Control Arms for Dummies...

Hi all,

I have a '98 SR5 with 3" Old Man Emu suspension all around and stock control arms all around. At some point over the summer, my front left lower control arm deiced it no longer wanted to stay bolted to the bottom of the strut... So, right now it's only held on with one of the two flanges (see photo...). Because of this, bushings are almost totally worn out. Needs replacement. Also, it seems like it's a good idea to put special upper control arms on for the longer travel. So, it looks like I'm in the market for some new control arms...

Are there long travel lower control arms or are OEM ones fine?
What are some good long travel upper control arms?
Should I also replace ball joints at the same time?
Are special rear control arms worth it?

Thanks for your help! Man, I love this forum...

 

I'm sensing there is more to this story here. Those flanges don't spontaneously just bend, lol... What the hell did you do?!

Long travel is a whole other can of worms. It involves a LOT more than just control arms. You're looking at 5 grand, easy. You generally don't just go buy some "long travel control arms" and bolt them together. I suggest looking through the long travel section on this forum, and do a lot more reading on that before diving into something like that.

Generally speaking, OEM control arms are more than adequate. I'm not sure what you did you yours, but I can assure you that's something I've NEVER seen before. Our LCAs are not the weak point in the front suspension. You would be fine with heading to a wrecking yard and finding some used control arms, or finding someone who is making a long travel swap and buy their used ones. New OEM ones will be pretty expensive. But I would go ahead and do your BJs (upper and lower) too.

BTW, what is a rear control arm??

 

Ha! Yeah I'm not entirely sure how it happened...

So, stock lower and upper control arms are fine for 3"? What's long travel for? I guess there's more to it than I thought!

I thought there were rear control arms also, but I am mistaken.

 

I have a 3" toytec lift with stock control arms...everything would be fine they said, 3" wont screw your BJ angles they said, just stick with proven OEM parts they said...and then I blew my 1yr old upper and lower ball joints in the middle of flipping no where back country idaho...I dunno man ive been paranoid ever since, JBA upper control arms in the mail. Every wrecker, mechanic and cop ive talked to who have dealt with broken ball joints say tacomas are notorious...when lifted. Except that incident I have been good, I do frequently drive dirt/washboard and rutted out roads, but definitely not trails. Just my experience, your prob fine but if you go where wreckers cant and your not capable, buy the control arms imo.

 

Well solomotorsports sells beefy LCA at OME specs for 1150 so instead of spending 5 grand on a whole kit you can just replace that.

 

I'm surprised that shock flange failed like that, I have never seen that happen before. For replacement I would get an aftermarket stock arm or see if a local junk yard can source a used one for you. The ball joints I would always go OEM. Aftermarket ball joints or OEM's with a lot of miles are known to fail on these trucks. Here's what happens when they fail: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/lbj-failure.506985/. The OEM's are spendy compared to a cheap replacement LBJ but well worth it in my opinion. With the 3 inch lift it can be hard to get the allignement in spec on these trucks, so an aftermarket stock length UCA (upper control arm) will help with that. Camburg, Total Chaos, Icon, SPC, and Solo Motorsports all make them stock length UCA's.

 

It doesn't look like the bolt ever went through the other side of the lower tab to start with. Looks like someone either took an impact gun or hammer and just pounded the bolt in with the nut installed and bent the tab. There's no way that bolt was installed correctly and failed like that. The tab would be ripped. Also, it should go the other direction. Who installed those coilovers? Lol

The stock LCA's are plenty and strong. You could get aftermarket replacement arms since that tab is fubar, although the bushings on the aftermarket stuff seems to be hit or miss. OEM upper BJ's for sure. They're like $50.

 

Looks like that tab could be bent back and then weld a bead or two.

That’s if nothing else related to LCA needs replacing like bushings, alignment cam/bolts, lower ball joints etc...
Replacing lower control arms can be a pain.

 

Thanks for the help, everyone. I'll be getting stock or aftermarket LCAs, aftermarket UCAs, and OEM UBJs/LBJs for sure.

About that flange... I have no idea when or how it happened. Admittedly, it's my own fault for not installing the new suspension myself and not really inspecting it very well at all when it was done. Oddly enough, I didn't notice it until about a year after the suspension was installed. I was focused on other projects on the truck and just never questioned it, I guess! Then, while off-roading this past autumn it started rattling quite loudly, which prompted me to finally notice.

Anyway, I reckon that it was either like that from the old stock suspension, or I hired a real moron when the new suspension went in.

Regardless, thanks for all your help getting me sorted out!

 

Our stock tacomas have roughly 8" of wheel travel (iirc). Long travel is an entirely new suspension system, with longer control arms, new CVs (if 4wd), new coilovers, shock mounts, limit straps, fiberglass fenders, etc... to give you on the order of 14" of wheel travel. Think Baja style trophy truck. It makes the truck usually 4"+ wider (longer control arms).

Even at 3" of lift, a lot of people end up doing aftermarket upper control arms, but they aren't "long travel" arms. They are technically a little longer, but it's only enough to be able to correct a bad alignment from the new ride height. 2.5" is usually the cutoff.

There are really only a couple of manufacturers out there that make aftermarket "stock replacement" LCAs for our trucks, and they are redonk expensive.

Just find someone who did the long travel recently and has their old OEM LCAs sitting in their garage.

I'm with the others who've said that there is no way that kind of failure can happen. Whoever did the installation F'ed it up something fierce. Don't let them within 3 miles of your truck ever again. Even if it was like that from your old stock suspension, a blind guy would have seen that bent tab and said something.

 

Awesome to know! I asked that a few months ago when I bought my Total Chaos UCA’s. I figured while I was replacing my uppers I can replace my lowers as well. I’ll definitely be doing this in the future!...

 

Honestly, though, I'd spend my 1150 elsewhere. While those arms are almost certainly stronger than stock, I don't see people breaking or bending their stock ones. They don't correct for alignment issues (like uppers), and they don't afford more travel than stock. They claim more ground clearance, but I'm not sure they give $1150 worth of ground clearance, lol...

If you want more travel without going long travel, get yourself some extended travel Kings or Icons and go play.

 

Oh, it’ll be a way’s a way! I just had my TC UCA’s installed and had my buddy at the Toyota dealership in Asheville replace my lower ball joints. I have a ton of stuff at home sitting there waiting to go on. I’ll regear and lock both diffs before I do that not to mention boost.

 

I emailed them asking if they were uniball or could I use stock lower ball joints.

This was their response...

“Hey Joe,

The stock LCAs we build push the balljoint forward 1" for more clearance at the firewall and will accept either the stock ball joint or our Uniball Conversion. But, our Uniball Conversion only works on our Fabricated Spindles. It won't fit on a stock spindle. If you keep breaking balljoints, then our fabricated spindle and Uniball conversion will help with that.”

 

If you're worried about ball joints failing, just keep up on your maintenance and replace them regularly. It really seems like a lack of maintenance is what's causing most of the failures (aside from launching trucks off dunes, that is, lol...)

My truck is now an off-road play truck. About 7 years or so ago I put some Moog lowers on, and they easily lasted 6 years as a daily driver with occasional off road. WHen I took them off, they still didn't have any measurable play. Now, I've started using the nicer 555's, but because it's off-road only, and will presumably see more abuse, I plan to replace the nicer (and presumably longer lasting) BJs at even shorter intervals (4-ish years, depending), just to be on the safe side.

Now, if I start breaking the BJs, yeah, I'm going to need something stronger. However, when you add in the fact you need not only the control arms, but the spindles and the uniballs, you might as well go long travel or a solid axle, depending on the type of driving you do.

 

She’s currently my dd, I’m considering on getting a newer 4Runner and keeping her as my overlanding vehicle. The lower bj’s were on there for like 10 years so. I try to go oem when something needs replacing minus my uppers which I replaced with TC.

 

That's exactly what I did, lol. My Taco was the DD since I bought it in 2005. Then I bought a '17 4Runner. Was looking for a used one a couple years old, but they either didn't exist or were asking nearly as much as a new one.

 

I keep hearing to torque the lca after the weight is on the wheels. Now is that keep the bolts loose or snug them up then finish after the weight is on the wheels? Can someone enlighten me just replace mine Saturday.