Upper Control Arm hitting spring

Hi all, long time reader first time thread creator. I have an 07 Taco and recently upgraded my suspension to the Rancho Quicklift and a half inch spacer giving me about 3 inches total lift. My alignment was a little off so I decided to install Tuff Country UCA's which claim are specifically for Taco's with a 2-4 inch lift. Now, when u go over a speed bump the UCA hits the spring when fully extended. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Ditch the spacer and dial it back an inch and use the stock UCA if that one still doesn't work. Not many issues with alignment or UCA's if you stick to 2-2.5"

 

Sorry for the quote with nothing in it, phone messed up. I will tell you this give us a side shot of the installation, the reason I say this is I have seen this before when the control arms were installed on the wrong sides!!!!

It's actually fairly easy to do and it pushes the tire further forward instead of further back and the design is offset, so if you have on the wrong sides it pushes it further forward and you get this interference. If you switch them around will make a world of diffeeence in driving and clearance!

 

Just commenting on what you have because there is a better way to get to that lift level. Look at my link for a spacer lift that I did. To expand on what has already been said-consensus is that at about 2.5 everything works at 3" you may need a-arms. I did a quick look at the Rancho lift and it looks like you get a 2.5" with it. A 1/2" spacer on the top plate gives you about 1" of suspension lift so you are at 3.5". That is pretty deep in the suspension arc of the factory mounting points. With the lower connection point and factory arm it is most likely still pulling that upper A-arm in. As mentioned you could pull out the spacer or step that spacer down to a 1/4" maybe... It seems from the advertising that should have worked for you maybe its misrepresented or there is something that can be done with the lower.

Edit: another fix is to put limiting straps on the front so it can not fully extend. Again not optimum but working with what you have that could be an option.

 

Thank you all for the responses. I plan to remove the spacer this weekend and see if that works. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

Try to get a side shot before hand as you may just need to switch sides of your upper control arms - I have seen hit happy more than once that's why I mention it. It's also why upper control arms have failed, very few fail when installed the correct way, there are many individuals running the same lift you have that don't have this issue - it would be better to loose the top spacer but unfortunately if you have the control arms on the wrong sides it is still an issue even removing the top spacer.

 

Here is the drivers side. Let me know your thoughts

 

This is driver side on our 4runner (only photo I had handy). Looks like your arm is on the correct side to me. I was also thinking it was too much lift.

 

Damn, looks like it's correct - sucks for me as well as my upper balljoint let go and I am looking at upper control arms, that's how I found this thread as the Tuff country arms are under 300 shipped.

Here's the best writeup I have seen and you can see where it appears you do have them in the correct way:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/total-chaos-uca-how-to-install.14507/

 

We will have some competitively priced UCA's hopefully in January, with uniball and balljoint type.

 

Ditch the spacer, you have too much down travel. Happened to me with Bilstein's and a spacer. Temporarily, I rotated the spring so that the control arm wouldn't touch it, but eventually switched to OME shocks which had less down travel than Bilstein.

 

I've read of this problem with Tuff Country UCAs before. It's them, not you. A well designed aftermarket UCA wouldn't do this. My LR UCAs don't have this problem. One guy even traded his Tuff Countrys for stock UCAs because he was so pissed. Good luck resolving the issue.

 

To much lift. Add a limit strap or pull the spacer.

 

This. The SPC/Light Racing control arms don't have this issue and are only about $100 more than the Junk Country UCAs.

Sorry OP, but I think you stepped over a dollar to pick up a dime with your lift choices.

 

So, I took out the Spacer and the problem is gone and it rides a LOT better. Thank you everyone for the help. I guess 2.5 inches of lift will do for now LOL. I am now a happy customer and saved a little bit of money with the Tuff Country.

 

Ok so I have these exact control arms and had the same problem. Of course I see people saying it's those "evil spacers" and it's not. There are two things that could be happening. One, too much lift if you have a 3" spacer lift kit plus over one inch on your shocks. The other problem is that when you first put them on they may touch, but when you drive it for 15 minutes or so your truck will settle and you will see a significant difference. I have a 3" spacer lift and I had my shocks at 1.75" so that was too much. Lowered the shocks to the next setting down and kept my evil spacers. When I dropped the truck back on the ground, they were still hitting. I was pissed but decided to take it for a ride. 4 miles later I was home from my shop and they settled SIGNIFICANTLY and had at least an inch of space between them and the springs. My truck rides so smooth it's ridiculous and I have aftermarket fuel rims and 285/70/17 BFG all terrain KO2s

 

Seems legit.

 

You have a 3" spacer plus lift from a coilover on a 4x4 and claim it rides good?!? Imma call bullshit on that

 

No way dude, it settled in 4 miles.

 

Coils don't settle