JBA UCA spindle nut loosening

A

aemravan

Senior Member
For the folks running the JBA UCA's .. is anyone having to go through and tighten down the ball joint nut frequently? I feel like this is the 3rd time I am getting a clunk from the front end and after tightening down the nut again it seems to go away.

I know the spec calls for 60 ft-lbs.. but I feel like I am cranking down on this significantly harder and it seems to back off over time. It doesnt call for any washers to be installed, but I am considering possibly trying to see if that helps.

The last go-around I just did I noticed that I ended up with almost 1/8" of additional threads showing, but if I had to guess I am probably torqueing this down significantly higher than 60ft lbs.
 
Register to hide this ad
aemravan said:
For the folks running the JBA UCA's .. is anyone having to go through and tighten down the ball joint nut frequently? I feel like this is the 3rd time I am getting a clunk from the front end and after tightening down the nut again it seems to go away.

I know the spec calls for 60 ft-lbs.. but I feel like I am cranking down on this significantly harder and it seems to back off over time. It doesnt call for any washers to be installed, but I am considering possibly trying to see if that helps.

The last go-around I just did I noticed that I ended up with almost 1/8" of additional threads showing, but if I had to guess I am probably torqueing this down significantly higher than 60ft lbs.
Click to expand...
I have spc arms, but I torqued the nut into the spindle on mine to 90ft-lbs iirc

aren't the ubjs from like a gmc 2500 or something? Maybe try looking at the torque spec for those
 
No issues with mine yet. The owner is super responsive, so Id ask him - are you leaking grease on to it perhaps?, but even that should hold.
 
Should be a thin washer at the inside and a thicker washer on the outside, of the poly bushing.
...er thats the long bolt that holds the uca to the t4r, not the ball joint.
 
I haven't seen this in a while, but you can over tighten ball joints. They're supposed to be a conical fit, so if you go a bit too heavy on the tightening you'll actually stretch the hole in the spindle/receiving end and it won't tighten up properly. I ran into this issue once on an old Land Cruiser someone had installed relay rods a while back and over tightened them. Caused a noise and when I tried to install the new ones, they didn't want to tighten up, kept spinning in the hole.

Not sure if that's you're your issue or not?
 
BlackWorksInc said:
I haven't seen this in a while, but you can over tighten ball joints. They're supposed to be a conical fit, so if you go a bit too heavy on the tightening you'll actually stretch the hole in the spindle/receiving end and it won't tighten up properly. I ran into this issue once on an old Land Cruiser someone had installed relay rods a while back and over tightened them. Caused a noise and when I tried to install the new ones, they didn't want to tighten up, kept spinning in the hole.

Not sure if that's you're your issue or not?
Click to expand...

the spindle definitely isn't spinning.. it had some caked on mud and after tightening it I could clearly see 1-2 clean threads show up, so it definitely sucked the spindle down, not to mention my clunk went away.. but I can certainly see overtightening and causing the conical hole to open up for sure.. I don't believe that I went super Ape on it.. but who knows. I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens. What I probably should do is clean it up and throw a paint mark on it so I can see if it really is turning out or not
 
aemravan said:
For the folks running the JBA UCA's .. is anyone having to go through and tighten down the ball joint nut frequently? I feel like this is the 3rd time I am getting a clunk from the front end and after tightening down the nut again it seems to go away.

I know the spec calls for 60 ft-lbs.. but I feel like I am cranking down on this significantly harder and it seems to back off over time. It doesnt call for any washers to be installed, but I am considering possibly trying to see if that helps.

The last go-around I just did I noticed that I ended up with almost 1/8" of additional threads showing, but if I had to guess I am probably torqueing this down significantly higher than 60ft lbs.
Click to expand...

Hasn't been an issue for me
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 397 (members: 1, guests: 396)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,310
Messages
3,554,080
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top