eBay uniball control arms?
- Thread starter Troymclure
- Start date
morphious
New member
I ordered some from Suspension Marketplace, have not installed them yet but the quality looks great and their customer service is outstanding. On my original order I used the wrong payment and sent seller a cancel request, no problem. Then reordered with right payment but ordered wrong year and again no problem. Was told by seller to simply refuse the package and when they received it back they would reship the correct ones. Got the right ones, no extra charge for my errors in ordering and shipped for free both times.
It's pretty cool to see everyone saving the money. I've been running on mine for 8 months or so "I think" without any new parts. It's time for me to do so now although they've held up fine. I started with the zerks but the standard size ones I got are a little to big. What size have y'all used for replacements? Also has anyone else tackled the bushing sleeve length issue any other way than shaving the bushing? Who sells them?
ajonesnv
New member
Some have used washers to space out the sleeve. All-Pro sells the exact bushings. https://www.allprooffroad.com/9504frontsuspension/9504aarms
Thanks for the link that's what I planned on. Do you meen large washers outside the bushing or small ones on the end of the bushing sleeves? They're on an 04 runner so no slug adapters. I plan on getting grade 8ts and 1" TC uniballs also with the bushings. Only thing is I'm not doing anything till I get the right zerks.
ajonesnv
New member
Washers to fit on the end of the sleeve.
Honestly, I wouldn't change anything until the uni-ball needs replaced.
truckhigh
New member
I got mine in and it seems like a nicely made a arm. it has a 12.9 bolt and tolerances are pretty good. The barrel for the bushings are still short and need washers and the spindle sleeve to ball joint adapter is .6 mm off. I'm trying to see if i can find a dowel or pipe to make up for it. still need to find a couple things to get these installed. theres a spare washer that might confuse people.
BOFFROAD
New member
Where did you find the $20 coupon? Is it still available?
morphious
New member
So finally got around to installing these UCA's and thought I would post my experience. I originally bought extra washers to use to fill the gap of the sleeve being shorter but during install I decided to sand some of the bushings which seemed to work well. I used an orbital sander with 80 grit and sanded all 8 bushings just shy of being flush with the sleeves as I figured it was enough to relieve the pressure off the bushings to not bulge and deteriorate but still have a bit of snugness once installed to keep everything tight. I suggest using a ball joint separator as those stock ball joints were not budging no matter what I tried, so for $22 from Harbor Freight it took literally 10secs each with this tool. I found no problems removing and reinstalling the long bolts but I have a V6 2X4 so I may have more engine compartment room than others. The total install time for me was about 6 hours by myself, but I would say most of that time was figuring out how to separate the ball joint and going to Harbor Freight and deciding to grind the bushings instead of just using washers. Once I got those 2 items sorted out actual install time was about 45mins to an hour per side.
So far everything seems very solid and I do feel the front is more sensitive now versus how it was with stock UCA's. I will see how the bushings hold up using my method and worst case scenario I will just order some replacements and use washers if I experience premature deterioration.
For those wondering what alignment is like:
After lift with stock UCA's:
With new Ebay UCA's:
So far everything seems very solid and I do feel the front is more sensitive now versus how it was with stock UCA's. I will see how the bushings hold up using my method and worst case scenario I will just order some replacements and use washers if I experience premature deterioration.
For those wondering what alignment is like:
After lift with stock UCA's:
With new Ebay UCA's:
truckhigh
New member
So, I haven got to installing these yet and i changed the barrel to a light racing one and it fits much better. The eBay barrels are too short and have play when the bolt is in. if i stick the long bolt and shake it there is play all around. i compared it to oem, light racing, energy suspension and eBay. this is the order in how snug the bolt fit in bushing barrel with the oem first of coarse. this means there will be movement when install out the box.
I still need a shim for the spindle adapter. these arms are not for you if you don't have caliper to measure tolerance and know what you are doing. I will update when i get them installed.
I still need a shim for the spindle adapter. these arms are not for you if you don't have caliper to measure tolerance and know what you are doing. I will update when i get them installed.
truckhigh
New member
I just pressed the spec ride sleeve and not the bushing. It fits the bushing tight and snug. I had an extra set and they sit about mm over. I'm gonna try them on first and let it cycle with heat and grind if necessary. I ordered a tub or ES grease to lube them before I put them in. There wasn't much grease in there and the channel between the 2 bushings wasn't filled. So they didn't fill the zerk fitting.
morphious
New member
Good to know, I may try the SpecRide bushings from LR if and when in the future I need to replace bushings, besides the set with sleeves is only like $25 so not bad if all I can use are the sleeves. As of now I have not noticed any slop or noise issues with the existing sleeves, I did however remove the sleeves and bushings prior to install, repressed the bushings, greased the sleeves, and filled the zerks till grease oozed just a bit from the ends. I sanded my bushings just shy of being flush with the sleeves and allowed all the excess grease to ooze back out the loosened zerk fittings after install and driving around, then tightened everything back up.
Can you explain why you press out the sleeves and bushings only to re-press them? For greasing purposes? Just want to make sure I do it right. Thanks.
truckhigh
New member
you need to install longer ones and i just found out to day that you need to grind the spec ride sleeve. I am currently putting them in and it look like there isn't enough space with their massive washers for the bushing. i suspect that I'm gonna need to play with the inner washer size to correct if there is alignment issues. I have been measuring the gap in between the arms to see what seems right. But, I can't tell until i get an alignment.
These arms are not newbie friendly and the people who have the knowledge to run them properly Won't(haha). I say this because there will be a lot of trial and error and alignments. I would not be satisfied if i had the spec sheet posted a couple pages ago.
btw= auto zone doesn't posses the adapter for a LCA ball joint swap. DOHHH
truckhigh
New member
with the uca bolt floating in the sleeve i would suspect that its like a hammering to the bushing. The over compressed bushing is also gonna lead to premature bushing failure. The light speed racing bushing went through 3 completely different bushing before it settled on one. When i was stuffing the third washer in with a Lr sleeve it was too tight. I think thats why they have the short sleeves to begin with. If design of the arms is naturally tight on these bushing or built to shorter width on the shock tower then there is no stopping the bushing form shredding.
subspd
New member
So if we need to ever rebuild these then all the parts will swap right into the eBay UCA?
ajonesnv
New member
To the best of my knowledge, yes.
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