'97 SR5 4wd with 198K.

It looks, and sounds, like it is time for new upper control arm bushings. I have looked around on the internet for poly bushings and have not been able to locate any. Does anybody know of any that are out there? From what I have seen, the 3rd gens got skipped with the poly bushings.

Any insight would be appreciated.

No body knows anything about upper control arm bushings?

I just started a thread on this two days ago. Ive been looking and so far Ive found 4 or 5 different brands and they're all made out of rubber. I may go with Moogs. Or just OEM

Go with OEM. Moog's rubber quality is very poor.

OEM it is then. Have you changed yours by chance? I dont think its the main cause of my front end problems, but I think it may be part of it.

No I haven't changed those bushings, but I had some Moog lower ball joints and the rubber boots on those were cracked to hell after like 3 months. When I replaced the LBJs less than a year later because they felt sloppy, they were really toast. The crappy boots let a bunch of dirt in and the joint was 1/2 seized up and grinding around in there. I'm glad I changed them when I did because when those fail it's dangerous. My steering wobble and recovery after bumps improved a lot after the lifetime Napa LBJs I put on (and they were about the same price as I paid for the Moogs too).

Have you changed the lowers yet? I am pretty sure they usually go first. You should order new upper ball joints if you haven't done them recently.

how difficult is the lower ball joint replacement?

Easy, like 15-20 minutes per side. Much easier than the uppers because there's no pressing required, they just bolt in. You'll need to buy or rent a tie rod puller so you don't damage the tie rod boot (don't use a pickle fork or it'll likely ruin the tie rod).

Hmm . . . bad recovery on bumps sounds very similar to mine. You may recall my thread "jitters on bumps" where I tried to explain what my front end does. Normal road bumps and pot holes send a shake all throughout the front end. Its bad. I have a steerining rack and rod ends in the garage waiting to go in next week, cause my rack is leaking, and the inner rods are worn. But there's a good chance my ball joints (upper and lower) may have NEVER been replaced, and Im pushing 170k. If they have been, the previous owners had no records of it. So Im thinking a arm bushings, and upper/lower ball joints will be next. Curious though, why did you go with NAPA rather than OEM? Are NAPA's parts made in Japan? I think I herd something a while back about Auto Zone and Advanced parts being lower quality that NAPA.

Napas are lifetime warranty and are definitely better quality then Autozone, AA, or the other parts store brands and are also way better than Moog, Beck Arnley, etc.. The OEMs are the best, but I truly believe that Napa parts are 98-100% as good and I will never have to pay for a set again.

I've always felt that Napa are 2nd only to OEM on pretty much all their auto parts. I've been using them ever since I started driving.

So I just checked and the Napa's are actually a bit more expensive than the OEM's ($84 for Napa, $77.40 for OEM). Does the Napa warranty apply if it just wears out? I read their warranty, and it sounds like they only warranty it for the OEM suggested life (don't know how long that is for the LBJ). Have you successfully gotten a replacement for one that didn't break prematurely?

I think I might replace mine when I do my lift to help my steering wobble.

I have never had any problems with returning parts to Napa. I know a bunch of people that have wailed on their CVs and got them exchanged with no reciept, different store, lifted truck, broke while wheelin, and still had no issues with replacement. They're like Sears with Craftsman tools. If it look like you blatently abused them, then they might give you some crap but normally, they just take it back and hand you a new one no questions asked. They also give a 10% AAA discount so that $77.40 becomes $69.66.

FYI, I don't believe their re-man parts all have the same lifetime warranty so (some remans I think have only a 3 year) so make sure you get new parts if that's the case with the LBJs.

Cool, that is probably worth the extra couple bucks each. I might just pick these up tonight and do the LBJ's and TRE's this weekend. I have gotten a bit nervous about the steering wobble on the highway lately.

Oops, I just realized I took 10% off the OEM price instead of Napa's price. So they should run ~$75.60 at Napa if you have AAA. IMO, it's worth it for the warranty especially for LBJs since they are a part that wears and can fail so they should be replaced every 10 years/120K or so - and probably even earlier if you wheel.