SPC adjustable UCA quality questions

Ive read on here about people having quality issues with SPC adjustable upper control arms. Is it still a problem, or is it something that was addressed? Im curious because the price is so much lower on these arms compared to others. Anyone that has them, could you tell me your experience with them.

$696 SPC Specialty Products 25470 Upper Control Arm for Toyota Tacoma - Pair

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001DC1U4O?pc_redir=T1&psc=1&redirect=true

 

In the beginning they had problems with the bushings. Now they have a new style and seems to work. I had them for about a year. No issues and help out a lot on my alignment. I've noticed they have the new ball joints with the zerk fittings. One thing most do wrong when installing them is torquing the bolt while the truck is on lift / jack stands.

 

Are you supposed to re-torque to 150 ft/lbs after you drop it down from the lift?

 

The only quality issues were the initial bushing style (bonded rubber like the LCA bushing), but now with the full floating sleeve non bonded rubber bushings, there are no issues. I have had mine on for some time without issue.

Also because the inner sleeve of the bushings are not bonded to the rubber, you can torque the UCA to frame bolt at any position of the uca. And the big ball joint can be tightened regardless of location as well.

The LCA bushings, and lower shock bushing should ALWAYS be tightened at ride height and not full droop unless you wanna rip your bushings.


My recommendations when installing the SPC UCA. Slide the ball joint ALLLL the way out to the most outboard setting of the slot, then have your alignment guy do your alignment. If you cant get slightly negative camber (-0.2 to - 0.4* of camber) with the caster you want (2.5-3.5*) then and only then move the ball inward on the slot. This way, if you take a big enough hit to move the ball you know where it goes back to (all the way out). or if you need to dis-assemble the upper ball joint, you know where to put it back together.

 

Instructions say to torque only when lowered and it has the weight of the truck. Not sure if that has changed.

 

Not necessary with latest style of bushings. They might be referencing lower shock bolt and or lower control arm however.

 

Correct new installation instructions mention this as well - LINK

EDIT - and I have had good luck with these UCAs - no issues, clunks, squeaks so far.

 

Thanks for the responses. Glad to hear good things about them. So whats the deal with them being way less money than other ucas?

 

So, pull ball joint all the way outward, tighten to 150 ft/lb while truck is in the air. After putting the wheel on and lowering truck, re-tighten to 150 ft/lbs?

 

I have a kind of long question that hopefully someone can answer. I installed the lr uca's back in June and have only put 5 to 7 thousand miles on them . They have the new style greaseable ball joints. I went for my safety inspection today and they failed it for horizontal movement in both ball joints. I contacted m spc by email and was told to lift my truck and try moving side to side by pushing and pulling the bottom of tires , it didn't move with is good . But the control arm does move slightly up and down when I apply pressure by hand. What the email said wasn't clear on if that is normal or not and they're offices are closed so I can't get a response from them any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Not normal. If they have movement the balljoints are bad. Are they not making noise when you hit bumps and stuff?

 

I thought so thank you . That's the weird thing there's no noises when I hit bumps or anything. Hopefully I can reach someone at spc tomorrow and get new ones sent out

 

I have about 80k on the non greasable joints and now about 10k on the greasable. I will get mine up on the lift after new years and see if mine have any play. Let us know what SPC says when they get back to you.

 

Did you make sure that they are moving at the bj and not at the frame mount? I have seen them get loose at the mount but then they usually clunk/squeek.

 

I will post and let you know what they say , hopefully they're in tomorrow with the holiday this weekend. Yea It's moving at the balljoints

 

The only problem I have had with mine is horrible squeaking. The design almost guarantees they will squeak at some point because the poly is bound against the end washers when the bolt is torqued. SPC warranteed mine out at about 9 months. I modified my new set to eliminate that poly on metal binding before installing them to prevent that problem in the future.

 

Ive got a year and a half on mine with no issues.

 

What did you do to them? I have 90k on them and my bushings are in great shape. I pulled them at 80k and checked them for wear or play and the looked almost new. But i may have just got lucky, so having some ideas on how to fix them in the future would be nice.

Now i have had COs that squeeked bad, that i thought were the UCAs at the time, but found that was not the case after swapping them out.

 

I think I've had mine for ~9 months or so and haven't heard any noises from them. I haven't really messed with them after I set them where I wanted. I think I'd swap them out for a uniball if they were to give out that fast.

 

I just got off the phone with spc engineering dept. The greasable style joints are designed with a anti wear spring on top , so a little up and down movement is allowed. They sent me a pdf file with a diagram and instructions on how to inspect them. So I'm gonna head back to the shop that did my inspection today