Ironman UCA Install Questions

I went ahead and ordered a set of Ironman UCAs to get my caster in spec.

For those of you that have installed them, I have a couple of questions

1. Did you need to enlarge the abs bracket hole to fit Ironmans bolt?

2.Did you have to bend the abs bracket to fit over the control arm?

Neither is a big deal but I want to see if I need to get a step bit before I start the install. Only vid I saw was installing them on a GX460 where both of these things needed to happen.

 

1) i didn’t have to

2) yup, it bent by itself when I tightened down the bolt

 

Thanks @Dabigono. If you get a chance, could you post a picture of the bent bracket?

 

Thanks @grizzlypath. Looks like you barely had to bend it at all to get it to fit

 

Yeah it's very slight. Could trim it to fit better, but leaving it bent I could easily slap it back on the OEM UCA if I wanted.

 

My two cents: One of my bracket screws (passenger side) did not seat into the UCA well so I couldn't get it tightened down all the way. Probably an error on my part of cross threading it. I just left it halfway in as tight as it would go. I'm sure I could easily fix it since it's so accessible, but I just haven't bothered. I also struggled with one of the bolts on the rear sway bar. It never would go back in. I ended up just reinstalling the top bolt and letting the tab on the bracket rest in the rear axel. No issues so far. Also, those bushings and washers on the back shocks can be a pain. One side of mine is missing one washer because by the time I got to that point in the install "good enough" had to do.

*Edit* I see that you're probably just installing the UCAs. IDK if you have the foam cell suspension, but I'll leave this here in case anyone else has the same issues in the future.

 

I am thinking about trimming it or adding a 1/4" nylon washer (like a tv mounting spacer) to take up the space where it makes the bend, if it allows me to fit it without bending too much. This would be for the same reason as you mention, to be able to easily put it back to stock if I need to.

 

If you cross threaded it, you may need to clean it with a tap or a bolt with cuts in it perpendicular to the threads (aka cleaning tap). That or back it out and use washers on top of the bolt to allow you to snug down the bracket. The loose steel bracket will chew up the aluminum lca over time if left to bounce around while driving

Regarding the rear, if you disconnect the swaybar at the endlinks (front of wheelwells), it should allow you to get the bolt in. Just loosen the other 3 swaybar bracket bolts to get the wiggle room to get the last bolt threaded.

 

Sorry for the delay…. But here is a different angle that might give you a better idea of how much it bent

 

Thanks @Dabigono. That is barely anything. The ironman video on the GX460 made it look like it needed to be bent 45 degrees or more.

 

Just installed the ironman UCAs today. To answer my own questions above

1. Yes, you have to bend the abs bracket just a little (as others have mentioned

2. Yes, I had to drill out the hole on the ABS bracket to get ironmans bolt to fit thru it. Used a step bit and it only took a few seconds.

Couple of other points to male the install go easier

1. Remove the bolt on the bracket that holds the AC lines to the fender wall in the engine bay. This allowed me to move the AC lines away to get the passenger thru bolt out. BTW- the thru bolt snags on 2 spots on the AC lines. Wasn't too difficult with this bolt removed.

2. Go ahead and remove the sway bar link at the steering knuckle. This allows you to get a socket and breaker bar on the upper ball joint nut to remove it. It also allows to to get a torque wrench on the ball joint to reinstall.

3. Remove the bolt for the ABS bracket on top of the upper strut mount. Removing all 3 bolts will let you reposition the abs sensor wire behind the stock UCA so when it springs up, it doesn't snag the wire.

4. Remove the bolt that holds the abs line to the frame and move it back so you can get a socket on the nut on the thru bolt

5. The ball joint in the ironman UCAs were very tight. I used a breaker bar with a 19mm socket on it to add leverage to pivot it to get the angle right so it fit in the steering knuckle while it was at full droop ( if this doesn't make sense let me know).

6. Don't tightened the UCA thru bolt until the wheels are on and the vehicle is on the ground. Bushings are rubber so it should be tightened at rude height (other UCAs with spherical bearings etc... are different). I got these as tight as I could with a 19mm combination wrench as the torque wrench didn't have enough room. Will torque to spec the next time I have the wheels off.

Good luck. Install was really easy.

 

Post some pics of your ride…

 

@Dabigono - here you go. Sorry for the bad quality. Will take some better pics when I have some time

For those of you wondering, lift is as follows:

Front -Bilstein 5100 set at 1.85" with cornfed .25" spacer on drivers side and ironman UCAs
Rear - Bilstein 5100 with Bilstein 1" springs and 10mm OME poly spacer on drivers side.

 

@TrueTexas let us know how the alignment specs work out. I have a very similar setup and have contemplated the same UCA’s.

 

@Ripmo Absolutely, my appt is scheduled for next Monday (no time this week) so I will let you know as soon as I get it done.

 

@Ripmo Alignment was completed today.

I got 3.4 degrees on the Drivers and 3.8 on the passenger side. This is after the camber was set and was limited by the passenger side (rear cam is all the way out. Could have gotten more out of the drivers side but wanted a little less caster than passenger side to accomodate for road crown.

Note that I have front bilsteins set to 1.85 with a .25 spacer on the Drivers side and rear 1" springs with a 10mm spacer on the Drivers side. Based on my measurements, I got 2" lift in the rear total. Lifting the rear will reduce caster a bit.

Noticed the steering wheel is a tiny bit off to the right. Gonna have them adjust that but that should only be a toe adjustment and not change caster or camber.