Making upper control arm tight enough

[Robert_P]

Working on replacing the driver side UCA on a 99 Explorer - are shims needed to make sure it's tight enough to prevent the bushing case/shells from shifting? As far as I can tell up and down movement of the arm should be from stretch of the bushing material, the outer case shouldn't move. The stock UCA didn't have shims, the replacement is the same width but I'm having issues making it tight enough to keep the bushing shells from moving.

Thanks for all input.

 

[XLTrunner]

What brand are you using? I had the opposite problem this past Spring when I did mine. Bought Moog Problem Solver and it was too tight. Absolutely wasn't going into place. Since I had bought it at Rockauto and returning it and waiting for a replacement wasn't in my time table, I had to break out my disk sander and shave a little metal off each bushing end of the UCA.

I know this doesn't answer your question...but, you might consider returning it and trying another one; or, another brand.

 

[intelisevil]

It sounds like your parts might have been assembled too tightly with the bushings incorrectly installed.

I also went with Moog parts. 4 years ago on my XLT and this Summer on my Mounty. I didn't have to shave any metal off, but in both cases I had to use a hammer and a pry bar to "coax" them into position so I could get the cam bolts in.

Once they were in place the cam bolts were able to move them around to their final resting places. The shop where I had them aligned had no complaints about the control arms being too tight.

Good Luck,

 

[Robert_P]

What brand are you using? I had the opposite problem this past Spring when I did mine. Bought Moog Problem Solver and it was too tight. Absolutely wasn't going into place. Since I had bought it at Rockauto and returning it and waiting for a replacement wasn't in my time table, I had to break out my disk sander and shave a little metal off each bushing end of the UCA.

I know this doesn't answer your question...but, you might consider returning it and trying another one; or, another brand.

As it turns out the "try another one" part basically does answer it.

When I got this car the guy had included 2 new uca's. After wrestling with the first one I took a look at the second arm and realized that even though the size and shape of the control arms are the same there's a big difference in how the bushing casings are shaped. The first one I was having problems with has curved shaped ends that were a looser fit in the bracket and the second has flat bushing case ends and are a much closer match to the old one and fits squarely inside the bracket, just snug enough that it needed a little working to get it in.

I also did a thorough cleaning with brake cleaner and paper towels to get all grease and dirt out of the contact area for the busing cases. I'm pretty confident this will fix the issue.