I just have a quick question that I have not seen addressed before (although I don't spend much time in the suspension forum, so it probably has been).

Does anyone know why every retail store and even eBay only carry the ball joints that are strictly for the stamped steel control arms? The stock ball joints are still attatched to my CA's, but I would rather replace them with new ones now. From the online pictures I've seen, the aftermarket ball joints for the stamped steel CA's look identical to the stock ball joints for the 99' Aluminum CA's I have sitting in front of me (with the obvious exception of the rivets). Do the aluminum control arms have a different bolt spacing or different height/width or something else? I will be doing the NWF-body swap at the same time, so that I don't have to dick around with welding, cutting and redrilling new holes. If anyone could shed some light on this issue, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

You can go to the parts store and just pickup a set of Jbody ball joints. The replacement ball joints bolt in rather than riveted.

All the info is in this thread ( Aluminum Control Arm thread )




Jason
99 Z24 Supercharged
157hp/171tq - NA
LD9 for Life

^^^^^^^^^^^ Yes, but I'm doing the NWF-body upgrade as well, which means I'll be using N-body spindles. I believe the 99+ N-body ball joints are larger than the J-bodies. I know if I were mounting these to J-body spindles, then you would be correct, but that's not the case here.

i'm using n body ball joints with my cavy spindles., they are interchangeable.

NightmaresCavy wrote:i'm using n body ball joints with my cavy spindles., they are interchangeable.

What year ball joints? The 98 and earlier N-body should have the same ball joints as the J-body.

If you are doing the NFW swap, you need the 99 N-body ball joints. The reason they probably aren't stocked many places is that the aluminum control arms were only from that year IIRC. There are far more N-body cars out there with stamped control arms than aluminum. You can order the right ones through an Autozone.com, though. They just aren't available in the store. I'm curious about the one they list as "rare parts" though, that weighs a half pound more, and costs twice as much.

Thanks Quick. I had looked at the Autozone website before, but I was looking under "99' Alero" and the aluminum ball joints aren't listed. I just now looked under 99' Grand Am and can see that they do have them. Thanks again.