OK I admit... I didnt read all 47 pages of this thread today before posting what I am about to say; But as a 20 year former front end alignment/suspension guy, and life long Dodge owner who does100% of my own repairs,

1 In the very 1st post where OP says something about jacking up and shaking... did you jack it up RIGHT (correctly) before shaking for looseness? On your truck you have to jack up under the lower control arm on the side you are checking to unload the ball joints; jacking up under the center of the crossmember will not tell you ANYTHING about the condition of the ball joints or bushings.
2. I NEVER call a joint "bad" solely because a grease boot is ripped... seems very common these days, as does calling tie rod ends bad just because they rotate around the internal ball... THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO!
and on the grease boot.. if the front end is greased every (or at least every other) oil change, the new grease will flush out any contaminants.
3 I will still take my chances with my choice of Moog as my !1st choice" brand; I don't make my living from beneath an alignment rack but still do my share of front end work. and ChinaMoog? Ive so far only had that on a few tie rod ends and when I have used alternate brands, (usually store brand, have no idea what youre really getting) that always bites me in teh *** having to redo the job sooner than later which always pisses me off.
If I somehow can't buy Moog I look for TRW or even Spicer brand. back in the day customers would come in with newly installed McQuay Norris parts on their cars for alignment "because they were cheaper" and within sometimes a few days of install, their parts would already be "borderline bad" for allowable play especially parts like idler and pitman arms.
4. For bushings I have used Moog's "problem solver" ones which aren't urethane but are better than plain old rubber. and I have used Prothane/Energy Suspension several times on my own cars and trucks and love em... I have yet to have a squeak issue from them.
5. On burning out old bushings.... a little gas to soak into them then carry the control arms into my (gravel) driveway and light em afire with a propane bottle torch, and walk away til the smoke clears.... especially when you are wanting to save the shells for urethane bushings that don't have shells.
6. as long as it isnt something wth integral ball joints that can't be replaced separately OR in the case of a rotted out control arm, I always rebuild the existing control arms. I have gone to the junkyard and gotten replacements rebuilt those and put those in. I rarely buy brand new control arms for anything. For a little labor it is cheaper to rebuild and you get a better result.

 

TRW and Moog were both bought by Federal Mogul.

TRW has been subsumed and any you find are NOS now (or counterfeit!)

Moog - well, it's not what it used to be. Sadly.

Spicer - when you can find them, Spicer Pro are about the best you CAN find.

Good news is that ACDelco Professional Grade are relabeled Spicer Pro parts; MUCH easier to find.

Just what's happened in the past five or six years.

RwP

 

I've done front end work in the last 5-6 years just not as much of it as I used to.
At work, as a fleet mechanic, unfortunately, I am stuck with either parts from OEM dealer or NAPA, one of the disadvantages of having a govt job and working in a remote podunk out of the way town. We have to deal with places that the state has contracts with, and being where we are located, reduces the possibilities. But for my own/ or for people's cars I work at here at home, I look to MOOG first. The only MOOG parts I have bought in the last 5-6 years (using RalphP's timeline) that were Chinamade, were 2 of the 4 tie rod ends on my 96 4wd Dakota. That whole front end rebuild, the parts came from Rock Auto. about 4-1/2 years ago. ALL Moog except for the Energy suspension upper control arm bushings
I admit that unless I get something that is unsafe enough to doubt the car will make it to work tomorrow, I try to pre buy all the stuff I can from Ebay, I look for the oldest looking parts I can find.
On TRW, I know that the local Federated auto parts sells them. As well as Moog, and some private label brand called "PRT" now some of those parts are total crap. and I dont know who really does make them. the last few times Ive seen TRW parts from there, they came from Mexico, which Id take over China any day.
and when I do get something here that needs changed "NOW" I still call around and look for MOOG 1st. I haven't had the problems with them that others seem to have had. Now I dont know if the particular variety of vehicles I work on has anything to do with that or what. I'll buy "something else" if Moog isnt readily available and I have to get something done and done NOW.

2 horror stories I have; One on my wife's 2001 Durango, the other on a son's buddy's Chevy 3/4 ton 4wd;
On my wife's vehicle; I had replaced all 4 ball joints like 3 days after we originally brought it home. They were toast, the guy we got it from had a floor jack out in the driveway, I forget what he was working on when I came to look at the Durango to decide whether to buy it or not; I jacked it up right there in the seller's driveway (I bought this Durango via Craigslist) and showed the guy how bad the front end was.... not to mention how "shot" the tires were. It got me a little more (not a crazy amount) off the asking price. But enough for me to cover the cost of new ball joints, on a DIY level.
As some of you on this forum may know, back in the early 2000s Dodge actually had a recall on certain year 1st gen Durangos and 2nd gen (97-04) Dakotas, for upper ball joints. The ball joints on this particular Durango were bolt in/ so even though they were shot, they had already been replaced at least once. (it also had 214K on it when I bought it) I got the Moogs for the lowers and where ever I had gone they were out of stock on Moog uppers. Had to order them. So I was talking to a buddy of mine who worked at a Dodge dealer. He said they sold a "recall package" of upper ball joints for 1/2 the price of the Moog uppers and in his experience were "pretty good", he'd used many and hadn't had a problem with them. He also bought and sold many vehicles back then, never had one for very long. Which I knew. But I trusted his point of view, and he'd helped me out of a bind a few times, over the years. A guy I used to work with when I myself worked for a Dodge dealer, 30 years ago.
So I bought them, cancelled my order for the uppers at the parts store down the road, and put the ones I bought from the dealer in. This was all in 2013. Yes, we still have that same Durango.
7,000 miles later we and this Durango, were in Houston/ my son was looking at a school down there he was considering. we had driven 19 hours, down from Chicago-ish.
We had left the school, following their map as we were looking at their suggested apartment listings that their students were known to have used while attending. I have never been to Houston, before or since.
We drove thru a dip, within the dip was a set of RR tracks. only going around 20-25 MPH, tracks were a pretty smooth crossing. As I came up the other side of the dip I started hearing a grind, and my steering wheel all of a sudden, went kitty wompus on me. I pulled over in a factory parking lot entrance to get off the road and got out for a look. and I discovered the right upper ball joint had busted off, right at the base of the threads.
Luckily the ball joints were bolted and not riveted in and I had a few tools with me including a floor jack. My son found an OReillys about a mile away. He and I hoofed it to Oreillys and bought a pair of Moog and hoofed back, while my wife and his girlfriend (now wife) waited in teh Durango for us to get back, which I did not want to do.
At Oreillys I insisted on Moog, the counter guy offered "their" brand for 1/2 the price which I refused. so he brought me out 2 very dusty yellow boxes, I paid for them, walked back, and changed that bad ball joint right there on the side of the road.
The next morning we were getting ready to head back home, 19 hours away. My wife and (now) daughter in law checked out while my son loaded our stuff in the Durango and I replaced the other non Moog upper BJ right there in the motel parking lot. Which took me less than a half an hour. I wasn't having a repeat at 70-80 MPH, no way. I just did the oil change yesterday on this Durango. 290,000 mile oil change. Still with those same Moog lowers installed at 214,000 and Moog uppers installed at 221,000 miles. and still good as new. I had to replace all the front end bushings... upper, lower, sway bar and rack mounting, at 260K. I didn't re-replace those ball joints, they were fine. At 285,000 I replaced the front diff, again had to seperate the ball joints to get the halfshafts out, and I was surprised at how the studs still had some tension on them, no slopiness or flopiness to them at all.

and my son's buddy, has an early 2000s Chevy 3/4 ton. My son helped his buddy check out and fix his loose front end, and against all the begging his buddy insisted on buying the $8.00 replacements. "lifetime warranty" Yeah OK. before snow flew that year, they were replacing those same ball joints once again. Some people are a real tough sell.

 

Well, I’ll say again by stating the obvious. The large majority of the cost of a repair is the time n effort to do the repair and any fallout from breaking down somewheres. So why anyone would want to skimp on parts is beyond me.

I just did a whole bunch of work on the wifes car including replacing all four wheel bearings. I insisted on using Timken bearings. Didn’t want anything else. That meant on the fronts the old bearings had to be pressed out and the new Timkens pressed in. The rear Timkens came as a hub n bearing assy (not available for the fronts). To me, it’s worth the extra hassle n expense to put in Timkens because it is likely the last time I will ever have to put bearings in that car. To me, that’s worth a lot!

 

Realized tonight that the neighbor kid is taking welding classes at the community college. So if I need welding to repair my candelstick holders I got it! My frame brackets are still solid.

 

Well Ralph, I hope you got done more than me today..

Body mounts: I loosened all four passenger side bolts. It pushed my 800 ft/lb air impact but it got 'em all loose. Went to remove bolts on driver's side starting with the core mount. Air gun wouldn't budge it. Got my 3/4" breaker with 6' cheater bar and that broke it free. Unfortunately, I could not get the bolt out. It spun like a top. Not surprised because the cage surrounding the rectangle-shaped nut (it's not exactly square) was mangled before I even touched it. It came out of the factory that way. I noticed it when I was hitting them with PB Blaster over the past two+ weeks. Well, I mangled it even more. Got it halfway out and that was it. Ripped battery tray out for better access. Tried a variety of ways to hold that rectangle nut. Ended up with a visegrip and that did the trick.

Went to the front-most cab mount next. Same deal. Halfway out then spin city. Ripped the fender well out. A small rectangle hole allowed me to see inside and there is about 3 threads to go and the cage got mangled on that one too. Not much room to work with and not in front of the cage nut. Tried wedging the nut. No go. It's not a rectangle nut either. It's a double triangle. For the life of me I don't know what Chrysler was thinking with this hardware. But I'm done for the day. I'll probably have to cut a hole to get access.

I did remove the two rear-most cab mounting bolts. Yes, there is some corrosion on the lower washers but they're salvageable. And what little of the candlestick holder sticks out of the core mount and two rear-most candlesticks all look good so far. So maybe they'll be OK.

So next up is trying to get that damn bolt free on the driver's side, front-most cab mount. Cannot tell if that candlestick is intact yet. Then I can lift the driver's side. Haven't even look at the steering shaft. I'll only do that if I have to. Looks like I'll be using prevailing torque nuts in place of the cage nuts that got mangled. I'll never be changing these mounts again and the cage nuts are for crap anyway.

 

Yeah, body mounts can be a pain. The top of the bolt will rust, and as you try and draw those threads thru the nut, it jams up, and the cage holding the nut breaks loose instead. If you can secure the nut a bit, try running the bolt in a little bit, then back it out. (do this with hand tools.....) It's an exercise, but, usually works. The access hole is likely going to be a requirement.....

 

Good advice. I sometimes use that method if I don’t forget about it. Had to use it for my lower control arm bushing bolts. About gave up then I tightened the hell out of it then it backed out. Funny how that works, huh?

 

OK Ralph. Here’s some info. Don’t know how much it will apply for your standard cab mounts. Maybe none of it.

The ES kit diagram shows the 4085 going under the core. The 4117 shows going under the back two.

Of course, I have four per side but my extended cab is assbackwards to the ES diagram. The two rear-most mounts have smaller frame holes that fit the 4085s. The two front-most have larger frame holes that fit the 4117s.

Mine have a smidge of play but I assume that is normal.

All my hardware, while surface-coroded in some cases, was structurally intact except for one bolt that had major rot in the middle. I will replace that one. The remaining bolts are in excellent condition. All the bottom washers were corroded but not too deep. Easily reusable. All four candelstick holders were in very good shape. Hardly any rust at all. Got the wife to help clean and paint it all (except the bolts). I’ll let it dry overnight. Also, the frame holes were all in very good shape too but the front-most one under the cab does have a fair amount of corrosion but is still structurally sound. Those being behind the front wheel explains that. I have two cage nuts that are mangled beyond hope but fortunately the two easiest to access. I will just using prevailing flange nuts there. Had to drill a 2.5” hole for the front-most mount to get to that mangled cage nut. The mangled core cage nut is much easier to get to. The cage nuts for the rear two are in good shape. Thankfully!

So tomorrow I secure the driver side then move to the passenger side. Oh, and all I did was detach the fan shroud. I did not monkey with brake lines OR the steering shaft. So far no harm, no foul that I can see. Cab lifted right up. About 2”.

 

Left side done except for torquing down the bolts. Right side ready for mounts. Letting paint on hardware dry overnight. A couple land mines today but they only blew off my feet. The rest of me is still intact. Worst one was stripping the threads on one of the cage nuts due to a cantankerous rubber mount that wouldn't relent. I stopped before it was an atomic mess. Fortunately I was able to tap it and clean up the threads. Got lucky!

I will say this about this job. Put your impact gun away. Use hand tools! An impact is just too rough for those cage nuts. And even with hand tools, be gentle! No herky jerky, slam bam. If necessary use breaker bars and cheater bars and use finesse. Load the tool up first before applying reverse torque.

Haven't seen Ralph lately. I hope he is OK.