Best Replacement Control Arms?

96 XJ Up-Country
155,000 miles
Mall-Crawler .... total street Jeep


OK, so I'd been wanting to retire the old girl. She's been GREAT, but in the past year-and-a-half, I've had to have both diffs rebuilt, new front hubs, new starter, new radiator, new steering box, new Rough Country track bar, new power window motors, and new door actuators.

The alternator and power steering pump are sketchy, the paint is shot, somebody sideswiped her on the left side and drove off, and somebody else whacked her in the right-rear and drove off.

I was trying to limp along on the 55,000+ tires until I was ready to buy something new, but I couldn't put it off anymore. I was on threads, so I put a set of 255/65R16 Yokahama Geolander AT GO15s on her. Of course, that was only the beginning. All four ball joints, both tie rod ends, control arm bushings and sway bar bushings were bad, too. I went ahead fixed them. Just gonna have to keep her for a couple more years.

I got energy suspension control arm bushings for her, but when we got the control arms out, 3 of them are split or cracked, and (at least) one of them is twisted.

I'm thinking the thing to do is just replace the control arms entirely.

The question is, which ones?

I thought about tubular control arms, but I'm only going to be driving the old girl for a couple more years. That might be overkill, especially considering that I don't off-road her. The roughest duty she sees is in snow and ice.

I thought about stock-replacement control arms, and found these: https://www.1aauto.com/jeep-control-arm/i/1asfk00175?f=478176&y=1996

That price seems too good to be true. A full set from AutoZone, Napa, or O'Reilly's is more than double that. Hell, a set of stock-replacement bushings costs more than that.

Has anyone used these?

Any other ideas?

you should really consider using the search button, there are more threads than there are people on welfare for this topic. Since I'm feeling nice and enjoying my coffee I'll give you the short. Stockers are cheap from amazon and rockauto(~$20 each so that price in your link is prob legit). If you want a bit of an upgrade for almost the same price WJ control arms area direct swap and considered a tad stronger, they are boxed frame, and are angled giving you more tire clearance when turning.

Check ebay also if you are looking for stock replacement. I would consider something better if intention is still to keep.

While I don't recommend MOOG flat out anymore, I have found their Jeep XJ control arms to be the best available. All the other aftermarket brands from NAPA, O'Reilly's, etc. are using different cheap crap. MOOG as of last year was still supplying good control arms with Clevite bushings. As an example of cheap crap, I broke the ears off NAPA bushings trying to press them into the axle. Just junk. For axle side bushings, O'Reilly's Master Pro K3128 was the same Clevite as MOOG and cheaper, too. It's best to replace the bushings with all the same kind of rubber so they flex the right way. And only torque control arm bolts when the weight of the vehicle is resting on the tires...

Tampa_XJ said:

you should really consider using the search button, there are more threads than there are people on welfare for this topic. Since I'm feeling nice and enjoying my coffee I'll give you the short. Stockers are cheap from amazon and rockauto(~$20 each so that price in your link is prob legit). If you want a bit of an upgrade for almost the same price WJ control arms area direct swap and considered a tad stronger, they are boxed frame, and are angled giving you more tire clearance when turning.

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Thanks for the information, but honestly, the lecture is a little annoying.

I've been on this forum for over 10 years, and on forums in general for nearly 20.

The first thing I did was look through the "Frequently Asked Questions And Writeups" section: Nada.

Then I looked at the "FAQ Directory By Subject" thread: Nada

Then I searched "control arms". After three pages in threading through all the 50-page "what did you do to your rig today" posts, I realized my search was too general, so I searched "replacement control arms". Same thing, so I searched "factory replacement control arms". Same thing. Then I did the same searches, but in the "OEM Tech" section. Same thing

Only then did I ask the question.

It's a little frustrating to be pwned like a newb who found the site, registered, and asked a question that gets asked 10 times a day without bothering to even look around after I spent over 30 minutes of my best internets trying to find an answer for myself.

Here's a thought. You seem to know a lot about the subject, that WJ control arm swap seems like a great solution, but even searching something as specific as that yields this: http://www.naxja.org/forum/search.php?searchid=6799227

How about doing a writeup?

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1104571&highlight=wj+control+arm

You should try using quotes. "wj control arm" returns threads with the actual phrase "wj control arm". Without the quotes, it returns any thread with wj, control or arm in it.

dan1977p said:

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1104571&highlight=wj+control+arm

You should try using quotes. "wj control arm" returns threads with the actual phrase "wj control arm". Without the quotes, it returns any thread with wj, control or arm in it.

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Thank you, but I did use quotes, The results contained every incidence of "control", and "arm" and "wj", and "swap".

That's a good thread. Thanks for providing it. I hate it when the hosted photos get lost, though. I'd like to see those!

EDIT: Photos are on original post: http://jeep-xj.info/HowtoWJcontrolarms.htm

Good advance search works a lot better than the in forum search bar. See results below when I searched "WJ control arms", 2nd link down is the write-up. If I were trying to be a jerk or blow you off I wouldn't of bothered with the quick run down info. The intent is not to "pwn newbs" but a simple friendly reminder that the majority of XJ topics have been covered in detail... damn things have been around since dinosaurs. Google Advance Search is your best friend, much easier to search and better more accurate results.

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=..._occt=any&safe=images&as_filetype=&as_rights=

lazyxj said:

Plenty of WJ control arm threads, using a very simple search.
Imagine what you might have found adding "WJ" to the search.

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Wow, really?

See, in order to search specifically for the WJ control arm swap, one would need to know about it. That's where posting a thread asking for information comes in.

Think before you try to pwn, Son

I put core4x4 control arms under mine. Prolly overkill for you, but they are well built. Otherwise id check rockauto, you can get the control arms for dirt cheap there

sinat01 said:

I put core4x4 control arms under mine. Prolly overkill for you, but they are well built. Otherwise id check rockauto, you can get the control arms for dirt cheap there

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Yeah, I just looked at those Core 4x4 arms. They're nice.

I ended up going with the Moog stock-upgrade control arms. Rock Auto was 20 bucks cheaper than anywhere else, even with 9.99 shipping.

I found rock auto for the most part has the best prices on parts, If I need something quick ill order from summit cuz its here usually next day.
Glad you found something without the search Nazis messin the thread up too much.