Temporary lower ball joint fix. Help identify

Can anyone tell me if theses are OEM? I think my passanger side lower is about to fail and I am going to use these for now till my new oems get here. They feal really tight and the boots are in good shape. Just need to use them for a few weeks.

 

Hard to tell but looks like OEM. My factory (1995) LBJ did not have any markings (letters) in casting, but OEM I bought in 2016 have letters in the same spot as yours show. Also Machined holes are the same like in OEM. You can only tell after you cut them in half to see guts

 

They are 100% better than anything you can get at the AutoZone type stores... I’d use them

 

other than the threads possibly being mucked up on the left side ball joint, if they are tight then I would run them for however long you want until they start to develop some play.

 

Run em

 

OEM isn't THAT superior that I would bother throwing used ones with an unknown history (presumably) just to hold you off for a week or so while you get your new OEM replacements.

Curious where these BJs came from... Hopefully you didn't go out and buy some used ones just so you could avoid using non-oem BJs for like 2 weeks. As crappy as parts store brand BJs are, they don't instantly explode when you take the truck off the jackstands.

 

I'm keeping my 20 years old with 320k miles I took of my truck last year as a spare just in case I'm in the pinch

 

Would make more sense to just order a set of whatever BJs you will be running long term, and have those on hand, rather than throw some worn out or store brand crap on there while your "good" parts get ordered. Then you end up swapping them again with the good parts later on. Might as well just do it once.

But if you're in a pinch and your truck is currently undriveable, I would just get whatever I could at the parts store, then order what I really wanted. If you're desperate for OEM, call around to some dealers, they might even have them in stock.

 

No reason to order now, when they may be needed in 24 years from now . I installed OEM last year, drive no more than 2k a year, driving mostly crappy city streets that were built a the beginning of the last century and never maintained (so it may be qualified as a mild off-road ).

 

Knowing me, I'd probably order them, then 3 or 4 years later something goes wrong and I forget I had them sitting in my toolbox and order yet even more. Maybe I could get a bulk discount...