Mevotech LCA, beware..

Bought these just this past summer, had a shop install them along with the weld-in cam-bolt guides that we all love so much. The original arms were fine except for seized cam bolts... that's normal here.
Passenger side all of a sudden would not retain proper caster at 0 degrees camber to match driver's... weird.
I drove like this (job allowed no time to fix issue) until just today I installed actual Toyota LC arms at double the price, set the cams back to what I had, amazingly I'm so negative cambered that I have plenty of adjustment room now (with OME 885s, 2.5" lift, Camburg uppers).
Placing the arms on top of each other, seams something is off but this too crude of a comparison... one bushing was separated, spinning inside the arm, ball joint boots totally torn, and the actual rearward bushings lengths on the Mevotechs were 4-5mm shorter than Toyota's, which caused the ears to bend a little too much, I knew it didn't look right.

All this time, bolts were torqued to 103ft lbs, this time lubed everything with anti-seize...

VENTING: This is wHy I have to do my own work: I didn't notice that my so called great mechanic put a tap weld on the Ball joint castle nuts instead of giving me a 0.50 cent pin! Cutting the welds no problem but it will strip the threads... so had to wait for new nutzz

I know that the lift would stretch the rubber on the ball joints, but the 130K originals were just fine, trust me it's crap rubber. Alignment is eye-balled (not too bad), proper one coming Monday... .

 

That right there would have me bullshit with the mechanic.

 

We gave you 1053 days...

 

man you just saved me I almost bought those on Saturday.

 

yeah I never did manage to take them pictures.. Few years and 100K miles later, still on the factory Toyota arms with perfect alignment.... Now in defense of Mevo' I'm still using them once in a while for arms/joints on older simpler cars for customers that understandably refuse factory stuff and/or availability issues. So far so good but 95% we use Moog...

 

I'm using moog lowers. I think I just blew up one of the bushings last night. Less than 5k miles on them...

 

From what I've read the cams break loose from the bolt on the MOOG hardware.

 

Are there any good aftermarket lca's? Getting new lca's w new bushings and ball joints seems like a good idea unless they fall apart.

 

I would stick with Toyota arms, online direct suppliers even dealers would have them around $200-$250/ arm.. Remember that final torquing of LCA cam-bolts (100 ft lbs) must be done at normal ride height, not on the hoist/jacks. That way the bushings would twist up and down equally.. If torqued on the hoist, it would sit up a bit higher and bushings rip prematurely rip on the up-swing...

 

Do you know if the Toyota LCA's come with the bushings and ball joint? Thanks

 

yes they come with ball joint and bushings installed, I don't think you can buy LCAs for the Tacoma without anything as I have tried... You can buy the bushings and ball joint alone but then you'll need a shop willing to press in/out, not worth it...

 

Completely opposite here. I installed the complete Mevotech supreme LCA's from Rock Auto over 10K miles ago to quickly solve my knocking stock bushings. Absolutely no problems aligning and holding alignment. The difference may be that I do all of my own work, except for alignments, which a trusted shop does for me. With SPC UCA's, no problem getting 3+ caster and 0 camber and toe.

 

I installed mevotech lcas 8 months ago and no issues. Alignment is fine, installed myself and torqued bolts at ride height. I did use moog cam bolts which I regret since they failed for many people - they are holding up ok tho.

 

Do either of you have these Mevotech arms still on your truck? How are they holding up? Also which PN's did you use? I am finding the MEVOTECH CMS861038/9 and the MEVOTECH CMS861042/3 with different prices.
Looking for some decent aftermarket LCA's. I was looking at Moog but it seems like more people have had issues with them recently. Any input is helpful. Thanks

Edit: Looks like one uses blue boots on the LBJ's and the other uses black boots.

 

After doing more research it looks like it's the Mevotech MS861038 and MS861039. The other ones look different in every picture I can find. I'l trying to figure out if these or Moogs are better than each other. They look exactly the same in online pics

 

Just ordered
MEVOTECH CMS861038
MEVOTECH CMS861039
To install while I poly my stock ones and redo ball joint.. have heard good things, and will post when I get them installed, hopefully within a week!!!

 

Where'd you end up ordering them from? I keep looking at those, Moog's and Dorman's. They all look the same. I can't decide

 

Got mine from Rock Auto, cheap!! I know they all start looking the same... Again, I'm not sure about the quality, but for $200, can at least be up and driving, my lca bushings are toast, and I'm not sure about the energy poly upgrade, but that'll be another time. Moogs seem ok I suppose, you see a lot of opinions on here. Figured time to try the mevos!!!

 

I ended up going with Dorman LCAs. They seemed to be the one arm I couldn’t really find any real negative comments about.
I got them through JCWhitney. They are $101 each and they have a 15% off coupon if you sign up for text message alerts.

 

Still have Mevotech Supremes, over 35K on them and they are GTG. Get them from Rock Auto, like $185 for the pair. They are pre-loaded with poly bushings so they will outperform the other aftermarket LCA's.