Mk IV UCA Failure

[jakester888]

Bad news Jake---you have assembled your control arms wrong (well I assume you did them both the same anyway). The ball joints are supposed to angle outward as shown in the photo below, not in as you have it.

You'll need to disassemble, remove the ball joint and flip the ball joint plate portion over then reinstall the joint and put it all back together.

Jeff

OK - flipped and re-installed.

Photo evidence (before & after).

UCA Fix.jpg UCA Fix2.jpg

[Jeff Kleiner]

OK - flipped and re-installed.

Photo evidence (before & after).

UCA Fix.jpg UCA Fix2.jpg

You're getting closer Jake...notice that I said to flip the ball joint plate. You also did the shaft and attached pivots. Yours are now upside down; their grease fitting should point up like in your "before" photo.

Jeff

[ram_g]

You're getting closer Jake...notice that I said to flip the ball joint plate. You also did the shaft and attached pivots. Yours are now upside down; their grease fitting should point up like in your "before" photo.

Jeff

Just an interested bystander...you may be right, but why? Why does it matter which way the grease nipples point? Or is it something asymmetrical about the shaft and the grease nipples are just an indicator of which way it's installed?

[Jeff Kleiner]

Just an interested bystander...you may be right, but why? Why does it matter which way the grease nipples point? Or is it something asymmetrical about the shaft and the grease nipples are just an indicator of which way it's installed?

Ram,
Your 2008 vintage UCAs are like Jake's failed originals and have non-directional pivots however the new style from SPC that he replaced his failed ones with have an upside and a down side. The direction the grease fittings are pointing is simply the quick visual giveaway. The pivots are not symmetrical as you can see in this photo which shows them oriented incorrectly (as is the angle of the ball joint):



See how when installed this way the the links join the pivots below the cross shaft?

Here is the same front corner after the builder corrected both the direction of the ball joint plate and pivots:



The questions:
With the pivots oriented upside down is the suspension geometry significantly changed? ---Probably not. Is it how they were designed to be installed?---No. Will it make it difficult to lubricate?---Yes (and lack of pivot lubrication was what caused Jake's upper control arm problems to begin with).

Jeff