Geez!

Went to the Holley website. I can order inner and outer Proforged tie rods direct. And they’re a lot cheaper (vs Amazon and Ebay). $12 less each on the outers and $5 less each on the inners. Free shipping. And they’re in stock (unlike Amazon).

It’s a no brainer. I’ll order them in the morning.

Oh, and all these discount auto parts stores that sell under their own names…their tie rod parts are made by Moog. They use the same part # save a letter or two at the end and they all look indentical to the Moog save the color.

 

Naw, they're not all made by Moog.

They use the same part numbers so that they can avoid having to generate a good cross reference.

That's how THAT is played out.

RwP

 

I can buy that, however they're at least all reverse engineering some or all of the Moog because they all look the same. I wouldn't be surprised if they're also buying components from Moog or Moog suppliers. I don't know how vertically integrated Moog is. I'm guessing here, but I suspect Moog does not make their own castings. Most manufacturers buy castings. Used to be nearly all the casting joints were around Lake Michigan but I suspect from overseas now (China).

 

I suspect it is more like "Most are overseas"...... Cheap steel, cheap labor, and no EPA....... Gary Indiana use to be a booming town because of the foundrys and such there. Along comes the EPA, passing rules that made it impossible for them to be profitable any more, and the town essentially dried up, and blew away. Population dropped like a stone. Looks like something an archeologist might be interested in today....... Of course, the air is much cleaner.......

 

I visited a couple foundries in Manitowoc, WI back in the late 90's. Foundries is what put Manitowoc on the map. They were already starting to dry up for the reasons you mentioned. No idea what the town looks like now. Not sure I want to know.

 

For the record as someone who grew up believing this, it is not correct. Greed and hatred for the working man is the problem not lack of profitability due to EPA regs.
If that were true California could not be as well off as they are and they have all the industries including auto manufacturing, foundries and steel mills there.

The owners came to see the regulations that made them spend profits on keeping up the place, paying good wages and investing in growth and stability of the industry as onerous in spite of still making millions and being the richest people on the block. Once it became an option to close up shop and move to slave labor and cheap labor they did as they would have at any time previous had it been legal. That is what de-regulation was about not lack of profitability due to onerous EPA regs. Those two things were the easy to use propaganda of the time.
Ditto the auto industry which dovetailed with this effort. It never had to go down like it did. Our engineers etc could just as easily have built efficient cars that had better steering and options but the owners chose not to with heavy amounts of patriotic propaganda added on top to stop the conversation. If you think about it in the build a better mouse trap version of America it was patriotic to buy the "better" cars and not so to keep Detroit going. BTW they never intended to return the auto industry to where it had been. We are exactly where the people who did it intended to be.

 

There were many factors that led to the demise of manufacturing in the US. Of course, money was the motivator, but, moving offshore didn't really become an option until Nixon opened up China back in the 70's. And even then, it was decades before folks saw it as a viable alternative.

EPA regulations were just a part of the entire picture. Anything that would reduce costs was considered a 'good idea'. Moving to someplace where wages were dirt cheap, there were no environmental regulations, and very few protections for workers, really appealed to the folks that were at the top of the food chain. If they could pay their workers a few bucks a DAY, as opposed to dollars/hour, so much the better. If they didn't have to spend millions installing equipment to clean up their discharge, be if smokestacks, or other waste, so much the better. If they didn't have to spend money making sure their facilities were "safe", so much the better. (Union Carbide anyone?)

Free Trade agreements only accelerated the off-shoring/moving to another country. For much the same reasons. We were promised lower prices, but, we never saw them. X product might only cost 50% of what it would to manufacture here in the states, but, the prices were the same no matter where it came from. The folks at the top of the food chain benefitted, no one else did though. All it accomplished was to gut the middle class, by eliminating MANY good jobs.

 

Upper balljoints arrived. First impression...ROBUST! Nothing cheap about these. Ralph, I believe you were right about AC Delco Pro.

Looking at Rack Bellows. Hard to know what is any good. Brands I never heard of before. A1 Auto Parts sells one that looks good in the picture for whatever that's worth. Thinking I might be better off staying with the ones already on the truck. They're originals but they're clean, hefty, and still pliable. But at 28 years one can never tell.

 

I'm in the "All of the Above" camp.

Yet here we are today getting 200, 300,000 or more miles on our automobiles when back in the day our goal was to get to 100,000. Of course, getting 3x more miles out of our automobiles has come at a price too. Like 10x more (not factoring in inflation).

 

Much as I hate to say it..... That is something else we can blame (thank?) the EPA for. Emissions regulations required engines to be more efficient. Back in the day, the hotrodders "goal" was 100 horsepower per liter. Today, we have cars coming off the factory floor with 150 hp/l, or more, and they come with a 36000 mile warranty, or more..... "Some" things have indeed gotten better, but, they have also gotten significantly more complicated. I remember when my power window switch actually controlled power to the window motor, not just suggested to some computer that I want my window down further....... Even the friggin' turnsignals are computerized these days.....

And of course, working on them has gotten MUCH more complicated as well. I don't think there really is any such thing as an "automotive tech" any more. Most of 'em are just parts replacers. And that simply doesn't work out well, especially if you are out of warranty.