LCA Question

Who makes " Racing LCA's " ?

 

That's up to you but the stock LCA's and bushings are fine. Total Chaos makes a stock replacement LCA but it's like $1,500 for the pair. I'd just get stock LCA and bushings again.

 

that sounds like a justification question to spend more money... no need IMO... spend it elsewhere...

 

Pugga, I'm about to undertake this project. Actually, it's more like I'm going to replace the needle bearing in the front diff with the ECGS bushing, but I might as well upgrade my coilovers to 5100's or OME since I have to take the front apart anyway. And if I have to do that much, I might as well fix the LCA cam bolts, because while my alignment is perfect now, after all of this fussing around it won't be. And after 9 winters in Mass., I'm pretty sure thats all welded together with rust.

So, if you had to do it all over again, would you just buy the LCA assembly with everything already done from Camelback for $262 each? Or would you go through what you did again for sake of saving some $?

I'd like this to be as ass-ache free as possible, and if it gets me off the lift and out the door that much quicker, I'll spend some extra cash to make it happen.

If you would buy the assembly, is it possible to press out the fresh bushings without damaging them and coat them in fresh grease like XXXX did in his write up? I just as soon never have to re-do this job ever again

 

Short answer, at the time I did mine, I'd still do what I did again rather than buy the whole assembly from Camelback and there's a few reasons why. If everything is welded together with rust, and you have to cut out the LCAs, you have to replace the hardware also, so that adds another $100 on to the bill. When I did mine, my LCAs and ball joints were in good shape and I was able to salvage some of my hardware. Camelback also gave me free shipping on the bushings which you won't get with the LCAs. If I had a 9 year old truck that had been off roading and knew the ball joints were likely at the end of their life also, I would definitely consider buying the whole LCA and save myself a lot of time and effort.

On your other question, there's no reason to press out the bushings only to grease them and press them back in. The bushings seizing to the LCA does not prevent you from properly aligning the vehicle. The bushings are also supposed to be 'clocked' so having them seize in the correct orientation isn't necessarily a bad thing. When you install the hardware though, grease the ever living piss out of everything! That's the part that, when seized, will prevent you from properly aligning the vehicle. I neverseized the hell out of mine and, within about a year, they had seized again so you have to keep up with it. Moog makes a greasable bolt that might be worth considering, BrutalGuyRacing is running them I believe.

 

I've wheeled, but nothing hard and not in a long time. I've had alignments since wheeling, and I'm positive my ball joints are fine. Hell, there's less than 30k babied, mall crawling miles on my truck now! I'm under the impression that my alignment cams are seized simply due to our weather and the time (9 years) and the fact that I couldn't read any of the degree marks on the rear cam marks at all due to rust.

So, if I only buy the hardware to replace the bolts,cams and washers, and grease them heavily before reassembly, I should be fine to still align my truck? Admittedly, I'm a n00b when it comes to suspension work. The bushings, as long as they arent worn out (the rubber looks great to me, I can still see the pebbled texture on it) and they are frozen into their clocked positions don't really have anything to do with alignment? Their purpose is to allow the LCA movement up and down?

The last time I had it in for an alignment, they charged me half price because it was in alignment already. And I'm sure they didn't want to dick with 4 rusted cam bolts either.

 

Whoa... 2005 with 30k miles on it?!?!?!

You're more than likely correct though, the bolts will likely be seized just due to time. There is an easy way to check and I'd try it out before hand (don't do this until you have an alignment on the horizon). First, make with a pencil or grease pen from your LCA cams to the frame (make 2 marks per cam about 90 degrees from each other, this is just to make sure you put the truck back as close as possible to where it was. It's not exact science so I'd want an alignment within the next week or so). Then, put the truck on a jack to unweight the suspensio (put it on stands if you plan on getting underneath). Loosen the LCA nuts, the rears have a nut, the fronts have a weird hollow bolt with a solid bolt in the middle. On the rear, with the nut loose, try to turn the bolt. If the bolt turns free, you're in good shape, move on to the next location. If you can't turn the bolt because the bushing is trying to turn with it, you'll likely end up having to cut that bolt out. Do the same with the fronts, but both bolts should be able to spin free, if not, you're going to be cutting.

The bushing has no bearing on your alignment. The bushing can seize solid to the LCA, if the bolts are able to rotate freely, you can still properly align the truck. The bushings just help absorb some of the shock of day to day driving and make for a more pleasant ride.