JBA Offroad Upper Control Arms And Suspension MEGA Thread BS thread

Craigslist find, good deal... https://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/pts/d/santa-cruz-tacoma-jba-upper-control/7536678577.html

 

Just ordered me a pair of these for the taco. My SPCs were going through ball joints left and right. Hopefully I don't have that issue with these!

 

Hey guys. Anyone have luck running these? Look the same

MOOG K6292 Ball Joint

$28 MOOG K6292 Front Upper Suspension Ball Joint for Chevrolet K1500

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000C55YN6

 

Got mine installed today! Just need to get the alignment done and we’re good to go. Install was pretty straightforward. Had a harder time changing my hubs haha

 

Great thread. I had an alignment done yesterday (5100 front with 2" front lift + Taco lean spacer, and 2" rear lift with 3 Leaf AAL and 1/2" block) and results weren't what I'd hoped for with a small lift. I had an alignment speciality shop that does lots of Toyotas and figured there'd be enough adjustment in the bottom to get the caster in the 1.5 - 2 degree range without the camber going out to lunch. Unfortunately I was wrong and now I'm shopping and saving fur UCA's.

 

Slightly off topic but I see that you have JBA uppers and the Taco Tab alignment hardware. How is your alignment? Were you able to get things dialed in without having adjustable upper control arms?

I have JBA's now and am getting Total Chaos cam tab gussets installed next month. Just wondering if I should get taco tabs too but have heard others say that you need adjustable upper control arms like SPC to get things dialed in correctly.

 

ordered these. supposed to show up on friday. knowing me, i will install them right away. i will let you guys know if they work out.

buy 2 of these for the price of 1 jba ball joint.

 

Happy to report that

$28 moog k6292 front upper suspension ball joint for chevrolet K1500

moog k6292 ball joint work.

bought them on Amazon and installed today without any issues.

$27 ea vs $65 ea plus shipping helps out.

 

Let us know how they hold up. Personally, I've had bad experiences with Moog over the past 10 or 15 years. Seems like their quality isn't what it used to be.

 

Will do.
That’s what I heard as well.

I just thought I would share this info if someone wants to save some money….or if they break their ball joint….they can just run to autozone or whatever other auto parts store and buy a replacement right away. Instead of waiting for jba to ship you one of theirs

 

@pahaf I see it's cross referenced to. A GM pickup. I wonder what an OEM GM costs compared to a JBA one.

 

This.

 

I’m posting this here in hopes maybe one of you guys had this noise after installing?

https://youtu.be/v1H1Yf6Fv6M

after installing my JBAs and then getting an alignment, this is the noise I have on my driver side only. Usually only present going in reverse with the wheel cranked right.

I loosened and lubed up the UCA bolt and ball joint yesterday along with jacking the truck up and dropping it down with everything loose still. The noise seems to go away but slowly comes back.
Any ideas, I’ve posted this in other threads with no luck.

 

Anyone running 17x8.5 0 offset and no wheel spacers on 11.5 or 12.5 wides?

I have a .75" wheel spacers on 285/75/17 Cooper XLT(11.5") wide and it seems like i have well over an inch of clearance from the JBA uca at full lock.

So I think I can run no wheel spacers and still clear the UCA and maybe run 12.5" in the future.

 

Check your lower control arm bolts, sway bar bolts (unlikely but worth a check) and lower shock bolt. My guess is probably lower control arm bolts because I get a noise with them unless they are really tight. Just make sure you tighten the lowers with the truck on the ground. For the UCA's it doesn't matter but lowers do because the bushings don't move. If you tighten the lowers at droop they will keep tension on the bushing and wear it out quicker.

 

Anyone run JBA UCA on 12.5" wides and not rub the UCA with exactly 4.5" backspace wheels?

 

no

 

Anyone looking to rebuild their jba UCAs?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/jba-offroad-uca-rebuild-kit.808333/

 

I recently purchased my 3rd set of jba’s (all on different vehicles and currently waiting on the 3rd set to be delivered) I figured I’d share my experience with the second set. I bought them for a 1st gen sequoia. Upon initial install I had an issue where when I would go over bumps at slow speed I could hear a repetitive clunk in the front. Upon inspection, when jacking the truck up it would creak and clunk the whole way while the suspension drooped. I noticed the noise was coming from the UCA. It almost sounded as coil springs popping but you could easily tell it was in the UCA. If you loosened the bolt and jacked it up the noise stopped. I contacted jba, marlin worked with me back and forth for quite a while. Ultimately he sent me a new set, had me return the old set and that did the trick. He messaged me a few weeks to a month later and said that his engineering team looked into my old control arms and found they weren’t within spec. I believe it was the bushings themselves.
I just wanted to share this for anyone who may have a similar issue and for the fact that marlin was fantastic to work with.

 

This is exactly my situation. Just under 2" up front, same on the back, and we can't get the caster I was hoping for by staying sub 2".

Anyways. I too am shopping for the most maintenance free UCA with easy to replace ball joints (OEM or otherwise). Let me know what you find out and what you decide on!