Light Racing UCA ball joints

[KodeRush]

Ok, higher res pics.
Higher res pic of the two joints.

DSC_2116.jpg by BurningChr0me, on Flickr

Sorry to hear this. It looks like some rust on the ball. So do you think it's because the moisture gets in the boots and makes some rust, then some dirt gets in, grinds the ball and makes it worse?

Nice chain mod by the way. CT members used to be told not to use chains for recovery, your case is definitely an exception.

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

Did you get any noises from the ball joint before it failed?

I am trying to diagnose my noises and I think my Light Racing UCAs are part of the culprit. I am just trying to decide if it is worth me replacing my bushings only now and later do the ball joints or if it is better just to do the whole entire UCA at once.

 

[Ducmonsta]

Did you get any noises from the ball joint before it failed?

I am trying to diagnose my noises and I think my Light Racing UCAs are part of the culprit. I am just trying to decide if it is worth me replacing my bushings only now and later do the ball joints or if it is better just to do the whole entire UCA at once.

I think I'm finally in the same boat. I'll get an occasional popping noise when turning. Doesn't happen all that often. Under sudden braking or accelerating whie turning may get it to pop also.

I recently checked for play in the bj and found some. The easiest way is to jack up one side of the truck under the lower control arm. You need to simulate the weight on the front end. When the tire is off the ground, place your hands at 12 and 6 o'clock on the tire. Shake the tire towards and away from you. If you feel any play and it's not coming from the wheel bearing, chances are your ball joint is done.
:doh: Of course this happens after I move away from my shop. :smashputer:

 

[Intruder]

When the tire is off the ground, place your hands at 12 and 6 o'clock on the tire. Shake the tire towards and away from you. If you feel any play and it's not coming from the wheel bearing, chances are your ball joint is done.

And while you're at it, put your hands at 3 and 9 o'clock and see if there's any play in the tie rod. Loose tie rod can really ruin your day too.

 

[UtahSooner]

Dang man, no bueno. Glad I checked mine again before heading to AZ last week and found the driver side boot wasn't seated and was just flopping around. There was a bit of dirt/mud in the boot but didn't seem to have any play in the ball joint. I cleaned out the boot and tried to re-seat it with the metal clamp but couldn't get the clamp to cooperate to save my life -- so 2 zip-ties around the boot did the trick (and were still holding the boot in place when I got home Monday).

Definitely got me worried tho especially after digging deeper and finding the other threads where the welds have failed on the UCA (that seems to be an issue with the extra washers on Rev 2 of the UCA that casued the poly bushing to bind?). Since I apparently have the old rubber bushings I'm now trying to decide if I want to just replace the ball joints and bushings or replace the entire UCA with a set of TCs or Icons (which are on sale now at Toytec for 20% off). Wasn't planning on a new set of UCAs for Christmas but a busted ball joint/bushing/weld while doing 80 on the highway would definitely ruin my day and I'm not having that warm, fuzzy feeling about LR UCAs anymore. Decisions, decisions...

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

Since I apparently have the old rubber bushings I'm now trying to decide if I want to just replace the ball joints and bushings or replace the entire UCA with a set of TCs or Icons (which are on sale now at Toytec for 20% off). Wasn't planning on a new set of UCAs for Christmas but a busted ball joint/bushing/weld while doing 80 on the highway would definitely ruin my day and I'm not having that warm, fuzzy feeling about LR UCAs anymore. Decisions, decisions...

I was in the same boat a couple of days ago. At least I was starting to replace the bushings (I should say I got only one half of one out), and found it to be a big PITA! So it got me thinking that I should probably replace my ball joints too. Then I had the thought you are having and just replaced the entire UCA with the ICON billets from Metal Tech with the discount.

:boink:

 

[limamike]

I was in the same boat a couple of days ago. At least I was starting to replace the bushings (I should say I got only one half of one out), and found it to be a big PITA! So it got me thinking that I should probably replace my ball joints too. Then I had the thought you are having and just replaced the entire UCA with the ICON billets from Metal Tech with the discount.

:boink:

I'm going to replace mine sometime after Christmas. I'm not willing to take the risk of having to deal with these issues again. I also need to get my shocks rebuilt and get the 700# springs for the coilovers, so I'll likely do it all at once.

 

[Intruder]

Dang man, no bueno. Glad I checked mine again before heading to AZ last week and found the driver side boot wasn't seated and was just flopping around. There was a bit of dirt/mud in the boot but didn't seem to have any play in the ball joint. I cleaned out the boot and tried to re-seat it with the metal clamp but couldn't get the clamp to cooperate to save my life -- so 2 zip-ties around the boot did the trick (and were still holding the boot in place when I got home Monday).

Definitely got me worried tho especially after digging deeper and finding the other threads where the welds have failed on the UCA (that seems to be an issue with the extra washers on Rev 2 of the UCA that casued the poly bushing to bind?). Since I apparently have the old rubber bushings I'm now trying to decide if I want to just replace the ball joints and bushings or replace the entire UCA with a set of TCs or Icons (which are on sale now at Toytec for 20% off). Wasn't planning on a new set of UCAs for Christmas but a busted ball joint/bushing/weld while doing 80 on the highway would definitely ruin my day and I'm not having that warm, fuzzy feeling about LR UCAs anymore. Decisions, decisions...

If you decide to keep the LRs order a set of replacement ball joints. You can order a replacement boot but since dirt has already made its way in there it's only a matter of time before the ball joints wear, unless you want to remove them and clean everything then regrease and reinstall.

It's funny that this thread came up again now. Yesterday I brought the truck in for an alignment and they said they couldn't do it because my driver's side UCA was loose. Turns out the bushings are toast on that side and badly worn on the passenger side as well. Like Mikey I decided to cut my losses on them and ordered a pair of Total Chaos UCAs last night. I will not recommend the LR UCAs to anyone ever again. :nono:

 

[Scott@Hightech]

So Ive found the best way to check the LR ball joints is to simply insert a pry bar into your coil spring and pry down on the top of the control arm. Do this with the suspension on the gound and again with the suspension jacked up via the lower control arm. the suspension has to be loaded.

 

[hanna c]

I'm curious to know if anyone has had bushing failure with the latest updated design.

 

[Intruder]

I'm curious to know if anyone has had bushing failure with the latest updated design.

I'm honestly not sure which bushing design mine have. I do know that after having failure of ball joints and bushings in 2 years and less than 80,000 km I don't feel confident enough to give an updated bushing design from them a try. If you have LR UCAs make sure to inspect them regularly.

 

[Scott@Hightech]

If you have ANY Aftermarket UCAs make sure to inspect them regularly.

fixed it for you. Any aftermarket parts should be inspected regularly. Stock suspensions should be inspected as well but typically they don't fail as often

 

[limamike]

I'm honestly not sure which bushing design mine have. I do know that after having failure of ball joints and bushings in 2 years and less than 80,000 km I don't feel confident enough to give an updated bushing design from them a try. If you have LR UCAs make sure to inspect them regularly.

I've been told that mine are the updated bushing design, and they are shot.

 

[Intruder]

I've been told that mine are the updated bushing design, and they are shot.

How many years and miles have you had them?

 

[limamike]

How many years and miles have you had them?

~2 years and maybe 40k? They probably were shot at around 30k, though.

 

[eddiebx]

fixed it for you. Any aftermarket parts should be inspected regularly. Stock suspensions should be inspected as well but typically they don't fail as often

This is a pretty good point...and in all fairness, how long do you guys with TC or ICON UCAs get out of the uniballs and poly bushings before they need a rebuild?

Just guessing here, but wouldn't the LR's spec ride bushings probably wear at roughly the same rate as the TC or ICON poly bushings? Thus, making neither one "better" (well minus the fact that I've read a lot about the LR bushing sleeves snapping in half, lol)

Man you guys make me wanna sell my LR UCAs while I'm still ahead, and I only JUST installed them,

 

[Ducmonsta]

It's unfortunanate LR is getting the reputation. I recently replaced mine last weekend. They (LR) have gone through a lot of trouble. First it was the rubber bushings wearing out. So they replaced it with a spec ride bushing. Then there was the 4 large washer debacle causing the arms to break. So they replaced it with 2 large washers and 2 small ones. Until they finally got the replacement longer sleeves. Then there's the small problem with the length of the control arm spread. Which caused clicking when braking hard and accelerating hard.

The main reason I stuck with them is because of the service. Throughout the entire process, LR took care of their customers. At least that's all I've heard of so far. Sure it was inconvenient to have to replace the product. But it's inconvenient to have anything done under warranty.

I think we can all agree that [MENTION=66300]Intruder[/MENTION] puts his truck through the wringer. I'm not surprised the ball joint failed that way. But at the same time, this was probably detectable. As a matter of fact, Intruder's post is the only reason I checked mine. I only have 35k on my arms. The left front ballpoint had play. This all started after my cross country move and I started to hear some slight popping in the front end.

For the vast majority of us that aren't going to take our trucks to the extreme, the LR control arms will do just fine. As [MENTION=99235]Scott@Hightech[/MENTION] mentioned, we all need to check over our suspension systems regularly. Even [MENTION=51030]joneseyyy[/MENTION]'s Camburg uniballs needed to be rebuilt at 40-50k. Luckily, there was a shop that caught it in time :bounce:

 

[joneseyyy]

Good points Duc...although you are making me out to be a little more clueless about suspension maintenance than I in-fact am (or at least perceive myself)...don't make me come over there!

Live by the basic principle that if you mod and wheel your truck, you need to be on the up and up on inspecting and maintaining!

 

[Intruder]

I'm not surprised the ball joint failed that way. But at the same time, this was probably detectable.

There weren't any signs that I can think of that the ball joint was failing. Steering was fine, no odd noises or wiggles when cycling the suspension. I wash the truck every time after I take it off road and spend a lot of time on the suspension components so I always get a good look at everything. I'm a rock crawler so my suspension cycles may be at the extremes, but they're pretty slow. I also get regular maintenance done and nobody ever indicated a problem with them. Knowing what I do now, I think a uniball is a better choice for me since they're easier to visually inspect for signs of wear or damage as opposed to a ball joint covered by a boot. Live and learn.

For the vast majority of us that aren't going to take our trucks to the extreme, the LR control arms will do just fine.

That's likely true, though if you google "light racing uca fail" you get a large number of results. I tried "total chaos uca fail" as well and many of the results were for the threads about other UCAs failing (including LR) and people switching to TC instead. Anyhow, I'm not angry about them failing as all components will fail over time, this just seems to be much sooner than average in my opinion. I'm sure their customer service is great, but when you're having to get replacement parts shipped to Canada frequently it gets cost prohibitive - the replacement ball joints were $57 each but the shipping was $90 and taxes were another $15. By comparison, replacement uniballs for TC and Camburg seem to be more readily available up here so it's a bit of a no-brainer for me.

 

[Ducmonsta]

I always forget about Canadian shipping. I actually got burned with one of the T4ROTM prizes. It sucks having to order/ship anything to you guys, eh.