I was flushing my Power Steering fluid by moving the wheels back and forth and noticed that my UBJ boot on the passenger side is torn and rubbing on my coil spring...grease is coming out so I guess thats my next project.

My question is, why is this hppening? Would an alignment fix this or is it a bigger issue? Pics below, passenger view and closeup, then driver side for comparison.

FYI I have the sonoran steel 1.2 lift which gave me about 2 inches of lift in the front.

It’s time for some JBA or SOC UCAs. or put factory shocks and springs back on.


FWIW this is a common thing discussed in length when keeping factory UCAs and lifting these vehicles. Are those tundra bilsteins? If so they have a little more travel than the 4runner specific ones.


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Go back to stock? lol

And yeah they are bilstein 5100s...

What do you guys think of the SPC UCAs?

96-02 4Runner/96-04 Tacoma SPC Upper Control Arms | SRQ Fabrications

you can replace the ubj boot and grind the ubj so it doesn't come in contact with the spring. Also check the orientation of the spring.

edit = your sprimg orientation is correct and where its making contact might not have enough metal to grind it down. SPC uca is probably the best bet.

That's nuts, and it looks like those pictures are of the suspension loaded too. Are you sure that's only 2" of lift? Look at how much your CV boots are being strained. They will not last at all. I would say you need to reduce your lift and fix the geometry asap.

Also, those LBJs look like Moog units. How long have you been running those for? Definitely not a good idea to be straining those lower ball joints at these extreme angles either.

Not loaded this is full droop, found this out with the wheels in the air doing a power steering flush (still in the air in these photos).

And yeah they are moogs, thanks for pointing that out. I didnt realize that when they went on (maybe 10k miles ago) so I was planning on replacing them sooner than later but I'm not too concerned at the moment.

It is completely normal for the ball joint to hit the spring on lifted Toyotas with stock control arms at full droop. You just need some new UCAs. I have SPCs on mine and I like them, very adjustable.

Sorry to hijack, but upgrading to the SPC UCA from stock, do you need any other component?

and is there extra maintenance involved compared to stock UCA?

I'm still on stock UCAs running bilstein 5100s and OME 881/906 so I might be thinking of getting that SPC that I've heard good things about

No problem with me I'm learning too! Ive checked a few vids from Timmy on youtube and it seems like a straightforward install, and the maintenance would depend on if you get a uniball or a semi sealed ball joint etc.

FYI AZBub recommended these which are looking pretty attractive to me at the moment:

JBA STD High Caster Upper A-arms for 1996-2004 Toyota Tacoma

Nah they're pretty easy to install. The hardest part is getting the current ball joint out.

I think the coils rubbing that area of your UBJ/spindle is a little more common with the TRD Tundra coils because they are wider, 3 5/8" ID, than most aftermarket coils. SS install guide talks about having the bottom ends of the coils facing towards the frame to prevent this from happening. I don't know if it's actually supposed to prevent it or decrease the occurrence since this is something that has come up before with that combo. I've considered the TRD tundra coil/tundra 5100 because of the good things I've heard but the potential rubbing in this area was something I didn't want to deal with. If this wasn't happening before & it recently started you might want to contact Steve about it. I'd be curious to what he says.

I like SPC UCA for lifted 4runners mainly for the adjustability for tire clearance and alignment. I've had mine for 85K and still happy with them.

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I found that even my OEM springs with 4Runner 5100's would interfere in some spring positions. You may be able to just rotate the spring to an orientation where it doesn't interfere.

-Charlie

5100 have rubbed on all my 4 runners when running stock rims. I've had 1.5 inch spacers on the 4 gen and 5th gen to solve this issue and had zero issues. The Tundra has offset rims that doesn't cause any issue with the UCA.

This has nothing to do with wheels/tires. No tire rub - I mean the upper ball joint seat interfered with the spring in some spring orientations - just like the original poster was talking about.

Checking for that interference should be part of any suspension lift on a 4Runner.

Then you check for a-arm to tire interference, tire to wheel well interference, etc.

-Charlie

Thanks! Yea from the few forum posts I read about JBA vs SPC, there's not much difference, but it seems JBA ones you linked, the UBJ is easily found in other stores:

JBA upper ball joint replacement

They linked these part numbers:

JBA Ball Joint replaces:

AC/Delco #45D0062
Raybestos #500-1062
Moog #K6292
GM 3/4 ton truck ball joint

Either way, I hope you get this fixed, let me know if you do end up replacing them with either the JBA or SPC. Thanks!