UCA bolts came loose 2500 miles after installing a lift - what did I miss?

Losing my mind today-

TL: DR I installed a lift in my brother in law's truck and the UCA bolts both came out at the same time after 2500 miles. I loctited these and we had an alignment done after our install... how did this happen?



I'm not new to working on cars, been doing it for over 20 years. Made plenty of mistakes in that time, learned each time. Trying to figure out what what wrong here, looking for help.

Couple months ago my brother in law buys a brand new 2022 TRD O/R and asks me to help him install an Ironman lift. So we did, hard thrash in a weekend but got it done. Lift included new UCA's from Ironman. Finished Sunday night, and I told him to make sure to get an alignment asap before getting his 285's installed. Done and done, all good so far.

Truck has pretty much sat for the last couple months while he was out of the country. He got back a couple weeks ago and pretty much went straight onto a road trip to Montain to do some camping with my sister and pick up his new go-fast camper. Cool unit by the way.

Fast forward to today. He calls me, in town, 5 min from his and luckily also my house, saying he's got an issue with an upper control arm and he's in a parking lot. I haul ass over to where he's at and sure enough his passenger side tire is pushed way in up top. My initial reaction is not good of course.

On further inspection, the UCA bolt had worked itself out of the rearward mount, which had pushed in to the exhaust manifold. While inspecting and figuring out a plan, I did manage to find the big washer that sits between the bolt and the bushing. Anyways the bolt was pushed about halfway out and the UCA was just kind of floating from the front mount.

Figured I'd better check driver's side as well - and get this, that one was loose as well, just hadn't worked its way out yet. And by some miracle the bolt was sitting on top of the frame rail.

Grabbed the bolt and the washer, went to the hardware store and by a miracle found what I needed - M14x1.50 if anyone needs to know if the future- went to my house grabbed a floor jack and some tools.
Believe it or not 30 minutes later we had the truck back together and dialed in. There was an alert for the collision prevention system, but I'm guessing it just needs reset, I checked the wheel speed sensor and didn't see any issues.
So he's got his 5k Toyota care appt in a couple weeks and is going to have them put an OEM nut and washer back in while he's there.

So I did forensics because this is driving me crazy, but I see remnants of red loctite on the nut, which I made sure we got as part of the project. I can't say I'm off the hook here with something I screwed up, but I just can't see what I missed. Also wondering if somehow the alignment shop messed up...
My brother in law is super cool and not pissed, and my take away with him is that any time suspension work is done it should be inspected within a couple hundred miles. In this case that didn't/couldn't happen, and he's not really a car guy, but he get the idea of inspecting post work.

Anyways as someone who is a go-to for family and friends to help when they need car stuff, I'm having a bit of a crisis of conscience here, haha.

Part of me wants to just blame the alignment shop but I know there's way more to it.

Thoughts? Tell me I'm an idiot or something.

 

Happened to me too. Loctite and everything. I ended up retorquing me a bit tighter and now do bolt checks all the time

 

Did you torque the nut to spec? 85 ft lbs? Some UCA brands require the torque be done with tires on the ground, vehicle suspension loaded. Some you can torque with the wheel off.

Also some pictures of your work would help.

 

Ironman has a great youtube walkthrough of the install which we followed to a T. Can I say 100% exactly what lb/ft I torqued to, no. But I do recall that we torqued after dropping the truck.
But... also wouldn't these nuts have been loosened and adjusted by the alignment?

I should have pics but I didn't take any. That's kind of lame I know, on all my own projects I photo document everything. I didn't even take pics today. I was honestly pretty flustered by the situation.

 

This is the kit we installed:

https://ironman4x4america.com/nitro-gas-suspension-kit-suited-for-toyota-tacoma-2005-stage-2/

install we followed: https://youtu.be/a51Ryojuim0

 

Upper control arms don’t get touched for alignments. My only thought is that the loctite seal broke once you retorqued. At least, thats the theory I’m going with for myself LOL

 

Dirt king recommended red loc-tite as well. Although when you grease the UCA's they say to loosen the bolt so grease can get into the bushings, so then you would need to re-apply the red loc-tite. Also that red loc-tite has a shelf life of about a year after it's opened.

 

Loctite or no, it's always good practice to recheck torque on critical components after so many miles post install. I've learned this the hard way with leaf spring main eye bolts and u bolts.

 

I had the same thing happen to me on my personal truck while on a trail. I run nylock nuts on the UCA and leaf springs bolts now.

For reference, I’ve probably installed close to 80 different full suspension kits on Tacomas and use loctite pretty religiously. I also double check my bolts and use paint pen once proper torque is confirmed. Sometimes stuff still comes loose. Cars are funny like that. Any number of things could’ve caused it: vibration, rotation, grease on the threads could slow the cure time for loctite. I’d say use it as a learning experience to double check next time.

 

You need to torque to 85 ft lb with a reputable torque wrench. Craftsman at a minimum.

85 ft lb doesn't seem like much, but with that long UCA bolt it takes forever to hit 85 and feels excessive. Mark the nut and bolt with a sharpie or white out like this below. Have him take a peek at the nut from time to time. Problem will be solved.

 

You guys are awesome, one of the best communities out there. 11pm I expected maybe a couple replies by tomorrow maybe

I like the sharpie/paint pen line on the nut mark method.

Thanks a ton everyone.

 

Pretty sure you need to tighten those bolts on ground with suspension loaded.
The manual even says to bounce the truck up and down.

See here - https://www.ttguide.net/front_upper_suspension_arm-1408.html

 

After you install did you do a 500-mile check to see if they had loosened. That's is must-do for any suspension install.

 

That depends on the UCA bushings. Rubber bushings need to be torqued on the ground, under load, at ride height. Poly bushings can be torqued while lifted off of the ground.

 

This also happened to me on my 4Runner some years ago. Of course we were out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, luckily one of the guys in our group had a truck box with lots of misc parts & hardware and had a nut that fit, very lucky!

A few things you can do: double nut w/red loctite each side, nyloc nut w/red loctite each, drill bolt for a cotter pin each side, or any combo thereof. Also as already mentioned re-torque everything aft about 500 miles.

Anyways don't beat yourself up as unfortunately this problem is more common than you'd think.

Good luck!

 

Torque setting I do mine to: tight as tight, no issues

 

I like the cotter pin idea. I have to see if I have room on the existing bolt.

 

I like the double nut idea personally... and use a nylock on the 2nd nut. That way should be able to apply correct normal torque with the stock bolt and then snug a nylock up to it... then sharpie a line across all of it for easy visual inspection.

Good stuff from everyone, really appreciate it.

Definitely make it a practice to check torque typically after 500 miles, but in this instance circumstances just worked against me and we ended up where we did. Got out easy and lesson learned for everyone.

 

It was supposed to be re-torqued after 500 miles. I think it just got loose. Re-torque should be on your calendar. Luckily, nothing happened. You do not want to lose UCA while going 50mph. It’s just a death certificate.

 

Don’t forget if you’re using a crows foot, you might need to go higher or lower to get the right torque. At 85ft lb with an 18” torque wrench and 1” change in distance, your looking at about 5+/- to get you the right torque. Going over might not be a bad thing but going under is. If you had a 12” torque wrench you’re looking at a bigger change in torque. Sorry if I missed this being mentioned earlier.

https://www.tekton.com/blog/how-to-accurately-use-a-torque-wrench-with-a-crowfoot-wrench