LR UCA ball joint life

[Jeremy556]

Since this is related - will I be able to go back to my OEM UCAs with the stage 2 icon with extended travel and get good alignment with all of this negativity toward the SPC light racing UCAs?

Not unless you run them somewhere near stock ride height. Not sure if having the stock UBJ as the down travel limit is detrimental to the ball joint or not, but I think it would be OK.

 

[sschaefer3]

also keep in mind that the Camburgs only use the OEM ball joints if you press your originals in, otherwise they ship with Moog BJs, which aren't built to Toyota's exacting specifications, either.

My 2012 Trail 4Runner has Camburgs and the MOOGS are tight as new with 23,000.

They were made in the USA, not China like the SPC. Keep in mind the 3rd gen 4Runner upper ball joint which is extremely similar, but installed in the side casting and not the UCA is only 23 bucks brand new from the dealer. A ball joint is not that complex or expensive. Why they dolt sell the joints out of the arms is beyond me. NAPA has a Taiwan made Upper BJ for the 4th gen and 5th gen as well. I have personally find the MOOG to be better.

 

[sandcrawler]

My 2012 Trail 4Runner has Camburgs and the MOOGS are tight as new with 23,000.

They were made in the USA, not China like the SPC. Keep in mind the 3rd gen 4Runner upper ball joint which is extremely similar, but installed in the side casting and not the UCA is only 23 bucks brand new from the dealer. A ball joint is not that complex or expensive. Why they dolt sell the joints out of the arms is beyond me. NAPA has a Taiwan made Upper BJ for the 4th gen and 5th gen as well. I have personally find the MOOG to be better.

good info. when i was researching which UCAs to buy, i spoke to a guy at Camburg. i forget who, exactly. what he had to say about the MOOGs wasn't that they are "inferior" to OEM per se, but that they aren't built to the same exacting tolerances Toyota's are. basically, that you could press in the OEM BJs all day, but only maybe (50?)% of the MOOGs would actually press in. i'm paraphrasing, but this was the essence of his point.

all that said, it does seem crazy that you can't just buy the OEMs without buying the whole damn arm. :loco:

PS: (sorta germane to this discussion of joints and bushings) when i'm ready, i'm thinking to pick up the Sonoran Steel trac bar and lower links for my '10 TE. which lower link skids are compatible/do you recommend?

 

[sschaefer3]

Any link skid will work, the bushings are the same size as stock, they are factory bushings.

As for Camburg. Love/Hate relationship there. The BJ UCA's are a great product, don't have a clue who developed it, but it is outstanding. The sales people. Unless you want to build a kinetik truck. Not so much.

I have made special tools to install the joints. They all install just fine when you have the correct tools to do this. Wheelers has probably made the special tools as well. Now this being said, any mechanic should have the same tools.

If you are trying to isntall the BJ's and do not have an actual press. It ain't gonna work. The need to go in perfectly straight. Perfectly straight. No problem then. With the correct tools, it is easy.

 

[Intruder]

all that said, it does seem crazy that you can't just buy the OEMs without buying the whole damn arm. :loco:

My guess would be that the OEM ball joints and bushings are designed to wear out at roughly the same time. It probably works out cheaper in labour to have the whole arm replaced than to have those individual components done. For example, the bushings on my lower arms needed to be replaced, but the price to replace the bushings alone (including labour) worked out to something like $100 less than just getting whole new LCAs installed. Seemed to make a lot more sense to replace the whole arm at that price.