installing light racing uca's need help on 1st gen

Hey guys has any of you installed the light racings ucas....was it a easy install and can you tell me what tools I will need to complete this thanks

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/suspension/14507-total-chaos-uca-how-install.html

They arent LR's but u get the idea.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/79908-lr-uca-install-1st-gens.html

Heres a cool video.

 

Yep. that video about covers it.

The large ball joint press is pretty much required (can be rented from autozone, checker, etc for free). Air tools are not. I think most of the bolts you'll have to remove are 19mm. Dont remember what the top nut is on the LR ball joint, but it is fairly large. Snap ring tools are also handy, but probably not required. Of course a torque wrench is good.

When I did mine, I didn't have the small ball joint press or fork, so I ended up just cutting the old ball joint in half in order to get the upper separated from the knuckle. I'd say that removing the old ball joint is the hardest part of the whole thing, specially if its been in there for 10 years.

I also ended up removing the battery, air intake (have k&n CAI. factory might have room), both airbag sensors, and some clip or another in order to get the long bolt to play nicely.

 

I didn't need to remove my battery or air box, but the harness for the airbags had to be un-clipped. The two hardest parts for me were removing the ball joint from the spindle and pressing in the new slug adapter (Total Chaos on mine). A proper ball joint tool would help. I ended up modifying the install press tool from TC to get int he adapter.

there are details in my install thread that may help.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/55486-1st-gen-suspension-install.html#post1003291

Good luck.

 

u should definitly rent,borrow or buy a ball joint press. it will make things much easier. i wasnt able to find one when i did my UCAs but it woulda been some nice to have had one.

 

Lotta 19MM stuff, 10mm or 12mm for most of the small bolts (airbag sensors, etc.) Patience and a ball joint press to get the slug adapters pressed into the spindles. You can knock the old ball joints out with a decent sized hammer and some swearing, they're junk anyway.

Extra set of hands is always good too. Especially when you're trying to line up that damned bolt, one guy wiggles it from the engine bay and the other makes sure the LRs line up correctly, then just tighten down and go get your alignment.

If it wasn't for the fact that I did my lower balljoints as well, the UCAs would've taken maybe a couple hours at most.

 

Just remember that those joints are pressed into a "taper" fitting, I'd put some heat to the backside of the ball joint get it good & warm to expand the surrounding metal (not glowing red ) brace the uca /lca, then with a good sized single jack or BMFH , give it 1 or 2 good ,hard, quick smacks & more likely than not it'll pop free, make sure you look closely to the taper in the uca/lca for warping, or any "oblong" appearances.

If there is noticeable deformities, its time for a new UCA because if you try to re use it ( and you can if you want, I wouldn't) chances are when you put in the new one (ball joint): Its going to go in harder than it should because of the warping & it'll be difficult if not impossible to re -assure yourself that you have actually torqued it to specs AND even if you do get the torque right, theres a better than average chance that it'll loosen up on its own......

 

Installing the LR UCAs you don't reuse the stock UCAs... only thing that gets "re-used" is the long ass bolt to hold the UCA in and the spindle. And I would be very careful about heating the spindle since it's forged steel.. you could seriously cause issues if you change the temper.

 

Wanna grab this thread because my new uca's should be here this week!

 

ohh snap