Early Failure of SPC UCA Ball Joints? (2 Viewers)

[EricUT]

Hi, quick question to see if anyone else has experienced this. Will start by saying our 2001 build incorporated a large number of Slee products and I’m a big fan of the company, so this a very part-specific and not about Slee overall in any way. I have reached out to them on this but haven’t heard back, so thought I’d see if anyone here has run into this issue.

We have their upper control arms to accommodate the slight lift we’re running, and have really limited miles on them, maybe 8000 total or less. The truck went in for an unrelated issue this week that had me stumped, and the shop did a multi point check and is telling me the ball joints have totally failed. I haven’t gone in to see it with my own eyes yet but they insist they’re properly torqued but completely shot and loose. Has anyone else seen this happen, like maybe there was a bad batch of joints from a supplier? And I can’t remember, is that a replaceable ball joint?

I’m one step removed from this whole deal because my son owns the truck now and brought it in, so just trying to make sense of it and help get it resolved. Attaching a few pics they sent - I don’t see much other than the grease outside the boots, but that doesn’t really tell me anything without being able to check for play. Do you see anything visually?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[WestwardGX]

Those are sold by Slee, but pretty certain that they're the SPC's. These have a user-serviceable zerk on the top that should be filled with grease every oil change. If that's not been done, they have a great chance of being shot due to neglect of the joint.

Have you tried to call Slee directly? I've never had an issue getting through to them and they're super helpful.

 

[EricUT]

Those are sold by Slee, but pretty certain that they're the SPC's. These have a user-serviceable zerk on the top that should be filled with grease every oil change. If that's not been done, they have a great chance of being shot due to neglect of the joint.

Have you tried to call Slee directly? I've never had an issue getting through to them and they're super helpful.

Great info, and you're right - I'd forgotten that, they're actually SPCs. I'll change the title - they're so new, it just doesn't make sense to me that they'd have failed so soon. I'd typically hit all the zerks every 5-10K, but I guess since the car sat so long without being driven it's possible they leaked/dried out and that's all it took.

 

[Trapper50cal]

Unless I'm mistaken, early SPC UCA ball joint "assemblies" had an issue that required a redesign. IDK what that issue was but I
was told aprox. 6 months ago that all new SPC UCA purchases were to include the "2.0" version of the ball joint assembly.

If I were you, I'd buy these:

spc-25002

install them, grease them regularly and see if that shores up the problem.
Maybe, since you experienced a failure, they may cut you a deal...

 

[EricUT]

Unless I'm mistaken, early SPC UCA ball joint "assemblies" had an issue that required a redesign. IDK what that issue was but I
was told approx. 6 months ago that all new SPC UCA purchases were to include the "2.0" version of the ball joint assembly.

If I were you, I'd buy these:

spc-25002

install them, grease them regularly and see if that shores up the problem.
Maybe, since you experienced a failure, they may cut you a deal...

Thanks - after I posted this morning I found a lot of online reports of premature failure, and wound up talking to a guy at Slee who was super helpful and gave me that part number as well. He also said the design of the SPCs results in a lot of incorrect loose readings - there's a vertical wear spring in there that apparently looks like play if you just lift the lower end of the spindle vertically like we all learned to do, and instead you have to compress the spring and look for lateral play. For posterity's sake, here's SPC's video on how to properly measure, and I'll update this thread when we tear it down and figure out what we're actually looking at:

 

[Kofoed]

The re-designed ball joint has a zerk fitting for grease. The old one did not, the old one sucked and mine nearly came apart after 5k miles. Horrendous

 

[Trapper50cal]

I got the new ones...

 

[whitec13]

I got the new ones...

View attachment 3593300

Good choice in shocks

 

[ed94r]

Some confusion for me on this one. I have had the SPC front UCA for years now, and for the third time (a few months ago) the BJ's on the arms had to be replaced.
History:
-The original arms I purchased years ago did not have the zerk BJ but a "maintenance free" BJ which failed after about 30-40K road miles.
-The above original BJ set was replaced with a BJ set provided by SPC that contained a zerk fitting for maintenance, which also failed after 30-40K road miles...
-The latest replacement (a few months ago) contained a maintenance-free (NO ZERK) BJ of a "new" design supplied by SPC

If I am to believe the website, the "newest" design goes back to a maintenance free BJ, and these are what I received from SPC a few months ago. Note the lack of zerk in the picture and no claims to grease/maintenance in the description. Unless I am wrong, the latest UBJ from SPC do NOT have a zerk.

Either that or I received New Old Stock...tough to know.

 

[Trapper50cal]

Interesting...wonder if I have the old ones...or 2nd Gen and newest is 3rd Gen

 

[Kofoed]

I got the new ones...

View attachment 3593300

You also have the new bushings. I just replaced the old poly bushings with the new style. $250. (The poly needed to be disassmebled and regreased from time to time). Sheesh with SPC. Never again

 

[2000UZJ]

You also have the new bushings. I just replaced the old poly bushings with the new style. $250. (The poly needed to be disassmebled and regreased from time to time). Sheesh with SPC. Never again

How do they feel? I have vague-ish steering and starting to suspect the bushings and BJ may be worn. Probably 100k on them so far

 

[xeuxaz]

Is there a consensus on how to know if I have the “questionable” version? The previous owner put SPC on my 100.


I’m not interested in finding out on the trail or on a trip far from home. Tempted to just order Dobinsons and be done with it.

 

[Kofoed]

Is there a consensus on how to know if I have the “questionable” version? The previous owner put SPC on my 100.


I’m not interested in finding out on the trail or on a trip far from home. Tempted to just order Dobinsons and be done with it.

If there is a zerk fitting on top, it is the new style

 

[Kofoed]

How do they feel? I have vague-ish steering and starting to suspect the bushings and BJ may be worn. Probably 100k on them so far

The same as before. I replaced bushings, bearings, tie rod ends, the whole shebang less than 15k miles ago.

 

[Trapper50cal]

If there is a zerk fitting on top, it is the new style

That's what I thought...

 

[ed94r]

If there is a zerk fitting on top, it is the new style

See post #9. How sure are you that the zerk is the "new" version? Context: not trying to be combative...actually really want to know my self as I've been full circle from no zerk, to zerk, back to no zerk.

 

[ed94r]

Is there a consensus on how to know if I have the “questionable” version? The previous owner put SPC on my 100.


I’m not interested in finding out on the trail or on a trip far from home. Tempted to just order Dobinsons and be done with it.

All things considered (zerk/no zerk/bushing issues)...unless you need the alignment versatility, I would not purchase the SPC's. Being that you already have them, i would monitor for abnormal tire wear/noises/wacked out alignment.

 

[xeuxaz]

Yeah, I think I'm just going to ditch them. I have no patience for parts that might fail like that.

 

[Bisho]

I have over 90k miles on my SPCs (greasable). I’ve just started to get a bit of ball joint movement, which doesn’t surprise me given I offroad it a fair amount. I get the feeling that early adopter issues will cloud these forever, even though the newer design is solid. These have never given me concern, as someone that goes solo in the backcountry often. I am planning on replacing the ball joints, but I think 90k miles is pretty reasonable given my use case.