Here are some pictures of the Moog joints disassembled.

These joints were in my truck for about 80,000 miles. The handling was poor, as we've been taliking about for some time. The truck required constant course corrections and was tiring to drive. It felt like the joints were sticking.

In the pictures you can see the lower joint with the ball and socket. The ball is not really round as though it was simply forged. There is pitting and localized wear in spots. Further, there is galling in one area and also in the socket. Notice how there is very little contact area in the socket.

The upper "ball" joint is not a ball at all, but a shaft and bushing. The shaft shows some corrosion, but not much wear. The bushing is starting to come apart. This shaft design allows the two tapers to be torqued into their holes and have some verticle play. It adjusts itself to the knuckle spacing.

I was glad to be able to grease these joints and kept them well lubed.

This galling in the joint area is the main friction problem. And with a non round ball it can't distribute the load well enough to prevent extreme pressure at various points.

These seem strong enough, and seem to last better than the stock joints, but they used manufacturing shortcuts that caused a lot of friction and material failure through galling.

I now have Dynatrac joints and the truck has never handled better. True spherical joints with ground ***** makes the difference.

 

good to know thanks