Help with UCA (1st gen, 4x4)

Hey all!

I’ve been trying to track down the source of a clunk from the drivers side front suspension when turning at low speeds (think pulling out of a parking spot).

I believe today I found the source. Can you all watch this video and confirm that the control arm should NOT be doing this?

I believe what’s happened is the bushings have separated from the inner sleeve, allowing them to slide like this. The passenger side does not do this at all, the control arm is held in place.

As you’ll hear me mention in the video around a mouthful of sunflower seeds, the bolt is fully torqued to 87ft lb, so it’s not a case of the bolt being loose.

I had the truck supported with a jack stand and the floor jack under the lower control arm when doing this, it doesn’t slide AS freely when the truck is on the ground, but still does with some effort.

https://youtube.com/shorts/aSzqWPKA8wU?si=Y8snxmMdQLHO-oYw

I’m familiar with the process to change these, so all I need is confirmation that this is not supposed to behave as such.
PO already replaced the lower control arm bushings when he did the ball joints- he did not do the uppers for whatever reason. The bushings themselves aren’t in bad shape, I think they just separated from the sleeves.

 

Yep. You've got it right. The sleeve gets vulcanized into the rubber and it must have separated.

As soon as you pull the arms, I'm sure you'll see it

 

Awesome, thanks for chiming in!
Just put an order in for some Whiteline bushings.

 

Also, for anyone that ever finds this thread in the future, if a truck gets lifted and the UCA's don't get retorqued with the truck on the ground at the new lift height, the bushings are preloaded and this is what happens. It can also happen on a regular stock height setup but it gets accelerated when it's lifted. All bonded rubber bushings should be loosened and retorqued at the new ride height on any vehicle.

 

Thank you for this. The previous owner is the one who lifted my truck, so I’ll duck the blame on that one. But good to know for the future.

I have another question. I was looking at poly bushings, and the way they’re designed, they seem as though they would slide laterally like this as well, since the inner sleeve isn’t bonded to the polyurethane.
What mitigates this motion with a poly bushing?

 

They have washers on both sides of the bushes to keep it straight. They require greasing though to make sure they don't wear out quickly or make too much noise