I've always been happy with Moog stuff, too, so after thinking about it, I switched as much of the steering and suspension stuff back over to them in my shopping cart, which jacks up the shipping some, but gets me lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends, Pitman and idler arms from them. They don't offer the upper ball joints for either the Dodge or Mitsu version of the truck (I always check both because sometimes the companies don't catch the cross-over), so those stayed Mevotech.
I've done a couple of Gen 1's suspension/steering rebuilds now, and have retained some knowledge about keeping them stock and making the job a little easier that I can pass on. The upper a-arms use a shaft assembly instead of a-arm bushings, and it's really important to loosen the end nuts on those while the arm is still bolted into the truck. You'd have a bitch of a time getting them loose while the arm is in a vise afterwards, for example. Per the FSM, make sure to exactly center the threads on the new upper shaft when installing it into the a-arm or your caster adjustment is going to be out of whack. And have a shaft installed, preferably the old one, in the a-arm when pressing out the old ball joint and pressing in the new one or you stand a good chance of bending the shaft alignment by actually re-shaping the arm when you're pressing the ball joint itself. Bolt the a-arm with its new shaft and new ball joint back into the truck and put the shims in place, then tighten it up, THEN tighten the end nuts on the shaft to final spec, maintaining the centering so important to keeping caster correct. And what is that spec, you ask? Guten-tight, since I can't remember finding the actual number. I'd wager a guess to say that over the life of these vehicles, virtually no one ever replaces those shafts, but it's a metal-to-metal wear surface for the upper arm to pivot, so it'll eventually need to be done and they're relatively cheap. The upper arm HAS to come out to replace the upper ball joint anyway, and if you're staying Gen 1 with the suspension, it really should be done.
John B.
