JBA Offroad Upper Control Arms And Suspension MEGA Thread BS thread

Thanks Panda man!!

 

back on post #10 is said it takes a half ton chev ball joint . so do you have to ream out the steering spindle ?

 

Had another alignment done. No more rubbing on the body mount and I can put my mud flaps back on.

 

Anybody here get any "creaking" noises from their JBA UCAs? After I installed them over a week ago, got an alignment to 3.1/3.2, they were fine. No noises at all. But I got my truck in for another alignment last Sunday to max the caster to 4.3/4.4 I noticed that I get a bit of creaking noise when turning left and right at slow speeds or when I hard brake/accelerate. Its definitely a rubbing/creak noise like a rocking chair that isn't lubricated. At times when I turn the wheels I'll get a slight pop.

Got under there and double checked all the bolts in the suspension area are tight. Sprayed the UCA/LCA/Sway bushings with white lithium grease but the noise still persist. Never had any creaking noises before. When I installed the UCA I put a ton of grease on the rubber bushings. Rig is a 2014 with 32k miles.

I'm going to unload the suspension, remove the long bolt and re-grease the bushings/washers again then re-torque everything when its loaded. Hopefully that solves it.

 

Make sure your swaybar isn't contacting your coil. Anything over about 2" of lift requires a relocation bracket if you don't already have one.

 

Or just get rid of the sway bar if you offroad a lot .

 

No contact with the sway bar under normal driving or under compression. I hit up some trails on Saturday(pre-current alignment) and it did fine. No contact with the sway bar. No creaky noises. I think my best bet now is undo the UCA, regrease and tighten back up under load.

 

Id take it back to the alignment shop before anything. If they left something loose, it's on them. You mess with it, you own it.

 

Seeing the high caster numbers in the post above..... @Blackout14, what is the optimal castor for a Tacoma lifted 2.5"ish?

 

This. With rubber bushings, you need to tighten the long bolt with weight on the suspension.

If creaking continues, thoroughly clean out all the grease in the rubber bushings and replace with silicone paste. Depending on the rubber composition, it may not play nice with grease. (For the same reason you don't put grease on brake caliper slider pins, on cars with floating calipers.)

 

I'm not blackout but optimal castor has to do with tire size and not lift numbers. with bigger tires you'll want more castor

 

Incorrect. When you lift the truck you change the geometry in the suspension (uca angle). Stock ucas cannot achieve the desired castor angles needed. The higher you lift the more negative angles you will get with stock ucas. Aftermarket ucas ucas get you back into the positive side of castor. The larger tires aren't the culprit. The lifting of the truck to fit those tires is. If you stick with tires that fit you don't need aftermarket ucas with built-in castor. Only when you lift beyond the capabilities of the stock ucas do you need aftermarket ucas. It's the lift not the tires.

 

^^^
The easiest way that I can explain it is. Compare a sport bike(crotch rocket) to a raked out chopper. The fork(steering angle) is almost straight up and down ( | ) 0° of castor. That allows the SB to maneuver in and out of traffic and great for turns (fast steering). The chopper is raked out ( / ) let's say 3°+ castor. The chopper is great at highway speeds but sucks at u turns. Positive castor slows down the steering. You don't want a twitchy truck at highway speeds. You want a cruiser.

 

Well, after further investigation the noise is not from the UCA. That'd my initial thought since when I installed and got an an alignment, they ran fine with zero noise. My tires slightly rubbed against the body mount(I am running 33s on a 2.5" lift). Caster was at 3.1/3.2.

I went for another alignment a week later with different shop(stupid of me) to try to get more caster to prevent body mount rub. Got the caster up to 4.3/4.4. As of this week I've been noticing the creaking noises while turn, nose diving and accelerating. So today I go down under there only to find out that a couple of LCA bolts were loose. I do not think I should be able to turn one of those bolts with an open face wrench without much force. Also explains why my alignment started going outta wack by wanting to go left all week!

 

Yeah sounds like you went to a crappy shop I'd go back to the first shop and be happy at your 3.1-3.2

 

More castor more rub. Positive castor will move the tire further back in the wheel well. Sounds like it's time for a cab mount chop.

 

Um all true except what I said had nothing to do with whether or not you need aftermarket UCAs lol. What I was talking about has nothing to do with the limits of the stock UCAs or even the amount of lift. It has to do with changing tire size at the exact same level of lift.

The larger and/or wider the tire on a vehicle the heavier the steering will fear. Vehicle handling will feel distinctly different. Larger tires will also deform differently, usually with more rollover at the edges. Running a higher PSI can help this, but even then you'll see some scrubbing of the shoulders of the tread blocks. Running higher caster can combat some of these changes when you go up a tire size at the sane level of lift.

Once you go to a larger tire size, it's best to dial in your new preferred alignment by trial and error. Since most people only put on a significantly larger tire after a lift it's the perfect time to ramp up the caster number above factory specs, which is why most shops in the know will shoot for far above factory castor on lifted AND larger tired vehicles.

 

I replaced my stock 265 Dunlaps with 285 BFG AT tires before installing the lift. Took an 1100 miles trip like that and it rode better. Actually made a big improvement over stock tires. Yes wider tires will grab pot holes, grooves, things like that much more than skinny tires but new control arms won't hide that fact.

 

Positive caster moves the wheel forward in the wheel well