Sorry for not visiting more often but don't have much time for much at all these days. I'm getting married and planning or helping plan is taking up a great deal of time. Just needed a quick opinion though. I need an Idler Arm for the 83 and was wonder where the best place to get it from was.

i have been looking at these. i wasn't sure if this was a good place to buy or not... Let me know if Rockauto is a good place which one to get. Mine currently looks like the beck one.

thx again for all the help guys and gals.

Pip

 

A lot of people swear by rockauto. I have never used them, but they seem to have decent prices.
Go with the moog. Better built unit, and will outlast the original type. The beck/arnly part is identical to the original.

 

I bought mine at my local O'Reilly's. It was the same as rockauto.com's advertised price, but ther was no shipping cost. It took them 1 day to get it in.

 

Rockauto is a good source. As already mentioned, go with the Moog unit...

 

Thx for the info. I went with the moog. Should have the part intomorrow. /crosses fingers. I have about 4 to 6 inches of play in my pasanger wheel from my driver. So i hope it gets here soon before the one i have breaks or something worse happens to the car. daily driver ... got to go.

 

Holy hell that's a lot of play! But I don't think that a bad idler arm would allow the wheels to move independantly. It would allow both wheels to turn, leaving slop in the steering wheel, but play between the two front wheels is probably tie rod ends (I think). Still, the idler arm is a good start anyway. Plan on picking up new tierods though if that doesn't fix your issue (which I doubt it will). Happy spending!

 

Mazda Motorsports will sell you a set of Delrin bushings to rebuild your idler arm. Cheap and rock solid.

 

because of the rod that goes from 1 wheel to the next goes up and down and side to side cause of the bushing missing. in other words the play from missing bushings was causing it. as soon as i dropped the idler arm the passanger wheel turned out and the driver stayed straight. but it is replaced now. Was an easy job.

and funny thing that you mentioned the tierods. I was at one of the stores today and had them put the car up on the rack to let me see what some "clicking" "clanking" was happing when i hit bumps and sometimes on the breaks, I thought it was the strut again. It appears that the bushing are gone from them as well. Rockauto's price is about 80$ to replace them plus the 50$ it will take for a new allianment.

All in all the idler arm was not hard to replace. so i don't see the tierods being a pita. now, the pontiac grand am is a pita. dog bone, motor mount on the top of the motor... wtf? what ever. will see if the woman will let me get the tierods done soon. she thinks the car is loud and wants it fised, i want it safe, i don't care if it is loud haha

 

RockAuto is alright but I did get some hood hinges from them for a Neon that basically had no bushings and didn't work at all. When you tried to put the hood up it instantly bent the hood hinge because the there was no real bushing and it slid all over.