Icon UCA squeakkkkk

Help!

Put tubular icon uca's on the truck three or so weeks ago. A week ago they started making, what sounded like, metal on metal noise. I put some grease in the zerk fits and that made it go away. A week later it came back, I loosened the bolt on the UCA to relieve pressure and greased the zerk fittings, the noise came back a day later. I also put some tri flow in the uniballs and added caps at the same time. That didn't make a difference.

It's only coming from my driver side, what do I need to do? Take the UCA back off and grease the hell out of it? It was such a PITA to get the UCA on I'd hate to have to tear it back apart.

Any advice?

 

If you loosen the through bolt and hit the zerk until its coming out of both sides it should be greased up just fine and shouldnt squeak from there. The uni-ball does make a sound even if you triflowed it. Probably just the uni-ball would be my guess.

 

It's a horrible sound. Loud! I'm pretty sure it's the UCA and not the uniball. I'll try what your saying though, just keep hitting it with grease until it's coming out the sides.

 

Yeah if you loosen the bolt and get grease out of both sides of the bushing then it should be good. I just changed my UCA's so I dont blame you for not wanting to pull them it sucks.

 

Yeah it was time consuming and getting that bolt lined up with all the washers was a huge pain.

 

Loosen the bolt, and jack the truck up to let the suspension droop.

Pump grease until it's oozing out from around the bushings (if the bushing is bulging, loosen the bolt more)

Set the truck back down so it's on the ground at ride height, and torque the bolt to spec.




To make sure it's the bushings, hold onto the UCA while a friend pushes the bumper up and down to make it squeak. If it's the UCA you'll feel the reverberations in the UCA.

 

There is no reason to torque the UCA bolt at ride height. That's only for rubber bushings.

 

Of course there's not if they're torqued to spec.

However, I know how hard it is to get a torque wrench in there, and how convenient it is to just torque the piss out of it with your ratcheting wrench.

With how people torque those things, I feel it's a safe recommendation. Torque them enough, and that poly bushing can bind up in there just like a rubber.

 

But the poly bushing is supposed to pivot, even when fully torqued. There is a metal sleeve inside to keep the bushings from getting squashed. There is no reason not to fully torque them while the truck is in the air.

Even fully torqued, you should be able to move the UCA up and down by hand if it's not attached to the spindle.

 

I think you're missing that I am agreeing with you.

When I overtorqued mine the first time I installed them the bushing was binding up. When torqued to spec, of course this wouldn't happen.

Unfortunately, I was lazy and stupid and opted to just keep tightening with my wrench until I felt it was "tight" at about twice the torque spec.

 

I've installed lots of UCAs, and a few times, even while being tightened, the UCA was still loose, so the torque was just fighting the UCA and not squeezing on that frame tube the bolt goes through. That puts a lot of pressure on the bushings causing squeaks, so I ended up making washer shims and squeezed them in between the frame tube and washer, and it torqued up to spec real nice and remained squeak free. If you loosen your UCA and there is a lot of slop between the UCA washers and frame tube, you could benefit from a shim.

 

I have a feeling I know what is squeaking, but it shouldn't sound like metal on metal......

 

So, what you are basically saying, is that you don't follow the install instructions? Almost every suspension part is suppose to have final torque done when the vehicle is on the ground. This is consistent with about every manufacturer and in most instructions.

 

What do you think it is?

 

Does anyone know what the torque should be? Cause right now they are tightttt

 

Google it! All install instruction are available online, or the torque specs are listed in a TW sticky. Maybe the installer screwed up the spherical bearings on the shock rod end?

 

Total chaos instructions does not say anything about torquing at ride height. Probably because there is no point.

 

83 ft lbs for the long UCA bolt.

 

I had replaced all the UCA's in my Civic with urethane bushings and got a really bad squeaking from every damn bushing. You cant grease urethane bushings with regular grease, being that the squeaking just comes back. Energy Suspension makes a grease specifically for urethane bushings. Its not expensive and since you seem to be out of options, I would definitely try it. Be careful when you use it because it literally gets EVERYWHERE and wont come off. (which is what you want really). But like I said, it shouldn't sound like metal on metal. metal on metal is more like a grinding noise than it is squeaking. Anyway, I hope this helps you.

 

Any lithium based grease works with poly bushings. Just want to stay clear of Petroleum based greases.