SPC UCA issues?

I have set of SPC upper control arms on my truck. It’s currently getting inspected and I just got a call that it needs an upper ball joint and one control arm bushing......


AGAIN.



I’ve had these on my truck for about 4 or 5 years now and I’m oing on the 3rd set of ball joints in this time frame.

I bushings are the updated Spec ones. I upgraded the ball joints to the greasable one the last time I replaced them.

This last set lasted less than 25k miles.


Anyone else having this issues with the “updated” parts?

 

I have ~22K miles on their newest style and they still look brand new. Either they’re full of shit or you’re doing/not doing something to cause premature failure.

 

I purchased a pair of SPC UCA last March (2018) and my bushings and ball joint went bad on the passenger side. It wasn't even a year and maybe had 5K miles on it. I resolved it through SPC's warranty, but I've since sold it and picked up Total Chaos arms. I would've kept the SPC's, but it seemed like they were out of the bushings. TC seems to keep their items in stock and I've been running it since December. No problems since.

 

I have 55k miles on my spc uca's with the previous generation of non greaseable upper ball joints. Zero issues. Packed the boots full of new grease 30k miles ago and everything was super tight then, and everything feels super tight still. My only issue is a lil squeaking from the inner bushings here n there.

 

I've had my SPC UCA's on for about 40k miles and no issues, sometimes they squeak but that's easily taken care of with some Tri Flo sprayed around the bushings.

Do you grease them regularly? Instructions say to do it every few thousand miles if you see dirt regularly. The grease likes to come out the bottom of the boot so it's good to check them often and make sure they're well greased.

 

Greased the ball joints every oil change.


Pickin the truck up after dinner and I’m gonna take a look at em

 

Turns out one of the 4 bushings was bad and that was it.

Ball joints are still in good shape.

 

How did you get the replacement bushing (assuming you replaced it already)?
Headstrong Offroad still showed them bring out of stock.

 

$50 SPC Specialty Products - Bushing Replacement Kit(4) (25476) Vehicle Specific Item

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00HDFDJ9O?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title

 

This is not normal is it?

 

Yes it is. If you put new grease in, the old grease has to go somewhere, it doesn't just disappear. I've had SPCs for almost 3 years and grease them every oil change as suggested in the instructions, the old grease comes out the bottom (usually after driving around a bit) and gets wiped off.

No issues with mine, still on the original ball joints they came with and they see a lot of action.

Edit - the fact that the grease is coming out the top tells me that those are over greased...should only need a few pumps per side with the grease gun. I would wipe those boots down and make sure there's no cracks or tears...the old grease should really only come out the bottom of the boot. Over greasing them can cause problems

 

Too much grease.

 

Thank you these were just put on same time as wheels and tires and lift. 2days later I went off-roading. Probably greased out when I first tried at full flex

 

Your issue is that they aren’t JBA’s!

 

Meh. The SPCs have way more adjustability to better fine tune your alignment to exactly what you want, while still giving you the ability to create the most room in the wheel well.

Push the LCAs all the way forward, then set the camber and caster with the adjustable upper ball joint. Can’t do that with the JBAs.

 

This is exactly how I got my alignment done with the SPCs

 

Yea me too I moved my spc all the way forward no rubbing on my cmc, rubbed a lot on front bumper but it’s all trimmed out and clear from any rubbing! With 285 75 17

 

That’s the “right” way to do it.

I have 285s and no cab chop as well. I couldn’t get the tire to touch the mount if I tried.

 

Looks like the boot is torn. You'll find out when you wipe the grease off.

 

Wipe the grease off and check that the top of the boot is intact. I believe there is a metal clip/ ring that holds the boot on the top. If it was overfilled with grease its possible that the ring popped off causing the boot to seperate from the top of the ball joint