Uniball vs Balljoint

Calling all suspension experts...

Ok, so I had a set camburg uniball uca's. NEVER AGAIN! After 3 months started making all kinds of noise ( which now, I hear is common) I tried dealing with camburg, they wanted no part of it. They just kept telling me "They shouldn't be doing that" DUH! They felt great otherwise. You can fully feel the diff between UB and BJ. Swore I'd never run Ub's again. ( I did try the teflon lube ) didn't help.
Fast fwd 8 months later....I've been running LR's BJ UCA's. No noise but the control just isn't there. Plus I'm reading all kids of bad reviews about what happens after a year. Getting ready to upgrade to ICON's Stage 2 or 3 kit. I wanna go with the 3 but.....you guessed it Uniball's. I really like how UB's handle but if I end up with squeaks again I'll end up driving my truck off a cliff.....
Just looking for some feedback here guys (or girls)

 

How about the new camburg uca's with moog ball joints? I'm in the same situation as you.. Don't really want to run ub's. I'm really leaning towards the camburg ball joint uca. Comes with new moog ball joints already pressed in

 

If you live somewhere salty your uniballs will start to pit, and will need to be replaced more often (and probably was the cause of your noisy UB's).

 

Camburg can suck it! NEVER AGAIN! I didn't have caps either ( which I would go with if decide to go with the UB's. It's a 2014 Tacoma. I also read somewhere that UB's aren't designed for spacer lift kits which is what I have right now. I'm wondering if that was the problem. As far as the salt thing goes...I'm about 20 minutes from the beach but the truck get washed 3 or 4 times a month.

 

Doesn't matter what lift you have, you will have the same results.

 

I have the light racing arms no issue bushings and ball joints are good and the make replacement bushing and ball joints.

 

Ya, that's what I thought...Thanks guys..

 

gotta upgrade to some kings bra

 

Ha! I know, I'm new! Trying to ditch the spacer!

 

Thats what i just put in my truck, so far so good, no complaints... I went with the ball joint UCA and moogs because of where i live. A lot of salt almost all year around with the ocean and the winters.. didn't wanna deal with the constant greasing and squeaks from a uniball so the ball joint was for me.. They are beefy as hell and have been great so far

 

just read up on the mid travel bs thread. a lot of pages but some good info you will find.

 

Broke the LR pivot, then the BJ's failed. Ditched those for Total Chaos. Will never go back to bj uca's arms again.

 

I would love to run uniball but too noisey

 

No noise problems so far with the TC uni Make sure you're using a good quality teflon lube like the DuPont stuff. I also read where Uni caps or covers create more problems then they might prevent, for obvious reasons.

 

Ya, I was using the dupont teflon lube. Weird thing about that is #1-I thought the tolerance was supposed to be so small. How would lube penetrate anyway and #2- When I spoke with Icon they told me you should never lube the ball? I'm just curious as to how much abuse can a ball joint actually take. Although the obvious choice for strength would be the uniball, how close of a second is the ball joint? Can I catch some air without worry??

 

My total chaos uca doesn't make noise much at all. Just gotta keep them clean and lubed up with this

 

Ya, thats the stuff I was using. Once they started squeaking, they never stopped. Im fairly sure I wont go back to uniball only because I barely escaped with my life. Took everything I had not to jam sticks in my ears so I didn't have to listen to the noise. so I guess it really comes down to this...Camburg or Light Racing?? I don't see any other options. I have seen some pics where people are using an LR UCA that has ToyTecs name all over it??

 

I've been running camburg 1.25" uniballs for over a year, no issues or squeaks

 

#1 Internal clearance in the uniball is around .0003"-.0008" for a new bearing, enough for the teflon fluid/spray to get in.

#2 You should not use oil- or grease lubricants in the uniball to avoid attracting dust. However, teflon dry-film lube is necessary and is recommended by certain UCA mfrs like Total Chaos.

 

The benefit of a uniball is increased articulation capability. There's a theoretical strength advantage as well, but the UCA is not heavily loaded compared to the LCA. If you attempt jumps without a proper long-travel suspension setup, you'll probably bend the spindle before you bend even the stock UCA.

The OEM UCA is not recommended for "extended-travel" coilovers made by Icon, Fox, etc., because over time the ball joint would be damaged (ball pried out of the socket). Notice with the uniball UCAs, the uniball bore is usually 1.0" or 1.25", but the bolt is only 9/16"? By using a massively oversized uniball and reducer bushings that follow the curvature of the ball, the joint can achieve much greater misalignment angles.