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Upper Control Arms- Ebay

Discussion in 'General Tundra Discussion' started by Jeffro22, Aug 25, 2020.

  1. Aug 25, 2020 at 6:06 AM
    #1
    Jeffro22

    Jeffro22 [OP] New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2019
    Member:
    #32294
    Messages:
    309
    Vehicle:
    2013 platinum crewmax 4x4
    Last year I bought upper control arms off ebay. They were a tubular design with "Stainless steel" Uniballs.

    I already know, so please spare all the comments about you get what you pay for , etc . Lesson learned. I Wanted to share this in case it helps someone else. Looking back I would have gladly paid more for a quality name brand arm that didnt have issues.

    I had researched a little bit prior to my purchase and found alot of guys had had good success with this same style UCA on the 4runners so I thought i would take a chance.

    they installed ok and for the first 1000 miles or so seemed fine. Then I started hearing an annoying pop from the front end. I spent numerous hours checking bolts, bushings, etc in the front end but was never able to figure out where the noise was coming from.

    it seemed to be more noticeable when it was hot outside and almost went away with colder weather. I had greased and retourqed UCAs all hardware and didnt see anything that looked noticeably bad. I have a high mileage tundra and assumed I had a bad lower balljoint or LCA bushing making the noise.

    After a few months I noticed my uniballs had started to look pretty rusty but the uniballs themselves still seemed really tight.

    I did go ahead and replace the misalignments and hardware with a set from dirtking fabrication, as I felt more comfortable with their quality then the unknown from ebay.

    fast forward to this year, I developed a a weird alignment issue and my steering wheel suddenly was off center. I found that the poly bushing on my passenger side UCA was completely destroyed and allowing the UCA to wobble/move

    It seems the bushings are not something local stores stock so I was without a drivable truck for about a week while i waited for parts to arrive. I decided to go ahead and do a rebuild on the arms since i had to remove them to replace bushings. Polybushing Part # 60684

    After alot of help from Member SoutWestGA, I ordered a new total chaos busing kit and ordered new bushing sleeves from Dirtking. I also went ahead and ordered (2) new Wssx16t SS FK uniballs and new snap rings.

    The original uniballs were installed dry and had seized into the cups. I was able to use a 36mm socket and a 2" pipe coupler to try and press out the old uniballs. It still took an extreme amount of effort with a 20 tons shop press to get them out. It even bent the flat metal under the press before the uniballs finally broke free


    After comparing the new bushing sleeves to the old ones it appears the original bushing sleeves are out of spec, which I think caused the bushing failure. The original bushing sleeves were too long and also had too large ID. This allowed the large through bolt to wiggle/move inside the sleeve. It also prevented the proper torque/pressure to be applied to the bushings. Basically, when tightening the large nut/bolt the washers were bottoming out on the metal sleeves before getting and pressure on the poly bushings. I believe this along with the slop inside the sleeves allowed the arm to move/flew which in turn ripped/destroyed the bushings.

    I think if the sleeves had been correct the bushings that came with the arms would have been fine.

    So pretty much these arms need a full rebuild-

    bushing kit and sleeves - Sku: DK-815947 $70
    Misalignment hardware - Sku: DK-815925 $114
    2 Uniballs & 2 snap rings Sku: DK-300946 $115

    BTW, The guys at dirtking were extremely helpful

    SO add that cost to the original $300 purchase price and i have about $650 in these arms and a BUNCH of aggravation. I wish I would have bought a name brand from the beginning.

    As of now they seem to be working as they should. Hoping that I wont have to touch them for a long time. Hope this helps anyone else that might run into this issue. I would highly recommend buying name brand UCAs from one of the vendors here. As you can imagine the support for the ebay arms is nonexistent.

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    Last edited: Aug 25, 2020
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    #1
    Black Wolf likes this.
  2. Aug 25, 2020 at 6:21 AM
    #2
    CaptainGrumpus

    CaptainGrumpus The Mailman

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2020
    Member:
    #43588
    Messages:
    1,175
    Gender:
    Male
    First Name:
    Matt
    Maine
    Vehicle:
    2018 Inferno Tundra TRD
    Thank you for the breakdown on your issues. eBay parts can be really hot of miss. Even small parts can be problematic. The old adage of “Buy Once, Cry Once” rings thru for pretty much all automotive parts.
     
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    #2

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