Ebay tie rod ends/balljoints

I know I've been making alot of threads recently, and I apologize. Trying to get this jeep working as good as possible. The front end of this car is rediculous, theres about 15 degrees of play either way before it catches, and I have a feeling its just the car being 20 years old.

There are specials on ebay with a set of 4 ball joints (current bid + shipping = $25) and another for 3 tie rod ends (BIN for $34). This is my second car and will eventually be my girlfriends transportation to work/school. I dont need top of the line parts, I'd just like to tighten it up for a good price. Just wondering if anybody has any experience with these parts. Thanks in advance.

the tie rod auction says

All this parts are after market O.E & A.I Brand with the highest quality standards including 18 months warranty…!

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and list these part numbers (are these correct?)
ES3094
ES3095
ES3096

Seriously, ball joints are just too much work to take a chance on buying possibly inferior parts. Buy a brand name.
I have one ball joint in my 88 now that is less than two years old that needs replacing. My parts people are good at replacing inferior parts, but that sure doesn't help all the lost man hours. I'll buy Spicer or some other brand name next time.
Even Brand names are no guarantee, there was a bunch of Spicer (U-joint) knock offs around here some years ago. The only way you could tell the difference was the printing on the packaging was different, the bearings caps were a slightly different shade and by how long they lasted (which wasn't long).

and I have a feeling its just the car being 20 years old.
==================================
The Jeep is bone stock?
Will it see little or no hard offing?
The XJ will NOT be around that much long right?
I would not put a lot of bucks into parts that would spend most of the time in a bone yard. Will you get the extra money back you spend on the high price parts. If you sell it? Don't hold your breath.

8Mud said:

Seriously, ball joints are just too much work to take a chance on buying possibly inferior parts. Buy a brand name.

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X2 on that. Stick with a brand name; good advice from 8Mud!:cheers: It's really "buyer beware" on ebay IMHO.

But like Badron said, I wont be getting much if anything out of it, although I would like them not to fail. Doing the work is no problem (althought i've never changed one I've done quite a bit of work (several days worth) that I wouldn't mind doing over). The jeep is somewhat temporary, I got it for 1200 bucks and am just attempting to make it a bit more reliable for when it becomes my girlfriends transportation to and from work.

Before I even made this thread I went ahead and put a bid on the balljoints, probably should have asked before hand...bid+shipping is at $20.

edit: its also stock, and will see very very light offroading

I got some ball joints off ebay about 6 months ago for my DD and they are working great so far. I think they cost about $60 shipped for all 4. The only issue was the lower joint has a grease zerk that is very close to the u-joint in the axle and is impossible to grease with the shaft installed, but the stock joint doesn't have a zerk.

i wouldnt trust the egay stuff like that. go down to your favorite auto parts store- NAPA, vAuto zone, chucker, o'rileys etc- and get a set from them. it doesnt have to be their top of the line stuff as they usually have their house brand for cheap. i wouldnt trust your girlfriends life to egay parts- and im not even dating her.

so theres hope? I was ready to cancel the bid if I could. I think I'll give them a shot. Anybody try the tie rod ends off ebay, they say they're a mix of "AI and OE" (whatever AI is) so...

edit: you ninja'd your post in there. I know I want to replace these parts to increase the chance of nothing failing on her but I'm afraid they'll be low quality and end up doing just that. However I dont make alot of money and she doesn't even have a job right now so I can't even afford new parts. I think I may just get the ball joints (too late to do anything about it I'm afraid) and hold off on the tie rod ends, and get a new track bar (from the junkyard, tomorrow ) and call it a day

chances are if its just a street driven rig the cheap ones will last you a long time - if it were a vehicle you were going to go wheelin with then you may want the good ones which are in alot of cases the same thing - I personally like Moog pruducts

For ball joints, 20$ for all 4 isn't a bad price relatively speaking. Like veedub said, if you drive it on road and dont beat it, you should be fine, at least for a while. You may not get the same life out of them that you would from something better (which is kinda a given), but then again like you said, you dont want to put throw a ton of $$ into it esp where you dont have a ton of cash coming in.

Be VERY cautious with junkyard trackbars... figure that if you need to replace the tie rod ends now and you are keeping it on the road, a jeep in the JY probably has many of the same problems you are having, esp tie rod ends. Thats not particularly a part of my XJ I would be getting from the JY... just my 2 cents..

thanks for the responses. I was watching in horror as the time for the auction ended but I'm going to give them a shot. I'll hold off on the junkyard trackbar, I figured it probably wasn't the best idea, but the junkyard I'm going to has 27 cherokees, one of them was bound to have a good one

IRPancake said:

thanks for the responses. I was watching in horror as the time for the auction ended but I'm going to give them a shot. I'll hold off on the junkyard trackbar, I figured it probably wasn't the best idea, but the junkyard I'm going to has 27 cherokees, one of them was bound to have a good one

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Many times I've cruised the junk yard and found near new parts. My alternator, brake discs and unit hub are junk yard finds.

I'm going to check anyways but if I can't I wont bother, either way the yard lists the bar for only $7 and with such a selection I might be able to find parts like you did. I'm probably going friday, wish I could have gone today but had something pop up. Just get to fix the rear shock problem today and take it easy

I'm not going to try these out anymore. I'm tired of dumping money into this thing. If you saw my other thread, the rear upper shock bolt broke. So after trying an extractor which stripped, I drilled it out and started pushing the old threads out, when the screw I was using snapped again.

Rear upper shock bolt is nothing. I just pulled the rear carpet out, cut a small hole in the metal over the area where the shock bolt is, and used a nut/bolt through to hold the shock in there. That was a couple years ago still holding fine. Then just throw a piece of scrap metal over the small hole. hell hold it there with glue, not like its that important. Then throw the carpet over it and forget about it. Just make sure to use threadlock. Its a cheap fix so its not like you will be throwing much money into it for that fix..

Edit: Got "unlazy" and checked out your other thread... someone already mentioned nut/bolt, oh well

I'll do that if the new solution doesn't hold (broke the other bolt and this time it left enough threads to stop the shock from twisting. If that doesn't work I'll end up doing waht you did. Thanks for the idea!

I also was still planning on getting the ball joints but someone outbid me

Im not too sure I would leave the shocks held on with one bolt. something about that just doesnt seem right to me. Haha. you can take the extra time now to make sure its held on there, or you can risk it, possibly damaging the shock, and then that would be more money you would have to throw away. Even with both sides held tight one of my shock nuts came loose and the only way I realized it was loose was I jumped on the rear bumper and heard a clunk of the shock shifting. apparently one bolt came loose, then i guess the other did too to the point that i could move the shock around w/ my hands. so would you rather spend the extra time now or risk your shock coming loose... (feel free to ask me why I mentioned using locktight )

Edit: and for the ball joints.. jack up the front tires and check your ball joints. There's a chance the play is coming from other areas (could all be your track bar and steering stuff). You might spend time & money on it when you dont have to. With the way your making it sound, chances are it may need them done, but if your just guessing, I would say you should check them before you just blindly spend money assuming your play is from the trackbar and ball joints. My buddy had play in his steering linkage (he had more play than you were saying you have, but still, food for thought

Thats a good point, It'll be fine for now I'm sure, it hardly gets driven and its jsut to the store and back. I just dont want to deal with it at the moment because it pissed me off with both bolts breaking. I'll do it eventually