEM parts? Is there a site most guys use on here? I haven’t bought much for a while since my initial build. Thank you

 

Sankei 555 made in Japan. I changed the uppers on on my 1992 Toyota pickup about eight years ago with the 555 ball joints. Bought them from RockAuto back then, but they don't list them now, not for my truck. YotaShop has them in stock.

 

I agree that Sankei 555 seems like good quality.
Takes slightly longer to get, but good price on Amayama/EPC-data.com

 

Has anybody tried the LCE engineering one? They claim it’s original manufactured product but I see one review stating it is not.

 

Doesn’t look oem, and the image LCE uses shows the “555” logo.
they had to buy it from a supplier, then mark it up. The price is too low for that to be oem.
the clincher would be the packaging. The packaging always gives it away. Sankei is a decent manufacturer, but shouldn’t be represented as oem last I knew.

 

they just came in on yotashop. Ordered 2.

 

Installed them. They seem to be off nice quality. Last pair I had utilized bolts and nuts to attatch to control arm. These were nice pressed studs with washered nuts.