Anyone in Moab Utah that can help me? (6 Viewers)

[Notthatguy]

Took the 200 yesterday to a trail and going on a dirt road my upper ball joint from the SPC UCA decided she what to ruin the day
The ball came out the sucker clean leaving me stranded and paying $900 for a móvil mechanic to press that ball join back in. I was able to make back to the hotel waiting for tomorrow for the part to arrive. Now the truck has abs, traction control and pre collision and stability control light blinking. And one around here that can help me with a light stream scan? To erase this light before I depart to Virginia? The upper control arm is only 60 day old

 

[Artie]

Sorry you have to deal with this.

I still dont understand how individuals on this forum recommend SPC. It’s junk and has a terrible track record of catastrophic failure across several of their product lines on several different platforms.

AVOID SPC JUNK

I’m running them now but looking at options to go along with my new LCA’s. What UCA do you prefer?

 

[04UZJ100]

I’m running them now but looking at options to go along with my new LCA’s. What UCA do you prefer?

Total Chaos. Have them on my 4Runner. 70k miles. Still tight and silent.

 

[bloc]

I was very happy with my ARB/OMEs. On some level I didn’t believe them when they said they’d be totally silent, but they were..

 

[kcjaz]

Personally I would not want any control arm with heim joints unless you are building truck for very specific use cases. They are noisy and you have to stay on top of the maintenance or they will wear very quickly.

hmmm. This thread is making me think. I just blindly put on the SPC UCAs with my BP-51 kit (all purchased from Slee) in March of 2020 which is about 50K miles ago including moving the suspension over to my 2015 from my wrecked 2013. That includes a fare amount of wheeling and I don't baby her when in 4lo. I've never had any issues or noticed any noise from the SPC UCAs. All I do is hit them with grease twice a year. In hindsight, I probably don't need the adjustability as I'm only running 34s but I think my alignment guy did mess with them trying to get my slight KDSS rub to go away (it barely touches at full lock and I ignore it).

Maybe I should be carrying a spare ball joint. Or, maybe I should go Total Chaos or OME UPCs as a winter project for next season. At some point I will go Full Retard with a Filthy Motorsport Kings or something replacement of the BP-51s. Its just at this point, nothing suspension related is giving me trouble (knock on wood!!!) but y'all makin' me worry.

 

[Notthatguy]

hmmm. This thread is making me think. I just blindly put on the SPC UCAs with my BP-51 kit (all purchased from Slee) in March of 2020 which is about 50K miles ago including moving the suspension over to my 2015 from my wrecked 2013. That includes a fare amount of wheeling and I don't baby her when in 4lo. I've never had any issues or noticed any noise from the SPC UCAs. All I do is hit them with grease twice a year. In hindsight, I probably don't need the adjustability as I'm only running 34s but I think my alignment guy did mess with them trying to get my slight KDSS rub to go away (it barely touches at full lock and I ignore it).

Maybe I should be carrying a spare ball joint. Or, maybe I should go Total Chaos or OME UPCs as a winter project for next season. At some point I will go Full Retard with a Filthy Motorsport Kings or something replacement of the BP-51s. Its just at this point, nothing suspension related is giving me trouble (knock on wood!!!) but y'all makin' me worry.

I also got good results with spc on my Tacoma but there is something with the weigh of the 200 and king shock I believe. I was planning on doing bp51 but for the price I better go with king if you see how easy is to service them .

 

[Jetboy]

I'm sure you've already gotten back on the road. But for an FYI for folks - the ABS sensor wires are VERY fragile, but they're not special wire. It's just a simple two wire signal and it is not shielded. Any two conductor flexible wire can be used for a field repair. In a real emergency you could strip out one of the speaker wires and use it. I have repaired one with speaker wire and crimp connectors and it worked normally until I could replace it with a new OEM replacement sensor wire.

Also - in addition to SPC - for the love of god do not buy the generic EBAY UCAs. I learned the lesson so you don't have to. Mine failed in a home depot parking lot. The uniball (spherical bearing) misalignment spacer failed under virtually no stress and the head of the machine screw that holds it together is small enough to fit through the bearing center. Fortunately for me I was in the Home Depot parking lot. So I went inside, got some new hardware to re-attach it, put it together and drove it home. It did require new ABS wire and I replaced the brake line as well just for safety. Plus a new set of UCAs. On the trial like the OP becomes a major challenge.

 

[Jetboy]

I also got good results with spc on my Tacoma but there is something with the weigh of the 200 and king shock I believe. I was planning on doing bp51 but for the price I better go with king if you see how easy is to service them .

That's an odd failure for sure. The UCA doesn't have much force on it typically. Especially in tension in a way that it will pull the ball out of the socket like that. The only way that should happen without a manufacturing defect in the ball joint would be if something obstructed the downward motion of the UCA (like the UCA interfering with the spring) or over-extending the range of motion of the joint.

Looking at this photo below - I see there looks like the blue paint coating on the coil spring is scratched off on multiple coils. It could be damage from the failure, but it may also indicate the cause. Can you test it to see if the UCA hits the coil spring on full droop? It could identify the failure cause.

 

[turbo8]

That's an odd failure for sure. The UCA doesn't have much force on it typically. Especially in tension in a way that it will pull the ball out of the socket like that. The only way that should happen without a manufacturing defect in the ball joint would be if something obstructed the downward motion of the UCA (like the UCA interfering with the spring) or over-extending the range of motion of the joint.

Looking at this photo below - I see there looks like the blue paint coating on the coil spring is scratched off on multiple coils. It could be damage from the failure, but it may also indicate the cause. Can you test it to see if the UCA hits the coil spring on full droop? It could identify the failure cause.
View attachment 3928001

Yeah, if the upper arm is the suspension limiter, either binding on the shock or running out of range of motion, the balljoint is going to rip out. Are the kings the extended travel version?

 

[kcjaz]

Sorry OP, I'm probably polluting your thread here but I decided to go down the UPC ball joint design rabbit hole and found this:



Good overall video on 4 ball joint designs including UPC at 26:20 of the vid). Filthy seems to like the SPC design but also doesn't really cover potential manufacturing quality or any provide any real feedback with regard to that. I'm sure he doesn't want to hate on any OEM as that's not his usual vibe or schtick.

 

[Jetboy]

One thought in the discussion of engineering of UCAs - I'm of the opinion (and I think engineering backs me up) that rubber bushings are superior for most users and Toyota chooses rubber over poly or spherical bushings for the frame side for a good reason. The rubber provides a cushion that significantly reduces the peak forces on the arm, the ball joints, even as far down as the wheel bearings. Unless you have a unique need - I would choose UCAs with rubber OEM style bushings over polyurethane or spherical bushings. They make everything downstream last longer.

 

[GrouchyTech]

I'm sure you've already gotten back on the road. But for an FYI for folks - the ABS sensor wires are VERY fragile, but they're not special wire. It's just a simple two wire signal and it is not shielded. Any two conductor flexible wire can be used for a field repair. In a real emergency you could strip out one of the speaker wires and use it. I have repaired one with speaker wire and crimp connectors and it worked normally until I could replace it with a new OEM replacement sensor wire.

They’re a twisted pair to reject interference.

 

[Notthatguy]

That's an odd failure for sure. The UCA doesn't have much force on it typically. Especially in tension in a way that it will pull the ball out of the socket like that. The only way that should happen without a manufacturing defect in the ball joint would be if something obstructed the downward motion of the UCA (like the UCA interfering with the spring) or over-extending the range of motion of the joint.

Looking at this photo below - I see there looks like the blue paint coating on the coil spring is scratched off on multiple coils. It could be damage from the failure, but it may also indicate the cause. Can you test it to see if the UCA hits the coil spring on full droop? It could identify the failure cause.
View attachment 3928001

Nope was during installation

 

[Jetboy]

They’re a twisted pair to reject interference.

That would probably make sense. My memory is is that they were not twisted when separated to splice into the speaker wire I used as a temporary fix. It's been about 10 years though, so I could be wrong. It definitely worked fine with normal speaker wire until the replacement OEM wire arrived. The only reason I'd probably do a trailside fix would be if I really needed ATRAC or MTS to work to get where I need to go. If I were in the middle of remote Africa or something I'd probably pull a speaker wire apart and use it or steal some wire from maybe the hitch wiring loom. I wouldn't normally cannibalize my other systems unless it was really an emergency.

 

[GrouchyTech]

That would probably make sense. My memory is is that they were not twisted when separated to splice into the speaker wire I used as a temporary fix. It's been about 10 years though, so I could be wrong. It definitely worked fine with normal speaker wire until the replacement OEM wire arrived. The only reason I'd probably do a trailside fix would be if I really needed ATRAC or MTS to work to get where I need to go. If I were in the middle of remote Africa or something I'd probably pull a speaker wire apart and use it or steal some wire from maybe the hitch wiring loom. I wouldn't normally cannibalize my other systems unless it was really an emergency.

If it works to get off the trail or out of a bad spot then that’s great for sure, but they’re so cheap (aftermarket) it just makes sense to replace it so it is reliable again.

 

[efjayatee]

My experience:
I ran upper SPC on my Gen1 and twice my UCA crapped out. SPC didn't warrant the warranty on the 1st UCA and foolish me I bought a 2nd set and 8 months later needing replacing. Never buying SPC and uf I had the $ i will go with Total Chaos.

 

[Notthatguy]

Well mu

My experience:
I ran upper SPC on my Gen1 and twice my UCA crapped out. SPC didn't warrant the warranty on the 1st UCA and foolish me I bought a 2nd set and 8 months later needing replacing. Never buying SPC and uf I had the $ i will go with Total Chaos.

View attachment 3928347View attachment 3928342

well mudify was the one that got me my money back . I just order Camburg kinetic.since it was a store credit i paid $500 for it