LR UCA installed finally!

[cleveland48]

Finally got my UCA' s installed also some level 8 mk6. Will get some pics up tm. Here is a pic of my alignment sheet. Does everything look alright?

 

[Jono.ful]

yep, looks pretty good. make sure you keep an eye on all the welds. inspect and grease every time you change your oil.

 

[cleveland48]

Ok will do, but where exactly do I grease at? I havn t had chance to really look them over yet for any grease zerks or anything.

 

[gm350reratliff]

I don't recall any zerks either. The grease supplied should last quite a while. I would periodically check the torque on both the A-arm pivot bolt and the balljoint nut. The alignment looks good.

 

[Jeremy556]

I don't recall any zerks either. The grease supplied should last quite a while. I would periodically check the torque on both the A-arm pivot bolt and the balljoint nut. The alignment looks good.

There aren't any zerks on the LR/SPCs. Agreed on the alignment.

No longer using LR, but using lower torque than spec, with a lock nut, has worked well for me.

Do you by chance have the before specs?

 

[cleveland48]

Seems like my caster before we're both 2.0 - 2.5 range maybe I can't remember. But it wandered pretty bad on the highway then. I have close to inch maybe more of clearance from body mount now.

 

[Intruder]

Get a pair of replacement ball joints and keep them on hand. Check the boots that cover your ball joints regularly for any tears or other points of water ingress. Maybe order a spare set of bushings as well. That way when they wear out you'll have less down time.

 

[Ol'Baditude]

I don't recall any zerks either. The grease supplied should last quite a while. I would periodically check the torque on both the A-arm pivot bolt and the balljoint nut. The alignment looks good.

^Good advice. Just last week I had my techs lube all my suspension linkage and inspect everything for damage/play. The one thing that they found was that the drivers side LCA pivot nut(s) had backed off, creating a larger gap than there should be between the bushing and the spacer. I didn't spot it myself before hand, but comparing the before and after pictures they took, it was readily apparent.

 

[cleveland48]

Get a pair of replacement ball joints and keep them on hand. Check the boots that cover your ball joints regularly for any tears or other points of water ingress. Maybe order a spare set of bushings as well. That way when they wear out you'll have less down time.

I am planning on getting these to keep as spares. Because it seems like it takes about 4 days to get stuff delivered to me lol.

 

[cleveland48]

I know this is an old thread and I didn't wanna start a new one and clutter up the site. Knocked my alignment out pretty good and had to get another one yesterday. I was under impression that you want caster to match right/left side , but the truck drives fine how they set it. Just wondering if it will cause some abnormal tire wear ?

 

[Jono.ful]

castor dose not affect tire wear. castor is simply the angle (more forward, or more backward) of your control arm. it basically determines the position (fore of aft) of the wheel in the wheel well

 

[cleveland48]

Ok thanks for the info I appreciate it.

 

[BigredTEX]

This is a timely resurrection of one of the many LR UCA threads. I was about to search for one of them to give an update and opinion.

Looking at this thread from late last year some of the comments about bushings and ball joints are accurate for that time. I just replaced the bushings last weekend with the latest version, I think they are 5th generation, no pun intended. My left side was circa 2012 and right side 2013. Neither were the oldest generation, but they were two different generations. My right side failed catastrophically in 2013 like many others have reported.

My opinion of the latest version of bushings is that I think SPC has finally got it right. The left side arm (the older one) was very tight and was almost impossible to move up and down by hand once I had popped the ball joint free. I have been keeping my eye on this side expecting to have a failure like the original right side at any time. However, the right side (the newer one) was even worse. It was completely bound up. When I popped the ball joint free I could not move the arm up at all. I had to force the lower arm down to clear the ball joint. If I was going to have another failure it was going to be the newer arm/bushings.

The latest bushing design does not put any lateral force on the actual bushing. Instead, the center metal sleeve is slightly longer so all of the clamping force is on the sleeve. The grease goes between the sleeve and bushing allowing the bushing to pivot freely around the sleeve. Once re-installed the arms move freely up and down by hand. The older designs actually pinched the bushing material as you tightened the pivot bolt, causing the bushings to deform and bind. The new bushings make a world of difference, making the front end much more compliant and quiet. Time will tell if SPC really got it right.

I still believe in the SPC product even though I have had a failure and have seen several others. It allows the most options for achieving the desired caster without tire rubbing by a combination of the upper ball joint adjustment and lower arm cam adjustment. It's a shame it took them so long to get the bushing design right.

As for ball joints, I keep a spare - cheap insurance. It's a 30 minute job to replace one if needed and they are only $60 each. I haven't had to replace one yet.

 

[cleveland48]

I bought my control arms in October of 2014 from fat Bob's garage, so that should mean I have the newer version correct ?

 

[cleveland48]

Here are pics of the bushings on my LR control arms