Wonky steering after new UCA install.

A.Wilson013

A.Wilson013

New member
**Cliff notes**
Steering is tight at first, then "falls" the direction of travel. Does not return to center after turn.
**Cliff notes**

Well, as some of you have probably seen over the past few days, I got new UCAs.

After doing the passenger side I drove it around the block to see if my squeaks were gone (they were) and noticed the steering didn't feel right. I chalked it up to being out of alignment.

The next day I did the driver's side, did my same loop, and noticed the same steering.

Today I drove it down the freeway a couple of miles and noticed that when I turned, it started off normal, then the steering kinda "fell" the direction I was turning. After my turn, I had to manually turn the wheel back to center, as it did not return on it's own, and tried to send me off of the road.

Again, I chalked all of this up to being severely out of alignment, so I took it to get aligned.

The got everything in spec, and the problem persists.

I know that typically this would be a sign of the steering rack guide being too tight (it was fine before the UCAs), air in the system (it's not squealing or making any strange noises), or the rack going bad. However, it just seems to coincidental that it would fine when I started work on the UCAs, and then go bad during the process?



What I did to replace UCA's...
-Removed wheels
-Secured spindle w/ 550 cord to be sure no stress was placed on anything when it was disconnected
-Separated UBJ w/ pitman arm puller
-Pressed ball joint adapter out of spindle w/ same puller
-Removed large bolt that goes through the UCA.
-Removed UCA
-Put new bolt through new UCA (torqued to spec, 87 lbft)
-Put new uniball adapter into spindle (torqued to spec, 105 lbft)
-Attached uniball to adapter (torqued to spec, 55 lbft)
-Reinstalled wheels (torqued to spec, 83 lbft)
 
Last edited:
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Uca doesn't have much to it. If it's got good bushings and tight ball joint they are not the issue.

Have lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends, lower control arm bushings and steering rack bushings been addressed?
 
JayRolla said:
Uca doesn't have much to it. If it's got good bushings and tight ball joint they are not the issue.

Have lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends, lower control arm bushings and steering rack bushings been addressed?
Click to expand...

All of that stuff was replaced about 2 years ago, or roughly 20k miles.

The steering on my 4Runner was 100% perfect when I pulled it into my garage to do the UCAs. When I pulled it out, it was not. :frusty:
 
Classic signs of little to no caster angle. I know you said it in spec but do you have a printout of the alignment? What UCAs did you get?
 
I had the exact same issue with new Moog LBJ's. How's the movement of your steering wheel while the front wheels are both lifted off the ground? How's the movement of the UBJ shaft outside of the spindle? Mine were stiff and clunky to move.

Just to be clear, the only part replaced was your UCA/UBJ's and your alignment is the same now as it was before. Sounds like the uniball joint to me ...
 
Konkordmusk said:
Time to mount a gopro looking at the ucas while driving!
Click to expand...

absalom said:
I had the exact same issue with new Moog LBJ's. How's the movement of your steering wheel while the front wheels are both lifted off the ground? How's the movement of the UBJ shaft outside of the spindle? Mine were stiff and clunky to move.

Just to be clear, the only part replaced was your UCA/UBJ's and your alignment is the same now as it was before. Sounds like the uniball joint to me ...
Click to expand...

Now that my panic has subsided, and my search has gone outside of the 3rd gen forum, I am kinda leaning toward my uni-balls needing to "break in". Found a couple threads mentioning similar "issues" and the general outcome was that after a good bit of driving the uniballs are not so tight, and steering goes back to normal.

I can sort of understand this. When I was trying to align the uniball w/ the spindle I literally could not move it. At all. I had to raise the UCA paralell to the ground, then jack the LCA up to have the spindle enter it perfectly straight on.

So you guys know that I wasn't just being a nancy... I almost put my 4Runner into a wall on an off ramp this morning when I expected the wheel to return to center on it's own, and it didn't. Then when I got it aligned this afternoon, Firestone recommended that I not drive it home due to the "inconsistency in the steering".

Seems like maybe ICON should mention something about this in the 'structions. =)

Hopefully this works itself out...

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/163645-weird-feeling-steering-after-ucas.html
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/steering-is-tight-after-coil-over-and-uca-job.332112/
 
FWIW mine never "broke-in", well not in the over 200 miles I ran them. If I had known right away what was causing this issue, I would've yanked the part out immediately. It made driving my truck unbearable, and I was livid when I discovered what the issue was. Don't tolerate that crap, send em back to Icon immediately.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YzbOovJYrRs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
A.Wilson013 said:
Now that my panic has subsided, and my search has gone outside of the 3rd gen forum, I am kinda leaning toward my uni-balls needing to "break in". Found a couple threads mentioning similar "issues" and the general outcome was that after a good bit of driving the uniballs are not so tight, and steering goes back to normal.

I can sort of understand this. When I was trying to align the uniball w/ the spindle I literally could not move it. At all. I had to raise the UCA paralell to the ground, then jack the LCA up to have the spindle enter it perfectly straight on.

So you guys know that I wasn't just being a nancy... I almost put my 4Runner into a wall on an off ramp this morning when I expected the wheel to return to center on it's own, and it didn't. Then when I got it aligned this afternoon, Firestone recommended that I not drive it home due to the "inconsistency in the steering".

Seems like maybe ICON should mention something about this in the 'structions. =)

Hopefully this works itself out...

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/163645-weird-feeling-steering-after-ucas.html
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/steering-is-tight-after-coil-over-and-uca-job.332112/
Click to expand...

I just recently installed the ICON stage 2 as well and I had this exact same problem. The first corner I took I almost drove off the road. After about a week of the suspension settling and then getting a proper alignment (I had to go to numerous places before I found one that could adjust the camber - I had positive camber and a few shops said they could not get the lower control arm bolts loose - even though I was able to loosen them with relatively little pressure). The truck is finally driving "normal" again. I say "normal" because the ICON is WAY nicer than the stock shot suspension i was riding on before! I agree that this is most likely due to the uniballs being too tight. I had a hard time getting any play in them when I was installing the UCA's.
 
absalom said:
FWIW mine never "broke-in", well not in the over 200 miles I ran them. If I had known right away what was causing this issue, I would've yanked the part out immediately. It made driving my truck unbearable, and I was livid when I discovered what the issue was. Don't tolerate that crap, send em back to Icon immediately.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YzbOovJYrRs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...

The icons are super stiff. So stiff we had to use rubber mallet to budge them during my brothers 4th gen lift install. The truck drives fine without alignment but stiff. Icon said they will loosen with time.
 
I just had a Icon Stage 2 installed on my 2016 4Runner. Steering is tight and the thing squeaks beyond belief
 
KAK707 said:
I just had a Icon Stage 2 installed on my 2016 4Runner. Steering is tight and the thing squeaks beyond belief
Click to expand...

The steering will loosen up. Mine took about a week, but got better every day until it was normal.

The squeaks... I imagine you got tubular UCAs? I'd be willing to bet the installer over-torqued the thru-bolt and/or (likely and) either didn't grease them, or did a poor job greasing.
 
Sound like the story of my life. Fix something on the truck. Pull out of the garage and something else , something new breaks or makes noise lol.
 
Had entire suspension re torqued. Took about 10,000 miles before it loosened up and stopped squeaking...I absolutely love the way it handles, so much better than stock.
 
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