Duralast/Master Pro or MOOG bushings?

[MrSony]

Hey all. So, thunderbird update. After it broke spring break (hah) I have to order new lower control arms. I got the driver's side delivered from MacsAutoParts out in New York (160 per arm, 207 with express two day shipping, 249.99 at autozone *hell no*) and I will order the other side next week when I get paid. NOW, being as the car is 45 years old, it needs new upper/lower control arm bushings. As you can see from the picture of the control arm, I put new end links, shocks, and front swaybar bushings as well as 4 new ball joints. I went with moog for the rubber and monroe for the shocks and duralast for the balljoints, which are all fine btw. Worked great. SO, should I get duralast/master pro upper and lower control arm bushings? This car will pretty much be a DD until snow flies again. It cruises surprisingly well or at least it did. I admit I splurged a bit on all the moog stuff, but with these will it really matter? I don't want to spend 3x the amount for bushings the size of a walnut if it isn't going to make that much of a difference. Thoughts?

 

[Pedrolif]

MrSony, I only recently joined so don't know the state of you ride (performance, driver, etc.). Personally, I would go Moog over house brand. The flip side is some house brands are just as good as name brands. If you want cheap and affordable and don't care how long they last, grab the house brand. If you want good quality and don't want to mess with it anytime soon, get the more pricey Moog ones.

 

[Ribbedroof]

Just ordered some parts a couple days ago for my new coil spring installation. I found that the Moog lower ball joints at rockauto were HALF the price from O'Reilly. Same held true on the bushings....bought Moog from RA for the house brand price. This was part# to part#, not some apples/oranges comparison. Bought 2 lwr ball joints, 4 control arm bushings, 2 control arm bumpers and freight for the price of 2 ball joints locally.

IMO, unless you have to have it right now, it's hard to beat online pricing. Did buy brake booster for the dually locally, was less than $20 difference.

As for Autozone....haven't been in one of their stores for years. I find that in this market, they are not very consumer-friendly, and mostly have private label stuff in stock. Perhaps this has changed, but I really don't have a reason to check again.

 

[Texas82GP]

My vote is Moog. I recently put a Partsmaster pitman arm on an 02 Silverado 2500 because it was what was available right then and it was trash. It was sloppy within 3000 miles. I used Moog Problem Solver bushings on my 82 Grand Prix. They are supposed to be something between rubber and urethane. Not as stiff as urethane and not as prone to squeeking as urethane but firmer than rubber and won't rot like rubber. I got mine from Rock Auto.

 

[Texas82GP]

Meant to say Masterpro not Partsmaster. I don't buy that stuff often enough to get it's name right.

 

[MrSony]

I went ahead and bought the master pros. Same part # as Moog, and if I remember they're moogs entry level brand. Good quality. At least better than the chewed up 50 year old OEM.

 

[Pedrolif]

After you get some good use out of them, let me know what you think about them. My Cutlass is going to need everything in the front replaced this summer. Speedway has a house brand set for G bodies for I think around 150, plus waiting. All the MasterPro and Moog is in stock at O'Really?s Definately going to get Moog ball joints, the rest is up in the air.

 

[MrSony]

I got duralast balljoints, and they were apparently stronger than my control arms But the new lower control arms I bought have new heavy duty looking balljoints in them from macs auto parts (arms from there too). Keep in mind this is about my 1970 Ford Thunderbird, not a g body. But the moog stuff I do have on there seems to be holding up, even after the balljoint ripping the control arm a new ***hole. As far as I know MAcs has stuff for G bodies too.