Evening gents and happy Memorial Day weekend!


I'm in the process of replacing my steering stabilizer with the Bilstein stabilizer, got the old one out, POR-15'ed the center link and steering box and realized I should replace my idler, arm, and pitman. I don't have any major need to massive beefed up parts, nor do I want to spend $800 on those parts. What is the best brands other than Rare Parts and all the extremely high dollar stuff? Moog, AC Delco? I've seen Detroit Axle on ebay with great reviews and their prices can't be beat-anyone with experience on their products??


Thanks in advance!

 

Good question for me too.... After my headers and front brakes this weekend I'm finding that pretty much my entire front suspension is totally worn out.

I've read multiple mixes reviews on that stabilizer with several yanking it back off and getting an ACDelco on and putting that on. Cannot remember offhand what the issue was though. Many also had no problems with it. I've also eyed that Detroit Axle stuff....

 

A lot of people were saying the stabilizer is positively charged and it comes with a strap on it like shocks do when they're shipped. Mine did not have the strap on so it doesn't seem to be positively charged IMO. I'll see what happens when its actually installed.


I am very curious on the Detroit axle stuff. I'll try and research them a little and see if they look legit or not.

 

MOOG is the only way I would go for OEM style replacement parts. If I wanted heavy duty I would do the Rare Parts tie rod ends.

 

It looks like Detroit Axle runs under the name of Dearborn Axle as well. They only make axles in Michigan and claim to own a manufacturing factory in China which is where their other parts comes from. I've read a lot of other forums and reviews, most of which are generally negative so I'm going to pass on them and go with Moog.



That's what I decided to do. I pulled part number from Moog's website and found everything on Amazon for decent prices. It's one of those things where I want to replace the parts and call it done, not worry about china metal fracturing or worse.


I already have the Xtreme Duty tie rod ends from DMaxStore, I think Moog problem solver parts will be find for the pitman, idler, and idler arm.

 

I did the stabilizer and the shocks with Bilstein and they are great. Anti sway is Moog. Don't overlook all those bushings in the Steering system.

 

I'm gonna hire out a complete front end job on my Matrix Time Machine H2. Eyeballin eBay with complex brain calculations on prices, I see that DetroitAxel has 11 pieces of lovely front end parts for a modest 70 some bucks.

My eyes widened and mouth fell open as one eyebrow raised. I go, WOW. Cause I just seen a kit with all the parts just like this, from AcDelco for 429 and Moog 539.

Looking at DetroitAxel feed back it was horrible. It had 36 complaints in 30 days. And most were for this front end kit for other models. Poor parts, missing parts, parts not fitting, parts are junk and so on and so forth.

So I guess those good DetroitAxel deals are not so good after all.

 

Your life depends on your front end, there is no way I would trust the Chinese crap. We all know how good they make stuff.

Moog is the way to go.

 

Does not look like many options for a complete kit though other than the dang chinese stuff. Most things I'm finding are a steering kit. Then you still need to get the suspension stuff (either ***** or full control arms plus tie rods, pitman arms, etc), steering stabilizer, and all the assorted bushings.

You would think some of the brands would offer a complete kit since some of the smaller bits are rather cheap and if you are in there pulling everything apart you might as well take care of all of it while you are in there.

So shall we make a comprehensive list of parts that really might need replacing? Of course some will depending on how one uses their H2 like tons of off road rock climbing or if they have a lift kit, etc. A basic list of the main things are what I'm trying to figure.

In no particular order (front end only)...

Upper and lower ball joints - OR full upper and lower control arms?
control arm bushings
inner and outer tie rod ends
idler arm (bracket too?)
pitman arm
Steering stabilizer shock
Shocks (upper shock bushings)
UCA jounce bumpers (bump stops - ours actually ride on these all the time)
stabilizer arm bushings

What am I missing?

 

If cost is an issue then I would recommend doing the suspension in stages. I had horrible rear end squeaks so I installed aftermarket lower trailing arms with poly bushings which are greasable.


Then I went to the front, installed extended sway bar end links recently and Xtreme Duty tie rod ends from DMaxStore.


Now I am replacing my idler, idler arm, and pitman arm with Moog Heavy Duty Problem Solver parts. I figure they will be better than stock and hundreds less than aftermarket parts.


I have a Bilstein steering stabilizer but I figured I'd replace all the above before installing that so keep it nice and pretty lol.


I also have new bump stops sitting in the garage for months I need to replace as well. After all that I will move to replacing all 4 shocks.