replacing ball joints.. WHY so expensive
 

Im currently revamiping my old suspension on my 87 7mgte. i bought new struts all around and am now moving on to ball joints but i see they are outragiously priced. Why are they so expensive and does any one have any alternative to advanced auto parts or hoarse power freaks? which are in the 300$ price range just for upper joints per side

The uppers were always the worst. They're part of the arm and not serviceable. There were a couple people over at SM trying to figure out way's around this. One person have the stock arms machined and a sleeve added so that they could have a smaller but less expensive and easy to find ball joint pressed in; The other had custom tubular arms built which would accept a comparable size ball joint. I don't remember anything more than that.

A quick search shows that O'Reilly has an OE control arm with ball joint for $125 per side:

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...0317&ppt=C0106

Check out partsgeek they have them as cheap as 55$ I got my oil pump from them for like a 180$ it was a aisin oil pump also they also have alot of parts for the supra to.




http://www.partsgeek.com/ymm/1989/toyota/supra.html