LCA Bushings: OEM, Energy Suspension, Whiteline

There is good info here in this thread props to the OP.

I recently completed an "at home" frame swap by myself on a '99 Tacoma. Hands down the most annoying part was dealing with the LCA bushings. 3 out of 4 cam bolts/sleeves were seized in the bushing sleeves so I had to burn and wire wheel the rubber off of the sleeve and then drill out the bolt after I cut it off. Being a machinist/tool maker by trade and frugal by nature I am not easily defeated when it comes to things like this so I salvaged as many parts as I could and pulled some used ones from a 3rd gen 4Runner. Below is a picture of drilling the cam sleeves out of the bushing sleeves on a lathe. I went with E.S. bushings and put the rings back on just by squeezing them in a bench vise.

 

^^ same here. Swapped my own frame. I stuck a sawzall between the frame and control arm and cut the cam sleeves then bent the ears of the old frame outward to get the arms out.

Anyway I used MOOG rubber bushings from rock auto. They were $10 a pair. Same taper as OEM. I bought the adjusters for $60 from an eBay Toyota dealer. It was by far the worst part of the entire frame swap. Exactly why the dealer program includes new lca's.

 

Wow. That's hardcore. I'm jelly of your lathe.

 

So I finished the bushings today. The drivers side was all frozen up and I had to order new cams from the dealer. I discovered that one of the bushing bolts is also partially stripped so that's another trip to the dealer.

I used a ratchet strap to keep from damaging the arm while I pressed the bushings out.

 

Anyone have the OEM part number for these LCA bushings?

 

Click on this ---> https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/diy-lca-bushing-replacement-2005-tacoma-4x4.176250/

Scroll down til you see the first picture, it has the part numbers listed for left and right hand.

Edit: That is for a second gen, sorry.

 

So on Amazon, there are two listings for the Whiteline bushings, with about a $10 difference. Is there a difference?

These are listed as W53377

$101 Whiteline W53377 FRONT CONTROL ARM - LOWER INNER BUSHING

http://www.amazon.com/Whiteline-fro...e=UTF8&qid=1452198682&sr=8-2&keywords=W53377A

These are listed as W53377A

Whiteline W53377A Control Arm Bushing, Black

http://www.amazon.com/Whiteline-Con...e=UTF8&qid=1452198682&sr=8-1&keywords=W53377A

 

@Caligula if you go on their website you can see if the dimensions are different. I think I got the one ending in A based on a recommendation on here. It is still not official from Whiteline.

 

I remember reading that the A version was just slightly updated and the non-A is an older, discontinued version.

 

Right. Though from what i could tell, the fit was good?

Did you go with the greaseable camber bolts that you see with the zerk fittings? Do you have any opinions on those?

 

The fit seemed good when I installed them. The outer sleeve has a slight taper which seems to fit snugly into the frame with just a bit of tapping with a rubber hammer. Everything bolted up square and tight.

I've had them in for several months and I am getting a bit of noise that I haven't tracked down yet. It sounds like a rubbery rough squeak when going over slow bumps. I'm thinking it is either the TC UCA bushings or the lower Whiteline bushings. I need to get it up on a rack and check everything.

I used all OEM cam bolts and plates. They are much better machined than the ones I saw on Ebay. I don't remember seeing any greasable cam bolts when I did my research.

We should be hearing from Whiteline this spring on their final recommendation.

Edit: I might have made a mistake by putting grease or anti sieze between the outer sleeve and the frame. That part is not supposed to move but I wanted to make sure it did not corrode or rust anymore. As you can see in the photos, the Whiteline bushings do not have teeth on the washer like the OEM ones so perhaps there is movement of the bushing in the frame. I believe only the bolt should rotate inside the inner sleeve, or perhaps the inner sleeve rotates inside the bushing I'm not sure.

 

On poly bushings, you want the sleeve to move inside the bushing. Make sure you use the grease that comes with the bushings or one compatible with the poly bushings. The squeaking you hear is normal for poly bushings and caused by how they rotate. Mine make all sorts of noise when wheeling.


Greaseable cam bolts like Moog's are complete junk, and besides anti-rust properties, you wouldn't really want grease in between the bolt and the sleeve. Stick with OEM as they're far superior. I made the mistake of using SPC bolts (same design as Moog just not greasable) and swapped back to OEM at a later time.

 

I would advise anyone considering the greaseable LCA cam bolts to save yourself future trouble and purchase OEM. I had the SPC bolts for a couple years and had to replace them recently because they rounded out the "D" shaped slot on the eccentric. Made it impossible to align the front end.

 

Some of that squeaking may be from the outer bushing sleeve rotating, or at least wiggling in the control arm. From the look of the bushing, the inner sleeve being clamped by the eccentric bolts, rotates separately from the bushing.

Question i have though, does the OEM bushing for our truck also have a step or tapper? I doesn't look like its the case from the pics im seeing.

 

I dont know if you have been in communicado with Whiteline since your last email, but if they are able to confirm these for use with Tacomas, ask about if they would be able to host a group buy discount.

 

I'm somewhat surprised anyone is still skeptical on fit. Whitline advertises them to fit 3rd gen 4runner, which have the same exact LCA. Even the Toyota part number for the LCA for the 3rd gen 4runner and 1st gen Taco are the same. Also, I seriously doubt his squeaking is caused by the whole thing rotating in the arm. Although I would not recommend putting anti-seize between the arm and the bushings, see my above post about poly bushings. They all squeak no matter what. That's just how they work.

As far as the tapered fit. Dirty Pool has already discussed that earlier in this thread. Check out his entire post as well, being he has some of the most well thought out, methodical, and informative posts you will find about 1st gens on this site.

 

@Caligula

I updated the OP with photos and measurements of the OEM bushings. You can see there is a slight taper of about 1/16" from end to end.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...gy-suspension-whiteline.394935/#post-10912095

 

I'm sure it is just a liability thing that Whiteline hasn't officially offered them for first gens. They said that they were doing testing and would offer something this spring but wouldn't say which bushings they were testing.

Edit: Actually they do say it was the FJ/Hilux bushings but didn't give the model number.

 

Is the Amazon part number for a full set, both sides, or do you need two sets?

And do they do upper?

Brandon

 

Yes, the come with 4 bushings, enough to do both lower control arms. There do not include upper control arm bushings. To my knowledge Whiteline does not make those. When I installed my lowers at 243K, the uppers felt pretty tight. They don't see the abuse the lowers do.