LCA Bushings are squeaking like crazy...

freakin OEM prices....that's crazy for 4 bushings. I still think it's probably the way to go but I personally haven't seen any TW reviews on the Moog, ACDelco, etc. bushings...just in general they tend to not be as good of a brand. If they were easier to swap out like leaf spring bushings are then I'd say go for it, but seems like it's kind of a PITA to do

I wonder if Low Range Offroad sells any kind of aftermarket rubber bushing for the LCAs..?

edit - nope, they only sell a Poly kit

 

wish there was some sort of way to retrofit a zerk fitting to the LCA's so that keeping them lubed is easier.

I have the same thing going on with my whitelines that I installed about 4 months ago.

 

Could always just drill a hole into your LCA and thread a zerk into it, similar to the bushing ends on the JBA UCAs

 

i was thinking about doing that, but it wouldn't work for a number of reasons.

You would have to drill and thread the zerk through both the LCA outer ring as well as the outer metal sleeve of the whiteline bushings. And that would only be lubricating the outside of it. Not the inner pivot where the metal sleeve rotates against the poly rubber. Which is most likely where it needs lubrication the most.

 

I was thinking of drilling a hole through the lca, the outer sleeve, and the bushing itself. Then using a self tapping zerk on it. That way the grease gets to where it needs to go.

 

I used Redline the first time I installed the Whitelines and had a bad problem with squeaks. I think the noise had more to do with clean surfaces rather than the Redline but it could also be an interaction of the poly with dino vs synthetics. Anyway I pulled it all apart two weeks later. Cleaned/scraped/polished every surface and gooped everything with Superlube. That was about 5 years ago and no squeaks since. My writeup is somewhere on here.

I was also trying to think of a good way to install a Zerk. I agree you could drill a hole straight through but it would work best if you could also tool a shallow groove in the outside of the steel sleeve to allow the grease to travel into the fitting when the holes do not align. The sleeve is thick relative to the OEM version so I think it could work well.

 

that would be one way to do it, but given that bushings flex and move around i'd be concerned that a zerk inside of a bushing would be prone to breaking off or fragmenting and then cause some damage inside that pivot area

 

I like that idea, but it would still require you to drill through the bushing material itself to create a path to the pivot. See my concerns with that in my response to @EatSleepTacos

 

I don't think the LCA has enough meat on the thickness to really support a zirk. I'd consider welding a thicker piece to the outside, then drilling/tapping that.

I wonder if a greaseable bolt would be better, like a shackle bolt. Since you're supposed to lube the inside of the bushing/inner sleeve anyway, makes sense to push the grease form that side, rather than drilling a hole through the bushing.

Those of course don't exist as far as I know, but it doesn't seem too hard to modify the existing LCA alignment bolts. Shouldn't compromise the strength too much, if at all.

 

true, the bushing eye is pretty thin. Wouldn’t be a concern for me though since I wrapped my eye in 1/8” as a reinforcement.

 

If I remember correctly, the MOOG cam bolts have zerk fittings already in them.
Although that would be putting grease into the area that's metal on metal contact.
If you were to use those cam bolts, you could then drill a couple small holes in the sleeve to allow the grease to pass through to the rubber side.

I wouldn't use anything other than OEM cam bolts though because i've heard horror stories on the MOOG ones.

 

It's a shame Moog has a bad rep for pretty much anything besides their 555 line, because it seems like they put zerks on everything lol

 

Yea it is a shame.
I wouldn't call putting grease fittings on anything that moves a "problem solver" part.

 

I run moog cam bolts (3 yrs now)- zero issues, went through a few sets of OEM LCA's and Moog LCA bushings. no squeaks from my Whiteline LCA bushings yet (installed a month ago).

 

So you have Whiteline bushings with Moog greasable cam bolts and they stay quiet? What kind of grease do you put in them?

Trying to determine what the best setup will ultimately be when my time comes to do this

 

I'm referring to this thread where folks end up rounding out the washers and then can't align at all.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...lver-caster-camber-cam-bolt-kit.317057/page-8
I'm sure that there are others like you that have had luck with them, but personally I wouldn't take my chances given what i've heard. Removing the LCA and all that's involved isn't too much fun. Not to mention needing an alignment every time you do.

 

Its extremely easy to replace the cam bolts... take me 20 minutes to replace all 4..

 

harbor freight trash

 

As I mentioned, I've got Superlube but seeing as how it's over 97 degrees outside...I won't begin until tomorrow morning.

 

sorry I was thinking more along the lines of pulling the LCA's and lubbing them & everything. Cam bolts aren't bad other than those back ones that you have to move the steering rack around for.