Advice on SPC Upper Control Arms

S

sjbill17

New member
Ok here's the long of the story. I have a 2015 Toyota 4runner Trail Premium. I installed ICON Vehicle Dynamics 2.5 Extended Travel Front Coilovers w/ CDCV along with SPC Upper Control Arms for my make and model. Install was a breeze. Alignment went well.
Installed Falken Wildpeak MTs in 285/70/17 recently and vanity got the better of me and I decided to adjust my ride hight in front. Adjustment on the coilover was easy enough. My problem now is my tires rub on my UCAs and not even at full turn lock. The ball joint on the UCA is installed in the "D" position per the install instructions and the nut is basically centered in the slot on the UCA, also per the instructions.
So, I guess my question is should I loosen the ball joint nut and slide it outward in the slot and then have it realigned or should I rotate the ball joint to say the "C" position and slide the nut outward in the slot and then have it realigned? Some guys have said that when they install the UCAs, they install the ball joint in the "C" position.
I know, kinda hard for you guys to answer without actually hands on the vehicle. Just looking for advice. There was absolutely no rubbing prior to my adjusting my front ride height but now my rig height is equal on all four corners.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
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Since you adjusted the coil overs you need another alignment anyhow.
Make sure you bring it to a shop that knows how to adjust SPC.
 
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Ok. So I adjusted my UCA ball joint position. I rotated the ball joint in the UCA from the "D" position to the "C" position and positioned the nut to the far outward of the slot from the previous center position in the slot. Problem solved on UCA rub but now I am rubbing on the sway bar but only at full lock.
Gonna head in for another alignment on monday. We shall see.
 
Please keep us posted as to how alignment goes before and after readings if you can. I have a 4th Gen V8 and recently installed the SPC UCA along with 1" leveling kit on front suspension. You learn a lot about alignment by doing this and playing around with LCA, UCA (both caster and camber).
I Have not taken mine in for alignment check but have done a lot of adjusting, including toe of course and I feel like I have it pretty well where it should be:
LCA in middle, UCA in middle of slot, position C and adjusted toe yesterday to about 1/4" toe out ( measuring front and rear face of tire at center height with a tape measure). Not worried about caster too much it should be 2-3.5 and I measure camber (with a phone app angle finder and straight edge at 1-2 deg negative).
I may take it in sometime and see how I did! It drives fine.
 
rdruss said:
Please keep us posted as to how alignment goes before and after readings if you can. I have a 4th Gen V8 and recently installed the SPC UCA along with 1" leveling kit on front suspension. You learn a lot about alignment by doing this and playing around with LCA, UCA (both caster and camber).
I Have not taken mine in for alignment check but have done a lot of adjusting, including toe of course and I feel like I have it pretty well where it should be:
LCA in middle, UCA in middle of slot, position C and adjusted toe yesterday to about 1/4" toe out ( measuring front and rear face of tire at center height with a tape measure). Not worried about caster too much it should be 2-3.5 and I measure camber (with a phone app angle finder and straight edge at 1-2 deg negative).
I may take it in sometime and see how I did! It drives fine.
Click to expand...



PHONE APP ANGLE FINDER ??????

How accurate ya think that is? Right now, just with a visual looking at the rig from the front, I will definitely say it is at a + in the camber dept.
 
sjbill17 said:
PHONE APP ANGLE FINDER ??????

How accurate ya think that is? Right now, just with a visual looking at the rig from the front, I will definitely say it is at a + in the camber dept.
Click to expand...


More accurate than our eyeball is my guess!
 
Ok, update time.
Got my alignment done today. Results are as follows:

CAMBER:

LEFT FRONT - 1.1
RIGHT FRONT - 1.4

CASTER:

LEFT FRONT - 5.0
RIGHT FRONT - 5.3

TOE:

LEFT FRONT - 0.08
RIGHT FRONT - 0.09

TOTAL TOE - 0.17

STEER AHEAD - -0.01

Steers and tracks beautifully. Here is my issue. Me being the perfectionist that I am, this all started in an attempt to "level" my rig. I've measured repeatedly from bottom of fender to center of hub. My results are as follows:

LEFT FRONT - 23 3/4"
DIFFERENCE = 3/16"
LEFT REAR - 23 9/16"



RIGHT FRONT - 24 7/16"
DIFFERENCE = 5/16"
RIGHT REAR. - 24 1/8"



FRONT LEFT TO RIGHT DIFFERENCE = 11/16"

REAR LEFT TO RIGHT DIFFERENCE = 9/16"

As you can see the approximate 5/8" difference in the left to right measurements is what I don't like. Plus, according to the measurements the right front is 5/16" higher than the right rear.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Keep in mind that my Left Front Coilover is almost maxed out on height adjustment and still 11/16" lower than the Right front which only adjusted to approximately 1/2 of the left side adjustment (if that make sense).

Thought about adding a 1/2" spacer on top of the left rear coil. Any thoughts?
 
Odd. Were the springs marked right and left? It seems inherent from what I've read that the right wants to be higher than left on 4R. Not familiar with the range of adjustment on the Icon's for height but that's what seems odd with the way you have them adjusted and still this difference. Have you talked to Icon for their input?
By the way, how is your SPC adjusted now? I assume the alignment shop adjusted the LCA too.
 
rdruss said:
Odd. Were the springs marked right and left? It seems inherent from what I've read that the right wants to be higher than left on 4R. Not familiar with the range of adjustment on the Icon's for height but that's what seems odd with the way you have them adjusted and still this difference. Have you talked to Icon for their input?
By the way, how is your SPC adjusted now? I assume the alignment shop adjusted the LCA too.
Click to expand...

Haven’t spoken to ICON about it yet. That’s my next move. The front coil overs are marked right and left. And are installed correctly.
As for the UCA. It’s still at where I set it before I took it in for alignment. From my experience and at least around here in Western North Carolina, the alignment techs aren’t gonna touch the UCA. They not trained that way.
Like I stated. It drives great. Just a bit concerned about the driver side being lower. I know it’s a known issue with KDSS but I don’t have KDSS.
 
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Reply

Not a solution, just info. Fyi. I ran the spc ucas with a driver side 1/4" spacer on a tacoma to account for the the driver side lean because of gas tank location. I ended up with the spc ucas adjusted out to different camber points to account for the coil spacer. The drivers side about half way and the passenger side maxed out. I could not get a good alignment till I removed the spacer. Multiple auto shops I encountered do not want to mess with the adjustable ucas. I went to an alignment specialist and they refused to read the spc instructions and spent 2 hours trying to align vehicle to be told the ucas were garbage because they could not figure them out. Ultimately I switched to camburg ucas which were great but do require preventive maintenance. So nothing to do with your uneven height but the coil spacer could possibly cause unintentional issues with alignment.
 
sjbill17 said:
Ok, update time.
Got my alignment done today. Results are as follows:

CAMBER:

LEFT FRONT - 1.1
RIGHT FRONT - 1.4

CASTER:

LEFT FRONT - 5.0
RIGHT FRONT - 5.3

TOE:

LEFT FRONT - 0.08
RIGHT FRONT - 0.09

TOTAL TOE - 0.17

STEER AHEAD - -0.01

Steers and tracks beautifully. Here is my issue. Me being the perfectionist that I am, this all started in an attempt to "level" my rig. I've measured repeatedly from bottom of fender to center of hub. My results are as follows:

LEFT FRONT - 23 3/4"
DIFFERENCE = 3/16"
LEFT REAR - 23 9/16"



RIGHT FRONT - 24 7/16"
DIFFERENCE = 5/16"
RIGHT REAR. - 24 1/8"



FRONT LEFT TO RIGHT DIFFERENCE = 11/16"

REAR LEFT TO RIGHT DIFFERENCE = 9/16"

As you can see the approximate 5/8" difference in the left to right measurements is what I don't like. Plus, according to the measurements the right front is 5/16" higher than the right rear.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? Keep in mind that my Left Front Coilover is almost maxed out on height adjustment and still 11/16" lower than the Right front which only adjusted to approximately 1/2 of the left side adjustment (if that make sense).

Thought about adding a 1/2" spacer on top of the left rear coil. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


Hey sjbill,

For starters, if you are measuring from center of hub to fender, 24 7/16'' is way too high. (in the front)
I would crank the right front down quite a bit, to try to even out the front. It is normal to have more preload/threads showing on the driver's side, so don't worry about that. 23 3/4'' in the front is still pretty high....

From there, you can drive it to see where the rear height settles, and if needed, you could add a small 10 or 15mm Dobinson's spacer on top of the left rear coil to help even out the rear.

If you ever plan on carrying passengers, or loading up for a trip, keep in mind the reverse rake factor.....if you are trying to level the 4Runner on an empty load? I like to try to aim for at least an inch of rake.....

Hope that helps, and good luck.
 
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sjbill17 said:
Haven’t spoken to ICON about it yet. That’s my next move. The front coil overs are marked right and left. And are installed correctly.
As for the UCA. It’s still at where I set it before I took it in for alignment. From my experience and at least around here in Western North Carolina, the alignment techs aren’t gonna touch the UCA. They not trained that way.
Like I stated. It drives great. Just a bit concerned about the driver side being lower. I know it’s a known issue with KDSS but I don’t have KDSS.
Click to expand...

Shame you cannot find a tech that knows how to adjust the SPCs properly.
That's the biggest value of SPC UCA.
Mine have been great and I do wheel my rig. Zero issues, but the tech I use knows what he is doing.
 
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