eBay uniball control arms?

[SunPilot]

I bought mine, then called and complained when they got here about the sleeves being too short. Then I made them send me new ones!

They were the correct length and ID. But you could tell someone made them just for me.

That's insane...(glad they sent you proper sleeves) we should expect the correct sleeves to begin with and not have to call and complain.

 

[SunPilot]

Emailed suspension marketplace about ID issue, got emailed back stating that they only have one style of sleeve despite length correction. If more would bring it up maybe they would change ID as well. I too bought different sleeves.

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Have you given consideration to replacing the misalignment bushings? It appears they are aluminum, and might be subject to failure, like what Jetboy suffered.

 

[Velas]

Have you given consideration to replacing the misalignment bushings? It appears they are aluminum, and might be subject to failure, like what Jetboy suffered.

this is what i want to see, it would be a lot easier for me to just buy the misalignment spacers right now as well as some new sleeves and i might as well do the uniball so i don't have to worry about it.

 

[Riflman]

Ebay TC Clone vs. LR UCA?

I'm about to buy some UCA's for my GX470, but since the price is now up to $320 and the LR can be had for ~$400, do you think it's still worth it to get the eBay clones? I mean, has LR not corrected their bushings and such? Are there other problems with the ball joint and such that we should be aware of?

Lastly, what about cheaper ebay ones that are $235 but use toyota ball joints? I have KDSS and they said non KDSS on the listing, but if that's the case, I wonder if ANY of these will fit my KDSS GX470.

P.S. Read this WHOLE thread last night. Holy moly that was a long read. I forgot most it already. Lol.

 

[Jetboy]

I wanted to follow up with my issue. The failure is the misalignment spacers. Not the uniball its self. The misalignment spacers are cast metal of some type. I cannot identify the material for certain. I initially thought maybe case aluminum, but it's a bit on the heavy side for that - yet feels too light for cast steel. I may run it up to a material science lab to have someone with better experience tell me exactly what it is.

If it's cast aluminum it would typically have a tensile strength of about 10ksi as compared to around 200ksi for 17-4 stainless. So we're talking only 5% of the tensile strength. You can see clearly from the failure in the pic I'll link that it fractured in tension from the tension of the through-bolt. I torqued it to 100ft/lbs.

The area (if it didn't have the obvious casting problems you can see in the pics) that is placed in tension is roughly 0.198 square inches being generous. That means it should be expected to fail at a tension of somewhere between 40,000lbs for 17-4 stainless and as low as 9,900 for cast stainless, or 1,980lbs for cast aluminum.

The clamping force of a 9/16 -12 bolt at 100ft/lbs is 10,700lbs. A lubricated grade 8 bolt with find threads could easily double or tipple that figure.

*** the basic hardware calculations indicate that the misalignment spacers that shipped with my arms should be expected to fail under normal installation instructions***

This is extremely dangerous. I suspect that it may have been a supplier who switched the hardware as we often see from China. If you don't have a person on the ground watching manufacturing you can expect product quality erosion. I am working on tracking down the seller Jennifer Fan of Baldwin Park, CA. That's who the Ebay seller account is registered to. As far as I can tell she has no business license in California that I can find. Someone is going to get killed if she continues to sell these spacers.

One more note - the tapered side of the spacer set is not sufficient to adequately seat in the spindle. The taper is too short and the result is that the spacer ends bottoming out on the flat shoulder before it tightens in the tapered hole. Over time it will almost certainly fail due to lateral motion.

 

[Jetboy]

I'm about to buy some UCA's for my GX470, but since the price is now up to $320 and the LR can be had for ~$400, do you think it's still worth it to get the eBay clones? I mean, has LR not corrected their bushings and such? Are there other problems with the ball joint and such that we should be aware of?

Lastly, what about cheaper ebay ones that are $235 but use toyota ball joints? I have KDSS and they said non KDSS on the listing, but if that's the case, I wonder if ANY of these will fit my KDSS GX470.

P.S. Read this WHOLE thread last night. Holy moly that was a long read. I forgot most it already. Lol.

There is no difference between KDSS and nonKDSS UCAs. I have KDSS on my 4runner. I have no idea why they would say that other than the manufacturer is copying and pasting from another website for some reason and got the wrong information. I suspect the ball joint UCAs are probably a lot better than these because you can use Toyota OEM ball joints.

 

[MACT4R]

Got a response from suspension marketplace (jennifer) asking for exact dimension of length and internal diameter to send to there technician. If that's the case we can resolve future issues with sleeves. Anyone here have the numbers handy? Seems like they are willing to change it.

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[dkyleb]

Got a response from suspension marketplace (jennifer) asking for exact dimension of length and internal diameter to send to there technician. If that's the case we can resolve future issues with sleeves. Anyone here have the numbers handy? Seems like they are willing to change it.

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I posted them in this thread somewhere.

 

[MACT4R]

I posted them in this thread somewhere.

Hoping someone has it handy so I don't have to research. Ok, here we go!

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[Jetboy]

If you do get her to change the design, make sure she knows she needs the parts to be either forged or milled and not cast. Cast spacers even in stainless are not strong enough. The industry standard is 630 stainless steel.

 

[dkyleb]

If you do get her to change the design, make sure she knows she needs the parts to be either forged or milled and not cast. Cast spacers even in stainless are not strong enough. The industry standard is 630 stainless steel.

I think he's talking about the sleeves, not the misalignment spacers.

 

[dkyleb]

Here's the replacement sleeves I was sent from eBay seller Freedom.Suspension or maybe it was Suspension Marketplace. They're all the same... Anyways!

Washers for comparison, original sleeve on left, replacement on the right.

New sleeve dimensions:
ID 14mm
OD 25mm
Length 57mm

For anyone trying to remove them, here are some tips.

-Start off by filling then full of grease, until it starts coming out the ends.

-I have a vice, check out the picture above to see how I set mine up in it.

-Use a socket that is slightly smaller than the sleeve, and start pounding away with a hammer. Mine took some force to get moving.

-If your sleeves are slightly longer than the bushings, like mine, make sure they are flush on the inside of the UCAs, and protruding on the outside. The reason for this is so the washers can fit. You've got extra axial room on the ends of the pivot bolt, but not on the inside portions.

Here ya go.

 

[MACT4R]

Here ya go.

Perfect. Thanks. I sent it to them and waiting for response.

 

[Velas]

anyone know if we can buy aftermarket misalignment spacers to replace the ones that came with the kit?

 

[dkyleb]

anyone know if we can buy aftermarket misalignment spacers to replace the ones that came with the kit?

If someone has their UCAs out and as a set of calipers, it would be great to get all the measurements we need!

 

[Jetboy]

anyone know if we can buy aftermarket misalignment spacers to replace the ones that came with the kit?

Yes. FK manufactures them for many of the name brand ones. I'm guessing a call to them would be required to get a price. Also Dirt King sells a kit for $100. Other options tend to run in the $250 range for a set.

So far the EBAY seller has been unresponsive to the part failure on the ones she shipped me. I would spend the extra $100. Just the ABS wire is going to cost you that much when the cheap junk they now ship with fails. And that's if you get really lucky. I was very lucky it happened in a parking lot and only cost me a few hundred dollars in other damage. I'll update when I track her down.

 

[dkyleb]

Yes. FK manufactures them for many of the name brand ones. I'm guessing a call to them would be required to get a price. Also Dirt King sells a kit for $100. Other options tend to run in the $250 range for a set.

So far the EBAY seller has been unresponsive to the part failure on the ones she shipped me. I would spend the extra $100. Just the ABS wire is going to cost you that much when the cheap junk they now ship with fails. And that's if you get really lucky. I was very lucky it happened in a parking lot and only cost me a few hundred dollars in other damage. I'll update when I track her down.

There's a phone number for them somewhere in the first few pages of this thread. That's the number I called and made them send me new sleeves.

 

[Riflman]

I wanted to follow up with my issue. The failure is the misalignment spacers. Not the uniball its self. The misalignment spacers are cast metal of some type. I cannot identify the material for certain. I initially thought maybe case aluminum, but it's a bit on the heavy side for that - yet feels too light for cast steel. I may run it up to a material science lab to have someone with better experience tell me exactly what it is.

If it's cast aluminum it would typically have a tensile strength of about 10ksi as compared to around 200ksi for 17-4 stainless. So we're talking only 5% of the tensile strength. You can see clearly from the failure in the pic I'll link that it fractured in tension from the tension of the through-bolt. I torqued it to 100ft/lbs.

The area (if it didn't have the obvious casting problems you can see in the pics) that is placed in tension is roughly 0.198 square inches being generous. That means it should be expected to fail at a tension of somewhere between 40,000lbs for 17-4 stainless and as low as 9,900 for cast stainless, or 1,980lbs for cast aluminum.

The clamping force of a 9/16 -12 bolt at 100ft/lbs is 10,700lbs. A lubricated grade 8 bolt with find threads could easily double or tipple that figure.

*** the basic hardware calculations indicate that the misalignment spacers that shipped with my arms should be expected to fail under normal installation instructions***

This is extremely dangerous. I suspect that it may have been a supplier who switched the hardware as we often see from China. If you don't have a person on the ground watching manufacturing you can expect product quality erosion. I am working on tracking down the seller Jennifer Fan of Baldwin Park, CA. That's who the Ebay seller account is registered to. As far as I can tell she has no business license in California that I can find. Someone is going to get killed if she continues to sell these spacers.

One more note - the tapered side of the spacer set is not sufficient to adequately seat in the spindle. The taper is too short and the result is that the spacer ends bottoming out on the flat shoulder before it tightens in the tapered hole. Over time it will almost certainly fail due to lateral motion.

Are you running a 4th gen? Also, is it possible to buy new misalignment spacers or even a whole new drop in FK set? If so, it still might be cheaper to buy the ebay version and swap out the parts than $700 for total chaos or other versions. BTW, from what I see these are not exact copies of TC's as the TC's seem to have a more drastic correction while the ebay version are more round.

I have my Bilstein struts on their way and want to get these ordered if I can find a work around.

Also, it seems the ebay sellers are not including washers anymore? What are you all using?

 

[Riflman]

P.S. It blows me away that I can buy a pair of "Made in America" Bilstein 2.5" shocks WITH coils (6112's) for $100 less than a pair of TC upper control arms. The UCAs are way less work to MFG and have way less materials. It seems extremely high for what it is. Just sayin'.

 

[Velas]

well i priced out the dirtking units, these are the whole assembly for the misalignment/bolt

Upper Arm Spacer Kit

the uniball rebuild kit is like 115. still cheaper to go with the ebay ones but maybe the misalignment spacers can be done first and when the uniball goes, you replace those, but I'm not sure if the uniball in these are 1'' or 1.25'', i forgot what it was.