UCA bolt installed backwards.

Its been about a month since I had my Dobinsons suspension installed and I love it.
Something that the mechanic did was kind of strange but made sense to me.
He installed the UCA thru bolts from the back and after he torqued the nuts he installed a cotter pin in the hole he drilled in the threaded end so the nut won't come off.
Has anyone else seen this done?
Just curious.

 

I've seen the bolt flipped like that. I guess it makes sense to put the cotter pin. The angle of the bolt would allow it to fall out in the new position if the nut came off. The original position would theoretically allow the bolt to stay put with gravity. I feel like I would just use locktite and proper torque but I think it shows a degree of attention to detail that most shops don't have

 

A lot of folks remove the bolt by cutting the head off and pulling it out downward so that there’s no need to bend the fender well or access through the engine bay. They then reinstall the new bolt in the position yours is. When I was considering new UCAs I worried about this from a gravity standpoint, your mechanic has solved that problem rather nicely.

 

I say kudos to the tech for drilling and putting in the cotter pin since he was to lazy to install from the front.

 

That's a nice solution for peace of mind.

My UCA bolt has been installed backwards for years and it's never shown any signs of coming loose.

I have to grease my UCA's regularly for maintenance. Part of that effort requires loosening that bolt. It's a bitch to loosen it... I have complete faith that it will never come loose on it's own.

Plus, even in the stock configuration, that bolt could easily walk out. Don't believe me? Remove the nut and go for a drive. Gravity will have negligible impact, as the bolt is in shear and torsion.

 

I did that with my steering rack bolts. You have to either cut the bolt head off or remove the AC compressor to take one of the bolts out from its original position.

I just flipped the bolts and installed from the bottom and dropped a cotter pin through. Although I did swap in a castle nut too.


Hot rodders back in the day used cotter pins like that all the time, my Dad still does here and there too.

 

Haven’t seen it but not a bad idea an can’t hurt? Seems to be easier to reinstall that way.

I grounded down some of the washer head bolt cause idgaf, been working for me for almost two years. I also loosen the UCA’s every tire rotation an grease the bushings so I’m constantly in there checking anyway.

 

It was a fucking bitch on the driver side when I did mine, definitely a two person job, I had my buddy help guide it with a pry bar so I can see why mechanic did it

 

TSB somewhere about this.
@Superdave1.0

 

From another TW thread. This person accessed the FSM online and found this, from Toyota. Type A installation and Type B.

 

I second this. It was a huge PITA to get the bolt in the way it came from factory and I had to bend metal out of the way.

I would've installed backward too but none of the Toyota dealers nearby had UCA bolts in stock so we just figured it out.