FEBEST Ball Joints

Yukonflyer · Post by **Yukonflyer** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:10 pm

Hello All,

Well it looks like I'm due for lower ball joints and am thinking I might do all four.

So I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with FEBEST ball joints? the lower ones are apparently drilled so a grease nipple can be installed in them, and upper ones are greasable too.

I'd rather not put sealed units in again, in my experience with this and other vehicles they just don't last as long.

Thanks!
Cameron

Yukonflyer · Post by **Yukonflyer** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:58 pm

Well, nobody seems to be saying much on here about these.

However I have had some responses on other boards and on FB groups from other parts of the world.

Some say go OEM only, others don't seem to think theres a problem with sealed ball joints as opposed to greasable ones.

I did get a few favourable replies as well. One in particular that stood out was from a guy in the UK that worked for the MOD and he told me that they chose to use FEBEST after market parts on MOD vehicles and hadn't had any problems. Good to know.

I then emailed FEBEST and asked if the units were greasable or had the bolt on the side as pictured and if this was a grease passage.
Unfortunately the respondent didn't really know much from a mechanics point of view, and he said so, however he did say that the lower ball joints were exactly as pictured, with the bolt on the side.

So, since I saw on one of the forums, I believe it was one in the UK but might have been Auz, that the bolt is a service point and a grease nipple can be screwed in and they become greasable ball joints, I ordered a set from FEBEST and they should be here Friday. (tracking says they've arrived in Winnipeg)

So once I receive them I'll take a picture or two and add them here, if I can, and give a review of what i think of them in my hands and so on. Once they are installed which I will likely do next week I'll give a further review. Hopefully they'll last a long time, if they don't I won't buy them again.

thats all for now

RickJ · Post by **RickJ** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:10 pm

Thank you Yukon..It will be good info to know.
-Rick

Post by **thelazygreenfox** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 1:07 pm

Thanks Yukon. I look forward to your review.

MD

Yukonflyer · Post by **Yukonflyer** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:09 pm

Ok, the ball joints arrived today.

on first inspection, no they can't be made into greasable ones with the simple addition of a nipple. I honestly have no idea why the bolts are there. looking at the casting, it could be that they were copied from a greasable ball joint and so they drilled and tapped the hole and screwed a bolt into it. But unfortunately they did not drill a passage to the ball joint from there.

That is a bit disappointing but oh well.

The lower right ball joint and lower left do not however seem to be quite the same. Obviously one is left and one is right but they have more differences than that. The right one is a solid rounded casting below the ball of the joint, the left one however is a flat bottom under the ball of the joint. The Left one is also a noticeably lighter casting. The right one is much beefier. Also the boot on the two is completely different, one being corrugated the other being a single balloon shape.

Not sure why the difference in both the casting and the boot. I will be giving the customer service a call to find out.

The one for the right looks much the same as the ones on my delica so I will probably install that one, not sure about the left one yet. There are no part numbers or name or anything cast into the part, so I only know which is which by the PN on the box.

Shape, angles and bolt patterns on both seem to be correct, so I think they are both correct for the delica. And even having said that the left one is a lighter casting than the right one, they are both robust and appear to be good quality.

I took the boots of both of them to inspect the joint itself and the joint, shaft and bearing surface seem to be identical, and good quality.
However I did find that there was minimal grease around the ball joint and on one of them it was pretty dried out, so I repacked them both with grease and then after the boot was back on and the larger lock ring was back in place I used a grease needle to fill the boot from the top by slipping the needle down the side of the ball joint shaft. Then I put the smaller locking right back on.
I would recommend doing this with any pre-greased sealed ball joints or rod ends.

So tomorrow I'm going to call FEBEST customer service and see if I can find out why they're not the same, and confirm that they are both correct parts.

Will let you all know what I find out.

RickJ · Post by **RickJ** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 1:18 am

Could we bother you for some numbers?

Yukonflyer · Post by **Yukonflyer** » Fri Mar 04, 2016 2:23 pm

What sort of numbers? Part number, Price? Certainly.

I called FEBEST this morning, their Americas office is in Florida. They were helpful and after talking with them on the phone and sending them an email with pictures of the ball joints they explained that the difference in the two ball joints is early and late production runs, one of them supersedes the other. They didn't say which was which however.

So I'm going to plan on installing them next week. We'll see how they hold up. As I said, quality appears good.

So some numbers

this is a link to the website for the Americas:
http://febestparts.com/catalog/MITSUBIS ... _1994-2004

The part numbers are:
0420-PD8LLH
0420-PD8LRH

Price is $19.12 USD each plus about $25 USD shipping, I'm still waiting to see what Fedex adds to the shipping for Customs and brokerage fees.

Well, I was going to add photos of the ball joints but I keep getting a file to large message.

Yukonflyer · Post by **Yukonflyer** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 12:27 pm

Ok, upon further research it appears the flat bottomed balljoint is for the 2WD version of the Delica,

I'd like to confirm this more but thats what I've found so far.

Which means that it is not going to work on the 4WD Delica. If you have a look in the service manual on page 33A-10 you will see the 2WD lower ball joint and how it is installed. On page 33A-11 you will see the 4WD lower ball joint and how it is installed. It is pretty clear from these to pages that the $WD should have a full rounded casting under the ball joint while the 2WD has a flat sheetmetal plate under the ball joint. Also you can see that the ball joints mount differently, the 4WD has the joint facing down while the 2WD has the joint facing up. This means that the 2 WD lower left hand joint they sent me is not compatible or a different production run as they suggested.

(found in the L400 Shop manual here http://www.delica.ca/manuals/L-400%20Ma ... ENSION.pdf)

So.
I emailed and called them today and they checked the stalk they have on hand in Florida and it appears all of the Lower Left Joints they have are these flat bottom ones. They are going to try and find out whats going on with the parts they have and in the mean time they have refunded me the cost of one ball joint and 50% of the shipping. I think thats fair, and hopefully they can get there stalk sorted out so more of us don't end up with the wrong part.

I have also ordered another ball joint from partsouq.com, hopefully it'll be the correct one when it gets here....

Yukonflyer · Post by **Yukonflyer** » Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:54 pm

Well I received another LLH FEBEST ball joint today, this time ordered from Partsouq.com

And again it appears to be the one for a 2WD delica, the casting has a flat bottom with a a sheet metal cover inserted, just as pictured in the manual for a 2WD delica.

Anyone know anything? has FEBEST redesigned the part? are these correct for the 4WD Delica? Any input would be helpful. Otherwise I'm guessing I'll have to order a different brand for the left lower balljoint.

Yukonflyer · Post by **Yukonflyer** » Tue Mar 15, 2016 1:54 pm

Ok, so I've been looking into things further, kind of given up on FEBEST for the LLH ball joint.I've received the wrong one twice from different suppliers.

Now I'm wondering what people know about the compatibility of lower ball joints between the Montero/Pajero and the Delica L400.

What do people know?

I've come across a number of posts saying that the Montero/Pajero/Delica l400 all share the same lower ball joints

However I was also told by a parts supplier in BC that they are different.

Again what do people know? Are they the same or different?

It would be nice if they are the same, Napa carries two lower ball joints for the Montero, and one of them is greasable and looks like only a minor modification would be required to the rock guard of the lower arm to accommodate the greasable one. (just a hole to allow the grease nipple to fit and be accessible.

Has anyone tried the Montego/Pajero lower ball joints on a L400?

Thanks

robd · Post by **robd** » Mon Mar 13, 2017 6:36 pm

Hi,

I know it's been a while but which way did you end up going with the ball joints? I think I have to replace mine and it's been challenging finding the right parts.

Khrolar · Post by **Khrolar** » Wed Jul 03, 2019 6:58 am

So did anyone find out if the Montero/L400/Pajero lower balljoints are the same? They sure as hell look like they are!

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