Camburg ball joint UCA's WTF?

so I finally saved up enough cash and decided to go with Camburg BJ UCA's after missing out on a pair of 1" uniballs a member had posted. I've been a victim of many bad lifts in my day, so I did a lot of research and decided to go with Camburg due to their extensive history and diverse product offering.

I got my UCA's from Camburg and ordered my

$29 Moog K80811 Front Upper Suspension Ball Joint for Toyota Tacoma

Moog K80811 BJ's. took em to a engine machine shop and had them press in the ball joints. The guy said they were really tight and asked if I had the right ball joints. After reassuring him that is the correct part and to apply more pressure, it took nearly 10 tons to press them in all the way on both arms. One of the arms was fine, but the other busted through the metal

I emailed and called Camburg and am waiting to hear back but was just curious if any members have seen this or experienced difficulty pressing in their ball joints into their Camburg BJ UCA's?

 

DAMN!!

 

TCs are already pressed in. good luck too u

 

thanks! I'm curious what Camburg is gonna say? It would be comforting to know a big player such as Camburg in the OR market will stand by their product.

 

I do mostly mall crawling and liked the idea low maintenance of the factory replacement ball joint plus a few bucks less. Discretionary income kinda tight these days.

 

I recently pressed some new Moog BJs into my Camburgs with a standard hand press loaned from an auto store. It was hard (I used a 3' breaker bar) but not any harder than any others I've done.

Either the BJs were wrong or the seat on the UCA was out of spec. hopefully Cburg will replace them.

Also, it helps to heat the UCA (in sun, not torch) and freeze the BJ.

 

X2

And put some Anti-Seize on the mating surface of the ball-joint.

Uni-balls are known for making loud squeeking noises. They offer the ball-joint versions as an option for noise free operation.

 

Sub'd...... I just put on the same arm and BJ. the exact same thing happened. I have the small pieces at home still. I used anti-seize on the BJ before installation and man it was tight.

 

Man thats a bummer. Sounds like Camburg needs a design revision on these arms. They working okay for you Elwood?

I emailed 4 days ago and left a voicemail 3 days ago. Called again a couple times and nobody answers. I'm getting the impression customer service is not the highest of priority there.

 

They seem fine and they aligned pretty good. I have 2.3 caster both sides and 0 toe and 0.2 and 0.3 camber. Drives fine on the highway and the ball joint has the clip to hold in in , but with the amount of pressure it took to put them in i think the concern might be getting them out.
If you look at it from a perspective of is it safe, then i'm not too concerned. Think of it like this, all the BJ has to do is stay there and hold the spindle in position. Does it matter if they went in with difficulty or if the hole was a thousand'th off ? As long as the thing doesn't fall out and if the ball joint was strong enough to survive the install then i think it is OK.

Now if you look at it from a manufacture side i am not that impressed. You would think the quaility would be better. On mine if you look real close i think the little piece of metal that was removed might be from the last bit of weld bead around the rim of the socket meeting the arm. So maybe it was just a bit too much. The BJ went through the socket with the "usual" bit of pressure. I have only done a couple ever but it seemed reasonable untill it got to the end. I used our press from work and did them in the vise on the bench at home. I had to use a cheater bar and it was all i could do to turn the wrench.

We are driving the truck and I'm not worring about it. If they are gonna give me new arms and joints that went together better then great. If any mechanic out there that has done a hundred BJ can say that they have never had an arm be a little off and hard to press a BJ into then i might be more concerned.
Anybody??????????

 

Mine were already put together as I bought them from another member, but I really like them! They got pretty squeaky 2 weeks ago and had to grease the 2 bushings and the ball itself. Didn't think I would have to do that but wasn't a big deal! Good luck man, want to find out what happens!

 

after almost a week, still no response from my email and voicemail other than "what truck are these arms for".

my email prior asked the following "are these still safe to use as is? will Camburg warranty if there is an issue later"?

this is the kinda stuff that really breaks down my support in american fabrication. isnt this why we pay extra for "made in America"? so we keep jobs here and take pride in our quality and the people that stand behind it?

 

get your money back and get the light racing arms and just crack a camber nut to change ball joints

 

I've heard Camburg customer service sucks!

 

my ucas did the same as the op picture.

 

X2 it happened when I was torquing down the spindle bolt and I wasn't even to the spec yet.

 

yea but mine was just pressing the ball joint in :?

 

K...maybe I'll get the LR arms instead.

 

or get the camburg uni balls.

 

the aroura uniballs are what camburg uses stock.