My SPC UCA experience. It's not good.

So friday at lunch I installed new SPC upper control arms because I am lifted 3 inches on 5100s/885s. Did an alignment after work. Drove home 35 miles with no issues. Tracked good, still stiff as a board though.

Yesterday I removed sway bar and it is much much smoother.

Drive back in to Wilmington this morning (35 miles). As soon as I get to storage unit facility with speed bumps every time front suspension compresses and extends I get a clunk, and I can feel it in my feet. So I'm like well I know for a fact it's not my sway bar or endlinks because they are off the truck. So I'm like maybe I didnt torque the long uca bolt all the way. I drive around some more and it's getting worse and worse. I get home and put one hand on the fender and rock the truck back and forth and the motherfing UCA bushings are clunking. Everything is tight. I even loosen the long bolt and noise goes away, telling me that is 100% the noise.

50 miles on these control arms and the bushings are clunking.

Do I just need to put stock suspension back on truck and be a bone stock guy?
Is this normal?
Should I tell SPC their china parts are garbage?
I bought from Amazon brand new, but SPC made them not amazon vender.

Thanks...

 

Contact SPC and esplain your situation. That would be your first move.

 

Zero issues with my JBAs.

 

JBA>SPC

 

Which arms are they (the new style or old style) and what bushings did they come with? Did you grease them when installing?

FWIW, I have over 30k miles on mine with no issues.

 

Im also having clunking sound off the SPC UCA ball joints. I have only had them 3 weeks. I bought mine through Headstrong, Marie should be getting back to me. Will let you know how it goes.

 

10K miles on used SPC's, no issues.

 

46K miles on mine, before I sold them. No issues then or now on someone's else's truck. Post pics, maybe a video, contact SPC, re-tourqe everything. Good luck with your truck.

 

My bet is the LCA bolts were not torqued properly post alignment.
I have been running SPC on my 5th Gen 4Runner for over 20K w/o a peep and I do off road.
Who knows though, perhaps you got a bad batch. Call SPC.
The nosiest UCA I ever had was ICON, never again.

 

Zero issues with my old-design SPCs repackaged in Mevotech boxes. Do you have the old design with the plain urethane bushings or the new design with the X-axis joints? The latter re-uses the factory dished washers. It's important to install the washers facing the correct way. Did you inject grease into the ball joint as well, per instructions?

And yes, make sure the LCA cam bolts are tight.

 

Had the same thing happen, OP

Bad heim joint

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/beef-nachos’-helga-build-and-b-s.549728/page-2#post-18832861

 

This is exactly why I had JD Fabrications build me custom uppers with EMF greasable/rebuildable uni-balls and OEM inner pivot bushings!

 

Got over 150k miles on mine and Zero issues.

 

I had the same issue with mine as well. Had them replace the bushings[part#25001] and the guy made sure to not over-grease it as well as bleeding the excess.
FWIW, I did some research on "approved" grease from SPC and found that the Valvoline 633 grease only offers 1% Molly (I contacted Valvoline grease techs twice to confirm from two different people on separate occasions)

SPCS UCA Calls for:

Code:

NLGI #2, Grade LB with 3%-5% Molybdenum Disulfide

https://www.spcalignment.com/subjectFAQ/SPC Approved Grease.pdf

I found that Valvoline Pallidium Grease [VV7011] offers 5% Molly, I ended up using this grease with my new bushings:

$10 Valvoline Palladium #2 3% Moly, Heavy Duty (HD) Grease 14.1 OZ Cartridge

https://www.amazon.com/Valvoline-VV70112-Heavy-Multi-Purpose-Grease/dp/B0735RLMCC?_encoding=UTF8&me=

How important is the Molly, 1%...5%?

Yes, contact SPC and see what they can do, they should make this right..

 

Mine are the sealed bushing that can be tightened with no load on. Not like OE style. Yes they are torqued properly.

 

Both the old and new style bushings are sealed and can be tightened with no weight on the suspension. If you don't grease the old type on install it will squeak. If you got the washers on the wrong way on the new type it will squeak.

 

Not squeaky. Clunky.

 

I'm giving up honestly. All my 4x4 conversion stuff is for sale in buy/sell/trade anyway

 

I would contact SPC directly or thru the vendor you purchased the UCA. I have the same issue and a few people on here have as well. Theres a thread in the suspension discussion somewhere about it. SPC knows about it and its actually a defect in the bushings where the long bolt goes thru.

 

Sounds like you got the washers on backwards...post a picture would be pretty easy to tell.