Dirt King LCAs

I have these arms on both my 2012 taco and 4runner both felt tight from the get go. The Taco still does but it has a lot less miles on them while the Runner has been put through hell and they feel the same as factory but were tight from the get go as well. Honestly I bought these after a friends stock lower failed on his 2nd gen Taco I remember a post on here showing the welds failing as well. I managed to stuff my Runner hard on a big rock and the arms were absolutely fine but my spindle looked like a taco since it was not gusseted. All in all I would not trade these out for stockers if you plan to wheel your truck hard.... Just my 02

Ps I installed these arms on both trucks and the Uni's were super tight had to hit it with a mallet to get them to line up with the spindles...

 

Yeah I love the idea of being super strong, and I’m gonna be buying a daily driver to commute for work so I want something as strong as possible when I wheel it on the weekend. The stiff steering isn’t so much what bugs me, it’s more just the way the steering sticks whenever I turn the wheel. I get that it’s not gonna come back as easily on its own as stock but it completely stays Turning sharp when I let go and I have to crank it back. Then when I crank it back I tend to overturn back the other way and end up “wandering”. I’m hoping I just got some bad uniballs and my power steering has no issues, Dirt King is super cool about it and having me come in to replace them

 

Mine almost felt like I had no sway bar and an old Cadillac the way it swayed from needing to adjust steering and not coming back to centre .

Now it comes almost all the way. Basically about the level of turn for a sharp lane change maybe 1/8 of a turn at most 3/16. Not even a full 1/4 turn.

For that last little bit not bad and given this is after a week and a half of no more than 1000km on them. It's getting better

 

Yeah I probably have at least 7k miles on the lowers, but I just find myself always having to correct the steering. I did remove my sway bar, but that seemed to almost make it better at first

 

Do the stock length DK lca’s actually provide more ground clearance like they state? And how is it providing that ground clearance if someone knows the answer?

 

My dirtking lowers on my 2016 we’re super stiff at first and not returning to center after turning. After taking an off-road trip in Vermont they broke in and are much better. But now they are squeaky as hellll! I lubed w tri flow but they are creeking and squeaking bad

 

Mine squeak HELLA bad also. Like something scary. I actually do frighten people around me in traffic sometimes.

 

Ya it’s bad what’s the fix!? Mine are only 6 months old every little turn or bump and it’s squeaking bad!

 

I don't know man.

It's a common thing with uniball arms. I just live with it honestly. If you want race truck performance you have to live with the racetruck sounds.

 

Is it the delrin bushings or the uniball? Mine do not make any noise at all since I installed them a long time ago.

 

Bushing looks fine they’re only mounted a few months need a second set of eyes to pin point the source when I rock the truck

 

Love dirt king been running the lt kit with bypass shocks and coilover never regret my choice

 

I have two sets of these one on my 4runner and 1 on my Taco. The Taco's are super noisy but I seem to remember not greasing the outside of the bushing when installing them into the arms. I am fixing to do a lot of front end work to the truck so will grease them on the outside and I bet the horrible squeak will be gone. So did anyone who has the squeak grease the outside of the delrin bushing before installing?

 

For those with original Gen 1 setups:

Dirt King no longer offers uniball equipped lower control arms. What they have stated after various recent conversations I have had with them and I quote (Not verbatim): is that the uniballs allow for too hard of steering and causes unwanted wandering due to the nature of the Tacomas suspension design, the Tundra arms stay uniball due to the way their suspension is larger overall and allows for easier movements and the Tacoma arms are now offered with a heavy duty Moog Problem Solver ball joint design.

The ball joint pulling out issues are no longer a concern on these design control arms over OE style control arms because the geometry has been redesigned to eliminate these issues.

So where does this leave us Gen 1 owners Dirt King arm owners still using lower and upper control arm equipped uniballs moving forward?

Well we are sort of stuck in a weird place right now. We currently have 3 options at our disposal:

- keep replacing uniballs and keep dealing with hard steering, and squeaking, this will cost a few bucks for replacement balls and is an annoying labor venture which has to be done every 2-3 years.

- replace the control arm assemblies with the newer updated units, this will cost $$$$ and is labor intensive all over again.

- replace the balls once and for all and use Icons Delta Joint retrofit. These have not been tested on any of the Dirt King units but in a venture to finally rid my truck of noises, I have replaced them on my Gen 1 upper tubular control arms and I can confirm that YES they fit. The steering and overall drive on roads has gotten notably easier than it was previously, things have also quieted down considerably, so things are moving in a positive direction.

A previous conversation with a Downsouth Motorsports rep noted that these should work on the boxed version Upper Control Arms as well, as they utilize the same

$57 WSSX16T Spherical Bearing with Teflon, 1" (1-3/8 Wide), 1 Pack

WSSX16T FK uniball and due to that the cup size is compatible with the Delta Joint retrofit so there is no reason why they should not work.

Icon PN you want is: 614561

I am currently exploring the venture of replacing the lower control uniballs with the same joint, but there are some question marks I must resolve first, one being ensuring that the supplied bolt with the Dirt King arms and the Delta Joint taper bolt are the same length. I have confirmed upper control arm misalignment spacers and the lower control arm lower misalignment spacer (the one facing the ground) are virtually identical in size so I do not see a reason as to why they will NOT fit.

I have spoken to Icon, and they have no comment as to whether or not they will work, for lower control arms, they did, however, go on to state that the joints have not been tested for the type of forces which are exerted on a lower control arm, so jury's out on if it will work or not.

WITH THAT BEING SAID, Icon also advertises that their Delta Joint has a higher pull out strength resistance over the industry standard uniball, so I do not see why it should be a problem.

I will likely be ordering another pair of Delta Joints here in the coming weeks or month and will be attempting my hand at a lower control arm retrofit pending confirmation of bolt sizes.

There is always more than one way to skin a cat! More to come.

 

I tore an LCA bushing on my last outing. I’ve been looking at upgrades but want to avoid uni-ball and Dirt King seems to be the only option. The Delrin bushings and Moog joints seem appealing though an Icon Delta joint would be interesting.

 

If you are still using OE units, it's definitely a good time to upgrade.

Dirt King seems to want to walk a 50/50 balancing act between strength and reliability by going beef on their products, and at the same time keeping noise control and steering effort input at bay. I'm not sure how I feel about ball joints on an otherwise beef setup as that makes it the weakest link in the setup and also their recent switch forces the end consumer to run it the way they want it no exceptions.

The Delrin bushings are awesome and DK makes a solid product. Gen 1 and 2 versions (I believe they are on Gen 3 versions right now by using BJ LCAs) used a uniball no exceptions and just about every owner seems to be annoyed with the endless noises they seem to make. I'd probably say this is the only fallacy in Gen 1 and 2 versions, not that it's their fault. It was the only thing around at that time. If you can score a cheap set of uniball lowers and uppers, it may be worth the extra $560 in four Delta Joint retrofits to make them the ultimate in performance alternative over the uniball flavors they have offered previously. I was never a fan of the TC race lowers as they required some special adapter on the ball joint to make them work.

 

I posted pictures on my Delta Joint thread I created, but the thread has apparently since died and since this appears to be one of the more active and semi regularly updated Dirt King specific threads, I wanted to pass on the good word and any findings to you guys.

I will keep you guys posted with my findings and updates for the potential LCA retrofit.

 

I’m far more about the balance approach, which is what makes the latest Dirt King attractive. Zero interest in a uni-ball product, especially in the Seattle area, where we get plenty of rain. The latest Gen replaces the Uni-ball with a Moog joint, sealed, quiet, greater range while being stronger than stock, seems like a win all round. Would be nice if Icon made an off the shelf unit vs having to retrofit an existing LCA.

Realistically for me the Dirt Kings are overkill. The last multi day outing was pretty brutal, conditions and snow were far worse than anticipated, and trail conditions were the worst I’d ever seen. The current Dirt Kings will be way more than I need, but I like the angle of fix it once for good.

 

2 years ago, I installed the Dirt King stock length UCA & LCA setup, which has uniballs. I have Fox DSCs, which had issues from the factory leaking and wrong springs installed.

My experience with Dirt King has been great so far. At first I had that steering stiffness as well. I read that using TriFlow periodically helps lubricate the uniballs. Every 2 weeks I squirt some in after ragging out any debris. By around 4,000 miles later, you'd think they were ball joints. No clunking, no squeaking, no stiffness.

I do have 2 complaints though. When I run over a speed bump, as the wheels "fall" off the far side of bump, the suspension drops out and reached full stop very harshly. I asked DK about installing limit straps and they kept assuring me it's fine. However, I noticed at full droop that the UCA is very close to binding. I have not seen any scoring or denting yet. I hit speed bumps daily. Maybe the droop stop is being taking by the Fox coilovers.

Second complaint is the camber of the wheels. It's slight. I haven't asked DK about this yet. I added some preload to lift up the front end and had an alignment done, but it's only a 2" lift. Picture is hard to tell, but compared to rear tire, it's (positive?) Camber.

 

do you have alignment numbers?