Shop Flattened My Cam Tabs :/

Welp. I successfully installed a lift on my own after watching many install videos. All great right? Well I took my 4Runner to a recommended local shop to have it aligned. They used an impact gun to loosen and tighten the cam alignment bolts. Welp long story short, the bolts always turned right before it locked into place which resulted in flattening my cam tabs. The shop tried to charge me additional labor/parts to fix the issue they caused.. and told me to take it somewhere else whenever I asked them to cover new bolts etc because of possible damages they could’ve caused. So basically first shop said but I guess at least I didn’t have to pay them to mess up my s***.

I know TC makes replacement cam tabs for LCAs but is that my only option? These seems like a crazy expensive fix for something that should’ve been so simple. My passenger side F/R are bent/flattened in two places. I don’t do any rock crawling, mainly onroad/driving a few bumpy trails here and there to get to camp sites/BLM camping.

 

currently just sitting in the garage to avoid eating at my tires as steering wheel and alignment is off (was hoping to wait until these were worn to upgrade to 275s/285s :/ ).

 

Yikes! They should be paying to fix that. BBB report time. If that doesn’t work I think All-Pro makes new tabs or tab gussets too. Get a kit, find a buddy that can weld and DIY it. You could also in the interim take a punch the width of those tabs and tap them as straight as you can get them. As long as they are up against the cams and they can’t move around (variable alignment lol) you *should be ok to drive it.

 

I should have added: don’t panic about that. If it will align and remain aligned, no worries. I took out a big hog and bent that part of the frame on a Tacoma to include the tabs, cam bolt and everything. I bent it back primarily with a 5 lb sledge, drifted the tabs as straight as I could. Once I could get the new LCA in place and put the cam bolt through everything was fine. Aligned right and stayed there, drove great with no issues. No se alarmé.

 

for the most part, If all I do is on road/occasional trails for BLM camping etc I should be fine without a weld?

 

The quick/cheap fix is to just bend them back into place, clean a bit of the powder coat off, then lay a weld bead behind the tabs.

I wouldn't consider it urgent... but sooner or later I'd want to address them. You could always mark the current cam positions with a paint pen or something, so you can monitor if they've moved or not. (or at least know an approximation of where to set them back to later on).

 

It’s honestly not a big deal. Most of us have had flattened cam tabs at some point. Like above straighten them out put a bead behind them and done or upgrade to a beefier one. Toyota always has and always will make those super easy to bed for reasons un known. Get it aligned and enjoy the ride.

 

https://youtu.be/JkmAwQtxXf8
They talk about those tabs in this video

 

Aligning tabs needed for adjusting those cam bolts precisely while it is loosened, I thought. I suppose you can ball park it and tighten and get decent results but I can't see it being accurate. Can new tabs be welded on?

 

https://www.chaosfab.com/product/20...-Lower-Control-Arm-Cam-Tab-Gussets-59860-10FJ

 

Firestone flattened one of mine. I bent it back and had someone lay a weld bead against it and it has held up fine.

 

Gonna have to go look at mine now. Didn’t know this was a thing to be worried about. I looked at those replacement tabs, I would think they have to be taller to prevent what happened in the pics. Otherwise, if they tighten them with the cams improperly positioned over the tabs, the cams themselves will bend regardless.

 

I think chaos fab tabs weld on.