Upper Control Arm safety concern

Darklight said:
I just wanted to verify that they were trqd properly. These uca'see alot of movement and travel while on the trail. I really like your idea of using the nyloc nut to the end of the bolt
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The Nylocs are a great idea ! might be a challenge getting them in that metric size.

I actually just used a second regular nut and locked it against the primary nut to prevent any turning.
 
Wow, I hope you guys have this straightened out soon. I have yet to notice any loosening but I like the idea of the second nut just in case. It seems like you guys just had some bad luck with these according to Light Racing's response (isolated incidents).

I actually got their updated smaller, inner washers in the mail but haven't felt the need to install them. However, if I start having issues I may decide to do it later on.
 
I'll try and take a look at mine tomorrow or this weekend. In the mean time, I'm going to let it sit and drive the S2000 tomorrow :) I'll respond to this thread after I check.
 
So... According to the SPC response, OVER tightening is binding movement causing the nuts to back out and or the bushing rings to fail.... hmmm. And their solution is smaller interior washers and grease? O..... K.....

So my update:

Last night I put a new fender washer, split lock washer, and the lug nut on my driver side (side that had nothing). On the passenger side, I added the (redundant) lug nut over the OE nut.

And no Bobby, I did not put a torque wrench on them. I tightened them till they screamed for mercy like I do everything.

So the front end was noticebly tighter, in a good way. Truck feels absolutely great, but I wonder if I'm actually restricting the movement too much. I also noticed that the coilover "clunk" has quietened down significantly (almost eliminated).

Today my other OE nut arrives. When I get a chance I'm willing to try taking everything apart and liberally greasing everything if it could help. I'll report back to this thread.
 
Just checked, I still have my nuts (old style bushings).

When did LR switch to the new bushings? I purchased mine late 2011, surprised I have the old style.
 
Checked mine. Didn't re-torque, just visual check. Nuts still on and plenty of threads showing. My SPC UCAs has been on for about a year.
 
Mine recently came loose and I retorqed it, I have checked them several times after others having this issue and they were fine before. This is the long UCA bolt as mentioned in this thread. The bolt just seemed to of lost it's trq for some reason 85 lbs is what I used per Toyota specs. I have the newer version too but from what I understand there is a newer version of the new version or atleast a replacement bushing kit. Mine has 4 metal washers and the bushings are flush. Bought them from Overland Warehouse over a year ago. I guess I need to contact SPC.

:plane:

Bobby
 
jdkilroy said:
A few of us have recently noticed that the nuts on the main bolt of the upper control arm have become loose, if not actually missing after backing completely off.

The bolt in question:

View attachment 79947

So far, it seems that this has been a problem for those who have replaced their UCA's with the Light Racing UCA but anyone else who has had this issue should respond here so we can get a better understanding of the problem.

The torque setting for this nut is 85 ft-lbs and I am pretty sure that most folks doing this work have tightened to this value.

The question is why is the nut becoming loose ? There are no recommendations in the repair manual to indicate that Locktite or similar thread lock be used when assembling.

My own solution was to add a second nut to the assembly to prevent the first from turning

View attachment 79948

Anyone that has done work on their front suspension should check these nuts (along with all the others) especially if you replaced the UCA. If this turns out to be a problem unique to the Light Racing UCA's then they need to know about that.

Please post your experiences with this problem here.
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Dang, those coilovers could be cranked up! hehe
 
HOJeepster said:
Dang, those coilovers could be cranked up! hehe
Click to expand...

Yeah they could but no point in raising the front end unless the back end goes up as well. I aint doing the Cali-lean thing.

Gotta swap out my rear springs for stronger ones to gain another inch or so in the back before raising the nose any more ... she's sitting flat now.
 
Just went through this a month or so ago. I bought new LR UCAs off another forum member which had the new style bushings. Installed them with the 4 washers per side (inner and outer) and was experiencing binding at the bushings. Not to a great degree but the tolerance seemed a lot tighter than it should be.

I did not have any issue with the nut backing off but I definitely checked it each time I drove (I used a liberal amount of red loctite on the long bolt during the install as well).

After contacting SPC by email - I received a very prompt response by phone saying they had revised the washer setup and would send me new bushing sleeves and grease to re-fit the UCA. Basically, they now use a longer inner bushing sleeve to eliminate the need for the inner washers (between shock tower and UCA bushing).

I received the new parts, free of charge, the next week and can definitely notice a difference - both in noise (used to squeek) and no more binding at the bushings. So if you have the 4 washer setup w/ the newer bushings, contact SPC and they'll take care of you - it's def worth the hour or so to swap in the new parts. Throw some red loctite on the nut and torque to 85 ft/lbs.

For those visual folks like me (note that the sketch only shows the forward most side. The layout is mirrored for both sides of the shock tower):

 
Hey Matt,

Thanks for the update and additional info. I'm guessing that these parts can be retrofitted to the older style UCA's. I will send SPC a note and post results.

Nice artwork by-the-way :thumb:
 
I'm not sure this is a LR UCA issue. I took my truck in a few months back and they replaced the stock UCAs under warranty. The mechanic told me these bolts were hand loose on both sides.

I have not touched these bolts. I did an FJ suspension swap but left the UCAs on.

This may just be a T4R issue and not specific to SPC. Probably due to lifts though.
 
HokieRunner said:
Just went through this a month or so ago. I bought new LR UCAs off another forum member which had the new style bushings. Installed them with the 4 washers per side (inner and outer) and was experiencing binding at the bushings. Not to a great degree but the tolerance seemed a lot tighter than it should be.

I did not have any issue with the nut backing off but I definitely checked it each time I drove (I used a liberal amount of red loctite on the long bolt during the install as well).

After contacting SPC by email - I received a very prompt response by phone saying they had revised the washer setup and would send me new bushing sleeves and grease to re-fit the UCA. Basically, they now use a longer inner bushing sleeve to eliminate the need for the inner washers (between shock tower and UCA bushing).

I received the new parts, free of charge, the next week and can definitely notice a difference - both in noise (used to squeek) and no more binding at the bushings. So if you have the 4 washer setup w/ the newer bushings, contact SPC and they'll take care of you - it's def worth the hour or so to swap in the new parts. Throw some red loctite on the nut and torque to 85 ft/lbs.

For those visual folks like me (note that the sketch only shows the forward most side. The layout is mirrored for both sides of the shock tower):

Click to expand...

I just got the new boots and have yet to install them.

I had a few questions:

How long did the install take?

Also, I'm reading the instructions on how to install the boots and am wondering how you "pushed" the original boots out? Were they in there tight? What did you use to get them out?
 
JustSomeName said:
I just got the new boots and have yet to install them.

I had a few questions:

How long did the install take?

Also, I'm reading the instructions on how to install the boots and am wondering how you "pushed" the original boots out? Were they in there tight? What did you use to get them out?
Click to expand...

Install took about an hour. Not quite sure what you mean by 'boots'. I only replaced the metal inner sleeve with new longer sleeve and deleted the inner washer (either side of the shock tower). If you mean the actual bushing I won't be much help as I haven't had the need to swap them out.

To push in the new metal sleeves I just lined them up after greasing them and pushed em in by hand. In one step the new ones slide in and the old ones are pushed out. If they're resisting, a c clamp or vise will take care of that. Mark off the UCA ball joint location and then just undo the top nut leaving it attached to the spindle. Hope that helps.
 
HokieRunner said:
Install took about an hour. Not quite sure what you mean by 'boots'. I only replaced the metal inner sleeve with new longer sleeve and deleted the inner washer (either side of the shock tower). If you mean the actual bushing I won't be much help as I haven't had the need to swap them out.

To push in the new metal sleeves I just lined them up after greasing them and pushed em in by hand. In one step the new ones slide in and the old ones are pushed out. If they're resisting, a c clamp or vise will take care of that. Mark off the UCA ball joint location and then just undo the top nut leaving it attached to the spindle. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats what I meant the metal sleeve.

So you had to remove the UCA the ball joint nut during install too?
 
JustSomeName said:
just changing out the metal sleeves off of the LR UCAs
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if you don't have lifetime alignment, i'd pop the BJ off the knuckle with a pitman puller, makes it real easy, then pull the UCA and swap the sleeves, won't need an alignment after, or like Hokie said you can mark the position of the BJ
 
thats the nice thing about setting the alignment with the LR BJ pulled all the way out. Then you can remove that top nut anytime you want it just goes back to the all the way out position when you re-install. Makes for a really easy job of replacing hub seals/ bearings when the need arises.
 
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