Stock UCA rubbing springs, pass side only.

A few months back I installed Bilstein 5100's all around, with the front set at 1.75". It was fine installing them, got the truck aligned and was off to play. I had a few hard hits at the Silver Lake Sand Dunes in Michigan around July 4th, and other than a slightly bent off road package skid plate, I had no issues. There's one particular pot hole I pass on the way to work and I've nailed it a couple of times. About a month and a half ago my alignment seemed way off, and I unfortunately noticed it about an hour into a 4 hour drive upstate. The weekend after I got back home I had it aligned again (at a different shop, my regular mechanic this time) and the toe was way off on the driver side. There had also been a clunking I couldn't figure out from left turns at stop signs or lights, and sometimes over small bumps.

Cut to today, when I'm installing my new Toytec springs and setting the 5100s back to 0. As I'm letting the front suspension back down to full droop, I hear a loud clank and start looking around. There's a big scrape on the brand new spring, and I notice the UCA is about two millimeters from rubbing on the springs. I grab the old factory spring and sure enough there's a divot. I figure, great, I need a new set of UCAs for a 1.6" lift. I button everything up, get the wheels on and prepare to go to my mechanic. The truck sat on the new springs for about 15 minutes while I cleaned up, and I took one last look before I left. After sitting on its own weight, everything shifted back into position. The UCA isn't rubbing anymore, in fact it has plenty of clearance and matches the driver side.

I can only imagine the first guy that did my alignment did something wrong? No idea. Maybe it was the preload from the Billies on factory springs that had the UCA sitting way too close to the coils. Anyway, here are some pics. Divot is on the passenger side, the driver side pictured has no issues.

 

yup mine has this too. has nothing to really do with alignment. The stock UCA just doesnt have much clearance for the extra droop of the 5100's vs stock shocks. You can get lucky and spin the spring a bit to get it to where the UCA lip goes inbetween coil wraps. But in the end regardless of spring on the 5100, its the extra travel of 5100 and stock UCA that will make spring contact.

There is a reason i have some SPC UCA's waiting to go on my truck.

 

I have this same issue. I installed 5100's and ome 885's and I need to spin the spring. Do I just loosen the 3 top nuts to spin?

 

The three top ones are just to take off the coilover itself, and you can't spin the coilover 180 because the three bolts wouldnt line up anymore. if you want to spin the spring you need a compressor for the spring because you would need to untighten the single center nut but it's under pressure so dont do it without a spring compressor. (Insert personal sale lol) and if you need a spring compressor I am selling one here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/pb-parts-for-sale.460769/ pm for shipping and ill get a price

 

The stock UCA is the limiting factor for droop until you replace it. Your experience is normal - not ideal, just normal.

 

I have 884's and 5100's with stock UCA. I don't think mine rub, at least I have not noticed anything.

 

At full droop they will rub.

 

I got it now, bummer

 

So, now I need to spend some more money. I don't do any heavy duty off-road, any recommendations for after market UCA,s or are they pretty much the same, Total Chaos ?

 

I have total chaos and love them. But for the price difference, light racing might be a better option if you don't offroad a lot.

 

Why bother?

 

Should provide him some extra room so he doesn't rub the coils, allows for better alignment of lifted trucks, and makes room for more mods down the road - like performance coilovers.

 

But if it only rubs at full droop, and he doesn't do much off-roading, just save the money. It's not going to improve anything at this point.
Just my .02

 

True - that's why I steered him away from total chaos, UCAs are not absolutely necessary, I'm just too OCD to have rubbing that I can fix.

 

As far as your question about UCAs- There are differences in aftermarket UCAs and pricing - ball joint versus uniball joint, etc. I just bought light racing UCAs and feel it's worth it for adjustability and increased articulation. Headstrong off-road is a great vendor to ask questions. The ones I got are low 400's$

 

With the light racing uca being adjustable did you set the adjustment to where you wanted or did the alignment shop set the adjustment?

 

I haven't put mine on yet but you can do both. There are instructions for you to initially adjust them.

 

Talk about a thread revival. This is a couple of years old now and I'm currently running the same springs on 5100s but the shocks are set at .85" and I installed a set of Light Racing UCAs. I had an absolute nightmare of a time getting it properly aligned and finally went about an hour and a half away to another TacomaWorld member's shop.

These trucks are weird, and no two are alike.

My driver and passenger side caster settings are different on the UCAs, and we found that was the only way to get it aligned properly. I haven't had any rubbing issues since (except for full tuck on the sand dunes) and it drives great.

 

Glad to hear it drives great! I just ordered a set of light racing UCAs from @HeadStrong Off-Road, I hope I have better luck with the alignment than you did lol.

 

Nice! As long as you get it aligned by someone who understands custom suspensions, you should be alright. My first mistake was taking it to Toyota.