Upper control arm bushing replacement

Hey guys, just wanting to get a little information on this subject. I want to replace my UCA and possibly LCA bushings with energy suspension poly bushings. When i replace the lowers i know a front end alignment is necessary for camber reasons. But what about the UCA bushings and caster? I noticed while looking around there's no place to adjust caster. Do 1st gen Tacomas not have to have the caster adjusted?

 

Caster is adjusted with the lower control arm. The adjustment affects both camber and caster depending on how it is adjusted.

 

Gotchya thanks man! Dumb question but would it be safe to replace the UCA bushings and not have an alignment done?

 

if your thinking of replacing the uca bushings with poly, your better off just buying an aftermarket uca....

 

If you replace the UCA with a Toyota OEM UCA w bushings installed nothing has changed dimensionally & no alignment is required. If you are replace the bushings with aftermarket then you would have to know the nominal dimensions & tolerances of the OEM and the aftermarket pieces before reaching any conclusions.

I replaced the UCA's on mine with OEM UCA and it was mistake. Should have gone with poly or aftermarket UCA's

 

Whats the difference between OEM and Toyota OEM and why would that make a difference? Arent OEM parts suppose to be stock parts?

 

OEM - other manufacturers OEM, when it comes to significant structural suspension components I feel its like me putting my life in some under-paid Chinese industrial worker's hands.
Toyota OEM - Has specific tolerances and specs which they manufacture their own parts to. Usually in all cases the specs are to a much higher standard and degree than others.

I replaced my upper and lower control arms with OEM Toyota units because I didn't want the Urethane bushing quality and squeak issues. I almost did MOOG but glad I stayed OEM Toyota. Its great piece of mind.

I didn't do that however with my ball joints upper and lower and did MOOG thinking they were better quality than OEM Toyota. After much research on TW found MOOG BJs to have issues, plus I have to remember to grease them every 3,000 miles. Such a pain in the ass. I'll put another 10,000 miles on the MOOGs and put the Toyota BJs back in.

Moral of the story......Stick with Toyota OEM. May cost a little more but well well worth it.

 

You might as well do them all (UCA and LCA bushings) and then get the alignment done once.

I just refer to Toyota OEM and TGP (Toyota Genuine Parts).

 

Hmmm thats interesting actually. I thought for sure that going to Suspension Connection Poly Bushings would be far better then going back to stock rubber bushings. Glad i said something