Which Ball Joints
 

Getting ready to do my sons Ball Joints on his '96 Cherokee classic (mild lift) while he's up training with the US Navy. Not looking for the most expensive but an affordable general purpose DD sort of Ball Joint. Seen prices ranging from $12 (scary) to $150 (too much IMO). Any suggestions?
thanks

Everybody seems to recommend the OE spicer ball joints. A quick search shows they fall in the middle of your prices at around 120 for all 4.

X2 on Spicer, avoid Moog.

x2 spicer.

These are the ones I used on my 96 last year (though it seems they have the product title a little messed up now):

Link: http://a.co/d/8Qk7lHB

thanks for the replies

On rockauto they sell these ball joints called the Mevotech TTX they are advertised to be heavy duty made for offroading. I bought a set of lowers for my 5.3 gmc classic and they look very high quality. Even the packaging they ome in is nice and fancy. They were around $30 a ball joint. Might want to look into those before making a decision.

It's hard to beat Spicer or Moog on suspension parts quality. That's what I generally buy. Their quality seems consistent. I've bought Mevotec tie rod ends for other vehicles, I guess they seemed fine, but not a good example for ball joints. I don't know if price is even a factor anymore. Some Chinese stuff has gotten to be pretty good quality (maybe it wasn't in the 'old days'). Only way to really know would be a metalurgy test and disassembly, but who's going to do that? (ok, I know someone will prove me wrong now that I wrote that!! :icon_smile:)

I have alloy USA ball joints. They've been great for 3+ years on 33's with a 4" lift. They're a bit pricier but they are full steel and are greasable top and bottom

If your ball joints have never been changed and still have the original spicers with the smooth bore stick with that and go with spicers again. RA have em for cheap for the set.

In a failure analysis class in engineering school, we got to look at a failed ball joint.
The instructor mentioned that it took a Cadillac on a 90 degree turn from Interstate to corn field.

Since then, I've never gone cheap on ball joints.

I've used Mevotech's Terrain Tough ball joints I like that you can grease them and they seem to be a little larger or something because the lower come with a tool to in stall it , I wanted ball joint that can be greased because if it runs out of grease you will be changing them again .

What sort of mileage would you guys expect from the OE balljoints for DD with very little offroading?

I bought my 91 with original Spicer ball joints. It was a stocker used very little it wasn't until I lifted it and started playing with it that I trashed those ball joints. Lifespan depends on how hard you drive and if you offroad. If you just daily drive I would expect them to work for a long time.

Another vote for Spicer.

One set per side:
1996 Jeep Cherokee - Spicer 706944X

Buy them from Amazon.

Amazon

Amazon

They will cost over 2x more at O'reilly.