LR SPC UCA's Set-Up Guidelines

Just got a new set and plan on putting them on. The issue I have is when you combine the adjustments available on the new uca's with the adjustments available on the lower eccentric cams, where do you start? Most alignment shops aren't familiar with the SPC uca's. my current alignment results WITHOUT the new uca's are:
L camber: -0.2*
R camber: -0.4*
L caster: 1.4*
R caster: 1.1*
Total Toe: 0.05*
I also have an issue with the top of my steering knuckles hitting my new OME 883 coils and not necessarily at full droop. But not sure exactly where in the down-travel range.

 

Glad you decided to pick up some LR's, I think they will help a lot.
Because of the independent adjustment for castor and camber, they're pretty easy to set up. I would recommend starting with the +2.0 setting (D, I believe) when you initially install them. Instruct the alignment tech to max out castor on the lower control arm cams, without trying to adjust for camber. This will give you the maximum castor available, which should be around 3 degrees.
After that is set, have them use the camber adjustment on the LR UCA (the big nut on the top of the ball joint) to adjust camber as necessary. If for some reason they max that out and can't get 0 camber, have them leave it maxed out and adjust the lower control arms only as much as they need to in order to get camber to zero.
After those are set, they can set the toe angle (shoot for 0).

 

Thanks! What about the steering knuckle contacting my OME 883 coils? Will the LR UCA move the knuckle out and away from the coils? Or are they designed to simply increase the "free area" around the coil?

 

Depending on the camber adjustment, it should move the spindle away from your coil. I'd grind that corner of the spindle off while you're in there though just to make sure.

If they have to max the negative camber at the UCA (push it all the way in) and it starts hitting the coil, you can sacrifice some castor at the LCA to bring camber out there, then pull the camber out at the UCA to compensate.

 

What do y'all recommend for decent snap ring pliers for these? I'm ordering a ball joint press kit and pickle fork too.

 

I was able to get away with needle nose pliers and 2 extra sets of hands haha. Your guna want to remove you battery and air box to get access for uca bolts.

Pickle fork is helpful, make sure you have some tubing for extra torque. And a mallet is always a good idea.

Did spc uca's/lift last month on my truck with the help from awesome TW members. There is a video For SPC uca's install, just scroll down an it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-thread-compiled-list-of-helpful-links.95271/

 

Also Uca's come with a guide to show how to make adjustments it's pretty straight foreword.

 

I know this is my old thread but I'm just now getting around to doing this. My question is this:

After I install these LR UCA's, do I leave the lower cams where they are and just set the UCA's to "D" and get it to the shop or do I, like the instructions say, set the lower cams to neutral and set the UCA's to "D" and get it to the shop?

 

You can most likely leave the lower control arm cams where they're at, as you should get an alignment soon after installing the UCAs. If you really need to adjust caster or camber before you're able to get an alignment, then you could try adjusting the lowers a bit. Remember to use the camber adjustment on the UCA first to get it as close as possible. Also, if you adjust the LCA cams very much, you'll probably throw your toe off as well.

That being said, most alignment shops are notoriously bad at actually knowing what's going on when they're making adjustments, so having the lower cams in a neutral position before you take it to them might cause less confusion. Depends on how good your tech is I suppose.

 

Sooo... if this were you, what would you do? The key is finding a shop familiar with these uca’s.

 

Pretty low likelihood that you'll find a shop that has a clue about adjusting aftermarket UCAs.

If it were me, I would screw around with the LCA cams after installing the UCAs and see if I could get the alignment pretty close to spec. Then when you get the measurements from the shop you can see how close you were. But I like messing around with that stuff, and it's pretty easy to do when you have a forklift - not so much in a driveway.

 

Uhh...how do I do an at-home alignment?

 

I'm pretty much an expert on the spcs after tune and testing every setting along with many trips to alignment shops.

What I found are almost all shops are idiots, even two shops "familiar" with spc ucas. You want to tube the ucas as much as you can yourself.

You have to decide between more tire clearance at firewall. Or higher caster and less clearance for better street manners.

In my situation I wanted the most clearance possible. I test and tuned from A to G. G ended up with the most clearance but I only got 1.5* caster but my 33s don't rub at all on firewall at full stuff.

If you want clearance and more caster use the E or D setting.

What ever you start with you will then want to max your Lcas for most caster that pushes tire forward. Then loosen the large bolt on the spcs for camber and slowly lower rig till tires look visually straight so camber is close. Then tighten the large bolt.

This way when you take it in the shop they will just slightly dial in camber at the lcas.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-do-an-alignment-at-home.252256/

There are simple variations for most of the steps. I heard a good one not too long ago - wrap a string from your rear tire up around the front tire of each side of the truck, at the mid-height of the tire. When the front tire touches the string equally at the 3 and 9 o'clock position, the toe should be pretty close (or at least in line with whatever the rear toe is). For camber I just use a straight edge that fits perfectly on the outer lip of my wheels. To measure caster, two 12" pieces of linoleum flooring tiles under the front tires works pretty good to use as alignment plates.

 

I love doing the driveway alignment then taking it in to see how close I am.

 

I may have to give it a go!

 

Have you checked your lower cam bolts? They tend to seize up.

 

Yeah...they're good

 

What tire size? Any rub issues? Any issues driving issues on the stock ucas and current alignment?

 

P265/75R16
See post #1.