Crawling around the Satellite yeasterday (replaced the inner rear seal on my axle), I found my idler arm is shot. The only one I could find locally that would get here on Monday is a Mcquay-Norris piece. I have only bought Moog parts before (upper and lower ball jounts any way) and will by Moog tie rod ends when the time comes (nice beefy C body ones). Will I need to replace the M-N unit in a year, or will it last? This a daily driven car, and I put the 1 1/8" sway bar to use often (if you know what I mean ), so I don't want a weak link. Thanks.

Moog is now Federal Mogul, which means — as with all the rest of FM's auto parts — money is rapidly being taken out of them and production is rapidly being moved to some very unsavoury, "price centred" factories in China.

Suspension parts, as with so much else these days, are a case of taking what you can get. Unfortunately, we no longer have the luxury of selecting from an array of adequate-to-excellent parts made in first-world countries. I have McQuay-Norris parts in my cars and they seem to work fine.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

MCQUAY NORRIS=JUNK...... When I was an alignment guy, the only time we'd use that brand is in an emergency, only thing available and it came back to bite us as in replacement under warranty about 70%of the time.
Ive had idler arms from them, (mostly GM ones with the mount bracket integral with the idler arm,), where under normal hand presure, they'd be at the spec limit for up n down play out of the box. Being that Chrysler mounts different, it "may" be allright. They use alot more nylon bushings than metal, a big reason they don't hold up. While I see Dan's point with
the China-izing of many of the brands that we grew up with, in the case of most of the cars dealt with on this forum, chances are pretty good that because of the age of them, demand is low, so you'll more likely than not get a pre-china Moog idler arm that's been sitting collecting dust somewhere.
I don't see a problem with McQuay's parts like sway bar links, control arm bushings, etc. but ball joints, tie rods, idler/pitmans, moog is still a better bet. If not Moog, try to get Spicer. I guess that McQuay would be a better choice than some of the white box, or house brands that you have no idea who made..... better than nothing.

I'm sure I asked this before, but when was that, again?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I was thinking along those lines also. Not a whole lot of demand for a idler arm for a '72 down B body, so hopfully it will be a US made one. I went to autozone (sorry) about 4PM yesterday just to see if I could by some chance get one to put on today. I saw the Duralast name and prayed they didn't have one. They didn't. I cant wait to get a pitman arm.....a '72 unit costs around $160!

Dumb question: Is the idler arm under alot of stress, or is it just "along for the ride"? In other words, can it wait untill this coming weekend to change it out?

When you get ready to buy, let me know. I have a brand new one in the box that I'll sell for quite a bit less than that. I bought it for my '66 Coronet about 10 years ago with a bunch of other suspension parts, but found out I didn't need it, and now I no longer own the car. I think they use the same part number.

It's a McQuay-Norris, but I think it was made back when they were good American made parts.

Hey, Dan, I got out of wrenching (and aligning) just short of 3 years ago; I do miss it but when I got tired of the last shop that I was at after 10-1/2 years there, and all the shops within a decent drive of home wanted to start me out back on the bottom for less $$ than I had made 15 years before, because "I hadn't ever worked for THEM before" I couldn't afford the drop from $17 down to $10 an hour. Especially since I was an ASE certified Master tech; I didnt renew the last time (req'd every 5 yrs) since it doesn't apply to industrial maintenance like I do now. I was current while I was looking to stay in the automotive line of work.
But for purposes of this discussion about quality control (or lack thereof) these days, I certainly DON'T expect that McQuay has improved in that time..... You know, the build quicker, cheaper mentality these days????

Well, called Schucks today about when my idler arm would be in. They said 3PM! So I called Car Quest (there reginal warehouse) and they had one in stock. Got there, it was waiting on the counter for me and it was a Moog "Problem solver" with zerk fittings at both pivit points. Nice piece, made in the USA. The old one was so worn out, it took me 15min of pounding with a 10lb sledge to knock the stud loose from the center link(from the excessive up and down movement). The tie rod ends are getting loose, as is the pitman arm joint, but not to the point of any up and down movement, just some movement when twisting the adjuster sleeves. Guess I'll get some C body tie rod ends and talk to 64 Convert about that pitman arm. Thanks for the advice guys.

2 things here, Eric....1) did you gey my PM that I sent you about the Ebay find? and 2) DON'T condemn the tir rod ends because they simply pivot on the ball within the socket. If theyre tight up n down they should be good. One way that they used to tell us to check for play in the steering linkage; (yes I know its easier on a lift, sorry) With the weight of the car on its wheels, have someone get in the car and rock the steering wheel
~1-2" each way from center while you get the flashlight out and look under the front of the car, and watch for play in the tie rods and idler/pitman; if there's any to be found, youll see it. this won't work as well to find control arm bushing/ball joint play though.