eBay uniball control arms?

[NicNac]

well...

Finished putting my lift and these upper control arms today then on the maiden voyage around the block my brother and I noticed a clunk as the wheel flexed pulling into my driveway which is a relatively steep hill. I'm PRETTY sure this is the suspect but who knows I could be wrong:noidea:: As you can see the lip on the top misalignment spacer sheared off and the rest of the spacer and the bolt slid through. The lip was very small just like the one on the bottom and probably should've been suspected to fail but hindsight is 20/20. Currently looking for a place to buy new, hopefully better misalignment spacers and slug adapters. Any advice would be greatly appreciated (besides getting different ucas -_-)

 

[FreshSeabass]

Hey guys, just spotted this on YouTube:

Has anyone here actually tried to replace the uniball yet?!

That was my video! I'm just getting around to replacing the Uniball this winter!

 

[FreshSeabass]

Not the ebay uca. But ebay suspension parts.. Are these really necessary? Benefits to adding these?

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I bought those for my truck as well and I am just getting to have to replace the heims after 1 1/2 years.

 

[Bergster36]

That was my video! I'm just getting around to replacing the Uniball this winter!

Yes.
Replaced driver side couple weeks back. Replacing passenger today. FK 1” Uniballs & Dirt King Misalignment Spacers. This is on my Tacoma, not sure if the Misalignments are the same..???

 

[Bergster36]

I've had my UCA's on for almost 2 years now and the driver side bushings shredded. Does anyone have a link for some replacement bushings?

I went with Camburg. Pretty sure All Pro will work as well.

 

[T101]

40k Update

I've had the ebay UCA's for about 40k miles and wanted to update that they are holding up very well. I replaced the bushings with the DirtKing kit when I first installed. Took them off today while also replacing struts and coils to clean everything and replace 1 of 4 zerk fittings that need to be drilled out and retapped. The uniball definitely moves more freely now than when new but there isn't any extra play/knocking. Took all bushings out, cleaned everything, then added fresh grease after reinstallation. As long as you stay on top of cleaning and lubricating the uniball these seem to be a great buy for the dollar.

 

[Drunner97]

I bought those for my truck as well and I am just getting to have to replace the heims after 1 1/2 years.

Which heims did you go with and how did you address the upper link issues with the misalignment spacers and sleeves in the bushings being too large for the 17mm bolt that the stock arms use? I've been running the lowers and track bar, but I never got my uppers situated.

 

[Jetboy]

Everybody considering these. I installed them about 6 months ago on my 02 t4r. Had an immediate issue with one uniball that was siezed for lack of a better description. Vendor sent me two replacements, decent response time. Installed, torqued Allen on misalignment spacer and lower slug bolt to 90 ftlbs. I was a little suspect of the misalignments but not enough to not run them...Fast forward to yesterday. Fortunately I was in a residential area close to my house going over a speed bump and the passenger side upper misalignment ridge let loose allowing the spindle to drop right out of the a arm. Nothing was damaged beyond repair but a complete pita none the less. I believe the uniball misalignments are a poor design and failure prone...pretty scary, all I could think of is an upcoming trip down Black Bear...lesson learned spend the coin for a more proven part!

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Yep. Everyone who hasn't broken the misalignment - didn't torque them to the spec. or didn't get the same part I did. They *should* by design fail under the spec. torque.

Mine did. Cost me a brake line, ABS wire, and two alignments (about $400 total) - in addition to the cost of a quality control arm. These are literally a death trap waiting to happen. JBA arms are marginally more expensive and much better at the bottom end of the cost range.

They're imported by Jennifer Fan (who's actual name as best I can tell based on the financial transactions is really Min Hong Yuan) and who runs a whole group of phony companies by the names of auto.blitz, protune suspension, etc. None of which have a business licenses in California and all list 14010 Live Oak Ave Baldwin Park, CA 91706 USA as an address, but return shipping actually is going to elite-lift. It's a typically fly by night operation with cheap imported parts, no insurance, no business license, pays no taxes, takes no responsibility.

 

[Slowgoat]

Yep.
These are literally a death trap waiting to happen.

JBA arms are marginally more expensive and much better at the bottom end of the cost range.

Jesus.

What a disaster.

Glad you’re ok.

$400 is nothing compared to your life, or the life of a loved one or a stranger.

 

[BrandonD]

Dude that could have been so bad if you were on the freeway. Glad you’re alright.

 

[Jetboy]

That was in the Home Depot parking lot. It happened as a backed out of a parking spot. Oddly enough I had to look out the window to see what went wrong. I went back into the store - bought some bolts the right length, some heavy washers, and put it back together right there and drove it home. I live nearby.

The problem if you haven't seen my comments earlier in this thread is that the ebay "protune" or whatever name they use this week uses a cast misalignment spacer and a bolt head that's small enough to fit through the uniball. The casting is poor and the wrong material too. It doesn't rely even have to be strong. But it has to be strong enough to not fracture when you torque it to spec. Just the math on the tensile strength suggests that 90 ft/lbs should cause a fracture. If the misalignment set were manufactured correctly - they'd probably be a decent arm for the money. Welds were good. Bushings are shit and so is the uniball - but those are cheap enough to replace. The most critical part fails under normal installation. And it's the easiest part to get right. All they need to do is re-design it so it uses an off the shelf ball joint. They could literally charge the same price for arms that just fit a high angle ball joint and not even include them.

My guess is that the seller doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. And they sent a Camburg set to clone. And they don't even know what they're selling. The description is literally just a copy and paste from Camburg's website.

It's insane that a pair of these costs more than a winch when you really think about it for a second. But the cheap knockoffs are not safe to be on the highway IMO.

I would have sued the seller if I could track them down to a real person. I was super pissed at the time. I would lose money for my own satisfaction of making them take responsibility. My passion over it has gone down since then. I have yet to actually sort out anyone's real name for sure - and I don't live in California so I can't just go to the address and find out. I suspect the names are just as phony as their business names. They don't have a business license or operate under any legal entity that I can find. Nothing linked to any of the shell names or address where parts actually ship to or from. Next time I'm in the 'hood - I will drop by. At least I can shed some light on who they are.

Ironically "protune" is actually a registered trademark of Fox the real suspension company.

 

[dot_tom]

Had this same issue. Torqued to 90 lbs and the upper spacer cracked. Luckily I noticed this prior to having your issue. I parked the 4runner and order Dirt King parts. I believe with DK upgraded parts this is a good setup. After spending the money on these, spending money on DK parts, might as well spend another $100 and get TC uppers.

I fully agree these should not cost as much as they do but they are worth it.

 

[cstmg8]

Does anyone have the links or part numbers for replacing the uniball in these with a higher quality that fits?


Oops, 3rd gen, would still appreciate any info.

 

[robaroni]

At about 30k mile on original bushings and bearings. No problems so far. They still looks solid. Just used my head when I installed and made adjustments for fitment and tolerance issues.

Silver Suicide UCA's purchased for $250 in 2014!

 

[cstmg8]

Which ball joint is that?

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[robaroni]

Which ball joint is that?

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It's the one that came with the Control arm. Probably a generic chinese part.

 

[atalarico]

How's everyone's eBay UCAs holding up? The previous owner put these on, but I'm wondering how quickly I need to prioritize getting JBA UCAs instead? I drive off-road, but not exactly extreme rock crawling, but not just dirt roads either.

Horror stories always make me nervous though.

 

[Hypageck]

How's everyone's eBay UCAs holding up? The previous owner put these on, but I'm wondering how quickly I need to prioritize getting JBA UCAs instead? I drive off-road, but not exactly extreme rock crawling, but not just dirt roads either.

Horror stories always make me nervous though.

30k miles on mine, no issues. Running 33" tires and I've been off road pretty hard with them. Rock climbing, mud pits, jumping, and quite a bit of towing with a 16' trailer. I check the torque on everything every time I change oil (5k miles) and they haven't budged a bit.
I don't think it's much of a difference, but I've got the ball joint style instead of the uniball.

 

[DisguisedRope]

I can't find the Dirt King upper control arm bushing rebuild kit DK-393947 anymore. All the links in this thread to it are now broken. On their site they have the kit DK-811947. Does anyone know if this kit will work?

 

[NicNac]

I've got a third gen and had these control arms for about a year now and decided to completely rebuild them. So far I have FK Rod Ends 1 inch uniball bearings product code WSSX16T (Ruff Stuff sells their version of the same uniball for about $10 cheaper but didn't have many reviews) and I found these bushings (link below) on Nexgen Offroad for $3.95 each they're the same product code as All Pro and Total Chaos so I believe they're all the same bushing. Would like to get new sleeves but haven't been able to find any yet so might just reuse the originals. Already have Camburg misalignments also considering buying the seal-its mentioned earlier in the thread. Open to any questions or suggestions.

Bushings - https://www.nexgenoffroad.com/product-p/60684.htm