Upper control arm swap... How much play?

Hi everyone,

I swapped in a new set of upper control arms (MOOG, which I'm coming to understand was a mistake, but we can discuss that another time). When I tighten down the UCA through-bolt, I lose all play in the UCA other then what's provided by the torsion of the bushings—i.e., the bolt tension loads the sleeve inside the bushings against the sleeve on the shock mount. The whole assembly binds there, leaving just the bushing flex to absorb any UCA motion. I still get a fair bit of motion, maybe 6" vertically when rocking them by hand.

I've watched a handful of videos and this isn't addressed. Is this what I want? Intuitively, I'd think that the system should be rotating freely (on the bolt?).

Thanks for your expertise.
- Kris

 

Welcome to TW. Sorry I don’t get your issue clearly.

Do you have washers over the bushings? Did you grease the bushings or possibly over tighten the bolt?

 

Thanks. Washers yes, on the outside of the UCA, where the bolt head and nut contact it. Oriented with the convex side facing outwards relative to the UCA, towards the head and nut respectively. No room for washers between the UCAs and shock mount sleeve. I definitely didn’t over tighten. A half turn on the nut past hand tight causes it to freeze up.

 

they're bound bushings. once its tightened down, all the movement is in the bushings. the main bolt should be torqued with the weight of the truck on the arm. same as the lower control arm bushings.

 

^^ yepp, any suspension component that has rubber bushings should be torqued at ride height.

 

Thank you all! I would not have guessed that.

 

Yeah, they are twisty bushings, same as the lowers. It eliminates squeaks.