Switching from two piece to one piece passenger control arm | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Switching from two piece to one piece passenger control arm

VCOSH28

Active Member
Joined
February 16, 2014
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City, State
Waterloo, WI
Year, Model & Trim Level
99 and 98 Explorer EB
My truck needs some serious suspension work. Pretty much want to do the whole front end. I found that there is a one piece option for the passenger upper control arm. Has anyone gone from two to one piece? What's the difference? Part/brand recommendations welcome. :exp:
 



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I've looked at alot of how to posts including the one you linked. I found a kit by Detroit Axel that includes control arms, ball joints, end links...I suppose people like different brands for different reasons.

My question is about changing from two piece to one piece passenger side control arm.
 












switching to the one piece passenger side UCA is no harder than replacing the driver's side UCA. what you lose is some ability to adjust camber (edit: I meant to say caster). that's the reason Ford used the 2-piece UCA to begin with. many here have reported changing over to the 1-piece passenger side UCA with no ill effects. does that answer your question?
 


















Courtesy of Carguy3J, from swshawaii's link above:

The 2 piece is the factory OEM design. You can replace just the outer "half", as this piece has the ball joint in it. The only alignment adjustment that could be affected by this is your caster, as the purpose of the 2 piece design was to allow easy caster adjustment of the passngr side, which in turn allows for adjustment of caster split.

If you are very careful in measuring the postion/number of thread turns on your old bolt, you could probably change the outer piece without needing an alignment.

On the other hand, switching to the aftermarket one-piece design will require removing your entire right upper control arm. In this case, you will need an alignment immediately after installing the part. You would also lose some of the adjustablilty that the front end had from the factory. It may or may not prevent the alignment shop from getting it "perfect". However, what you gain is new control mount bushings, and most of the aftermarket 1-piece control arms have replaceable ball joints, so that in the future you can just replace the ball joint.

My question is why you would want split caster, obviously Ford thought there was some benefit to it.

Koda2000: It allows caster adjustment, not camber.
 












Courtesy of Carguy3J, from swshawaii's link above:



My question is why you would want split caster, obviously Ford thought there was some benefit to it.

Koda2000: It allows caster adjustment, not camber.

Your are correct, caster not camber (brain fart).

To OP: I use Moog suspension parts because I think the quality is superior to pretty much all other aftermarket brands. If the parts you're looking at are what is in your budget, then that's what you should purchase. Personally I've stuck with the 2-piece passenger side control arm, as I see no downside to retaining it.
 






SWSHawaii-Good informative links.
Koda2000-Good review and testimonial.

Thanks for the input guys.

I definitely don't want to go with the cheapest. My truck is the primary kid carrying vehicle. I'll probably get new ball joints, sway bar end links and tires for now and worry about sway bar bushings, tie rod ends and shocks later. I'll post up the parts I end up getting.
 






I'd prob do the tie rods and ball joints together so you can just get an alignment once. Sway bar and shocks wont affect alignment if done later. Save like $80 doing the alignment once.
 






That's a great point. I think I will do it that way.
 






I choose to go with a 1 piece design cause my wife truck needed the cams to get hers aligned so I figured might as well spend the money for the 1 piece and cams in order to save money on paying the shop to install and the price of the part..
 






Go with one piece but don't forget to also get the replacement cam bolts so you can adjust it.

Bill
 






That's a great point. I think I will do it that way.

Heres how mine turned out this past sunday, pretty easy switch but when I get the alignment I will really know how it goes.. I did the new caster/camber bolt kit as well for both sides..:D

From this:
FullSizeRender1_zps9r4vu2ki.jpg


To this:
FullSizeRender_zpsqcwdt6bj.jpg
 






Yeah, it's 11 degrees out and my garage isn't heated. Not sure when I'll be getting to this.
 












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