Light Racing UCA issues, input needed please (1 Viewer)

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I have the LR adjustable UCA on my LX because they're the only aftermarket version with provisions for my AHC sensors. They are less than ideal, but that is what it is.

My biggest issue is that I cannot keep the camber setting at the most positive. Going over speed bumps, rocks in trails, etc causes them to constantly slide to the most negative setting. I've tried torquing the nut to 200 ft-lbs, the instructions call for 150. This has proved fruitless, as they still slide.

I'm thinking that if I had a piece of plate cut to fit in the adjustment slot that would 100% solve my sliding issue. Have any of you experienced this problem and found a solution? Would the plate idea solve my issues? Do any of you fabricators have any interest in cutting me two pices of plate to fit in that adjustment slot for a reasonable price?
 
Um.....that definitely isn't right. Is there a washer in between the top plate of the UCA and the bolt? That should keep the bolt from backing out.
 
The washer is there between the ball joint and the large nut. The nut isn't backing off, it's simply sliding on the UCA itself.
 
Just so I understand, the ball joint assembly (with the ball joint, stud and upper nut) which is slotted and fits into the control arm is sliding back and forth? It should not be doing this, or loosening up at all.
 
IMG_6915.JPG


There are two adjustments on these, camber and castor.

To adjust castor you spin the ball joint using a keyed retaining washer then place the ball joint in the arm.

The ball joint is secured to the arm with a giant nut.

To adjust the camber you slide the ball joint either toward centerline of the vehicle or away from centerline of the vehicle in a slot. Then you tighten the nut (per instructions to 150ft-lb).

My issue is the ball joint assembly is sliding in this slot toward the centerline of the truck. Causing maximum negative camber. This makes the truck incredibly difficult and imho a little dangerous to drive. It's a pain to jack the truck up, loosen that nut, pull the ball joint back to the proper location, tighten the nut then lower the truck every 2-3 weeks.
 
Well, this just assured me to go with nitro. That seems like a shoddy design.
 
Until you can find someone to waterjet you a washer that fits the shape of the slot, if you are good with camber adj. you could have the washer tack welded to the UCA to keep everything in place. Worst case is grinding off the tack weld to adjust in the future- not a perfect solution but it should hold.
 
abuck99 said:
Until you can find someone to waterjet you a washer that fits the shape of the slot, if you are good with camber adj. you could have the washer tack welded to the UCA to keep everything in place. Worst case is grinding off the tack weld to adjust in the future- not a perfect solution but it should hold.
Click to expand...

With my truck being lifted I have zero intention of ever going away from the max positive camber adjustment.

I hadn't considered welding the washer to the arm. I'll look into that more. I may still just scrap these and just go back to stock and live with the bad castor.
 
I wouldn't go back to stock nor use another UCA- I think it's a reasonably good design especially now the the balljoint has been redesigned. No other UCA will give the range of caster adj. that gets you to 2.5 to 3.0 + degrees.

With the stock UCA you can't get close to the min OEM caster spec with out dropping your front end back down to maybe 1" of lift. You don't want that.

If your happy with the camber numbers mark the washer location, tack it and see how that holds.


Btw have you contacted SPC?
 
abuck99 said:
Btw have you contacted SPC?
Click to expand...

I have not tried contacting SPC yet. I wanted to see what kind of creative fixes the forum collective could help me come up with.

I will email them over the weekend and see what kind of input they have. Worst case I'll just weld the camber washer in place as suggested earlier.
 
I've installed 3 sets of SPC uppers and haven't seen this issue. If they're installed correctly and they're still doing this, I'd call for a replacement set. The only thing that I can think of is that the threads on the nut/ball joint are not torquing together correctly to hold and in turn loosening when something jars the assembly. I'd be interested to hear what SPC has to say.
 
duggy said:
I've installed 3 sets of SPC uppers and haven't seen this issue. If they're installed correctly and they're still doing this, I'd call for a replacement set. The only thing that I can think of is that the threads on the nut/ball joint are not torquing together correctly to hold and in turn loosening when something jars the assembly. I'd be interested to hear what SPC has to say.
Click to expand...


The nut is not loostening any at all though. Even with them slid to the wrong position when I put my torque wrench on set to 200 ft-lb it instantly clicks.

I will update with the response from SPC when I receive one.
 
If I had a dollar for all the light racing UCA or bump stop threads in toyota forums...
 
What about sanding the surfaces down to increase static friction coefficient?
 
I'm sure that a sanding with 40 or 60 grit may increase the friction coefficient. I'm not ever going to lower my truck with these UCA installed so I will never need anything other than the maximum camber setting (ball joints furtherest away from truck centerline). I prefer the unquestionable option of welding them so they cannot move under any condition.

The only issue now is taking the time to do some work on the truck.
 
I'm sure you could take one a part and have a local machine shop water jet you a spacer or replacement plate altogether.
 
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