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I was thinking of buy a set of used aluminum rear lower control arms for my SC400 until the guy told me the ball joint is easily twisted in circles (rotated) by hand. The manual says something about 9"/lb. torque is the minimum effort required. Freely rotating ball joints are therefore no good, is this correct? I ask this because it might be the case that the service manual has very strict standards for what a bad ball joint is. My car has close to 250,000 miles on it and my front bushings were shot, but the control arm ball joint was simply "freely moving" and is still not a problem.
So how bad is bad? If freely moving means they are worthless, so be it.
What year model car do you have out of curiosity? You said "aluminum rear lower", I have not seen those in aluminum so must be a later model than what I have seen.
To answer your question, a freely spinning ball joint would typically mean it is worn out. Not worth the effort to replace and re-align if the life is going to be that short. I have bought a bunch of spare stuff for my race car and so far I haven't had anybody ship me a worn out one. I have a complete set of spare control arms for the car, I just hope I don't have to use them any time soon.
I have a '92 SC 400. The aluminum control arms were standard on the Japanese JZZ30 Soarer, however, I am not sure what years this was true. I believe it was 1997 - 2001, but I could be wrong.
I would think the only reason you never had a worn out control arm shipped to you is because you don't buy used ones. I can't see a used parts business not wanting to sell them because they think they are too worn out for the buyer to want them. Am I wrong on that?
Yep, that's bad don't do it! If you are planning to keep the car avoid the headache of buying used arms. That's a shot in to dark as to how long those will last. Ball joints on our cars are not serviceable you have to get new ones.
I have a '92 SC 400. The aluminum control arms were standard on the Japanese JZZ30 Soarer, however, I am not sure what years this was true. I believe it was 1997 - 2001, but I could be wrong.
I would think the only reason you never had a worn out control arm shipped to you is because you don't buy used ones. I can't see a used parts business not wanting to sell them because they think they are too worn out for the buyer to want them. Am I wrong on that?
Keep winning at the race track!
Aluminum rear lower control arms
Thats why I asked, those are rear UPPER control arms. Makes sense now, all of the lower rear control arms are steel.
04-13-17, 12:58 PM
Buying Used Control Arms, or "Used Ball Joints"?
