Camburg Upper A-Arm Install question.

[auslandt]

I got, and installed, Camburg upper A-Arms. However, there were no instructions. Now my passenger side upper ball joint (the new one) is grinding like crazy. Were these ball joints supposed to have some grease put on them during thier installation?

Has anyone encountered this? Do I need to get these replaced?

- Matt

[auslandt]

I called Camburg and they said I should use Urethane Grease on the posts during assembly. I didn't do that, so I'll give that a try.

[daewoo]

how was the install?

Was it terribly difficult? are you used to working on your truck or are u a novice?

I am waiting for my set to come now. I am still debating doing it myself but would love to hear about ur experience.

thanks

[auslandt]

Originally Posted by daewoo

how was the install?

Was it terribly difficult? are you used to working on your truck or are u a novice?

I am waiting for my set to come now. I am still debating doing it myself but would love to hear about ur experience.

thanks

Here we go!

This was the first project on my Tundra. I have worked on other cars, but not quite to this level of modification. My exp has been brakes, clutches, AC, etc but all generally upgraded replacements to factory parts. Nothing that really changes angles, height, fit, etc.

I had read up on doing this for over a year. It sounded pretty easy. I was smart and asked 2 friends that have lifted (ROCK CRAWLING STYLE) their Jeep and Bronco. So I thought I was in good hands. They were good enough to let me do the work while they sat and drank beer (Except for the 2% issue you are about to read about). And if you think I am sarcastic about them letting me do the work, you are mistaken. I now know the suspension inside and out. I would not be so savy if they helped much more.

Now. Actually 98% of the lifting was very easy (Sway-A-Way Coilovers, Camburg UCA, Deaver 3 leaf AAL). But that last 2% was 70% of the install time. This was pressing out the old ball joints and pressing in the new ones into the spindle. I had even rented a ball joint press, which without, I doubt we would have gotten the UCAs in. The main problem here was that I didn't want to disconnect the brake lines, remove the spindle, etc to have lots of room to work. The ball joint press was also very bulky and didn't come with the best pieces to press out the Tundras ball joints. After many bruised knuckles and about 3 hours of ingenuity and play, we got one side out. Once we got the "how to do it with what we got" down, the other side took about 10 min.

If I had the "how to do it" known right away, I think I could have replaced both UCAs in about 1 hr. It is a very simple and straight forward process. Just those dang ball joints.

So in actuality, it's not too bad. I would say you absolutely need a ball joint press and at least one friend.. You can rent them for free (ball joint press, not friends) from Autozone (acutally you pay, but they refund you 100% when you bring it back).

If you want to tackle it yourself, here are the pointers I have for you.

1. Get a ball joint press
2. UCA ball joint bolt size was 15/16" (not sure if it was supposed to be SAE, I didn't have metric big enough to use), You need 2 wrenches/sockets (one top one bottom).
3. Bottom shock bolt is 19mm, (need 2 wrenches/sockets)
4. Top shock bolts are 14mm
5. UCA Mounting bolt (the one that's like 2 feet long) is 17mm I believe (you need 2)
6. To remove the various mounting pieces on the factory UCA, you need either 10mm or 12mm wrench, I don't remember which one finally worked.
7. Get some zip ties. This is to put the two mounting brackets that screwed into the factory UCAs back on the Camburg UCAs. Or at least find some other means to hold those down.
8. Get a friend (this is needed to help hold, stabalize, and turn the ball joint press)
9. Removing the coilovers was absolutely necessary to be able to use the ball joint press without removing the brake lines or spindles. Luckily, I was also replacing the coilovers so this wasn't an issue. But even if I wasn't, removing the coilovers is a breeze, 3 top bolts, one bottom bolt, and out it comes. If things don't align, you can use a jack under the lower control arm to push up, or the tundras bottle jack inverted in the wheel well to push on the upper ball joint to make it move down. Rubber mallet helps too.
10. Grease the UCA zerks before installing them (I ran out of grease so had to install them and grease later.
11. *IF* you don't do #3, be sure to have a 90Degree Grease gun fitting. This makes greasing those awkwardly placed zerks easy. Without it, it's almost impossible.
12. Get a BIG washer (flat piece of metal with a hole). The hole needs to be big just enough to fit over the factory upper ball joint bolt and the washer size needs to be big enough to cover the ball joint. It is this washer that the ball joint press can push on. The factory ball joints are very awkward to fit a press or puller. When you get the Factory arm off, you will see the factory ball joint bolt. There is a piece of metal that looks, for lack of a better word, like a tiny metal mini skirt. Your washer doesn't need to be big enough to fit over this skirt since it is just a sleeve. You can tap it and it will fall down into the ball joint. 45min of our time was we didn't have a washer that would fit over this hat, so we tired other things, finally we said F it and put it on there and it just poped right down. Very annoying to have wasted so much time.
13. Grease up the inner hole of the new ball joint and the post surfaces of the upper and lower mounting pieces with the white tube of Urethane grease provided. My UCAs didn't come with instructions and my friends were knowledgeable. We used that grease on the metal sleeves used inside the chambers where the zerk fittings are. They didn't enlighten me (nor did I know) to also grease up the ball joints during assembly. My Tundra had an AWFUL squeaking/grinding sound. I just yesterday took it to Toyota cause I thought the lower joint was bad, they informed me it was indeed the upper. I orderd some Formula 5 Prelube (Urethane grease) from JAG and will do this later. Last night I took it apart and temporarly greased it with high temp bearing grease. The noise has gone away.
14. C-clip removal/reinstallation should be very delicate if you don't have spares. You can't just pull these off. You need to use a couple of screwdrivers to get one tip pulled out a bit and lifted over the lip. Then use the two screwdrivers to jimmy the rest of the C-clip over the lip. This is similiar to removing and installing a tire from a wheel. Don't try to pop these off like you would an E-clip.

This might sound like a lot, but its just very verbose and concise on all the little things that will help you along the way. As for doing it yourself or take it somewhere, it comes down to your willingness to tackle the ball joint pressing.

I don't know how hard it is to remove the spindles if you want to just take that bit to a shop to have the ball joints pressed out and in. It can be done on the truck with patience. But you can't take the truck to a shop once you've taken it apart. Plus the shop might not do it while its on the truck. They might want to remove the spindle to do it anyway.

Good luck!

[auslandt]

Oh... for the coilovers. Those were cake. The biggest thing I can say is get a strut spring compressor and a can of WD-40. Compress the springs and lube the collar threads when adjusting the coilovers. The first install, we didn't and we (three of us) could barely get 2" of thread showing. Since then, I alone have adjusted my coilovers 3-4 times all by my self. Remove, compress, lube, adjust, compress, adjust, compress, adjust, tighten hex nut to hold collar, uncompress reinstall. I can do this from start (truck in driveway, not even jacked up) to finish (truck back and everything cleaned up) in less than 2 hrs.

My coilovers now have settled and the last adjustment is 4" thread showing on passenger side, and 4 1/4" on the drivers side. This gives me about 2.5" of lift. (38" from ground to fender well while running 285s).

[Tundra168]

You should pay $14 for ORW for Total Chaos ball joint press kit. I took mine our in 13 mintues. Sorry to heard that you spend three hours.

[auslandt]

Originally Posted by Tundra168

You should pay $14 for ORW for Total Chaos ball joint press kit. I took mine our in 13 mintues. Sorry to heard that you spend three hours.

LINK LINK LINK LINK?????

[daewoo]

Originally Posted by auslandt

Oh... for the coilovers. Those were cake. The biggest thing I can say is get a strut spring compressor and a can of WD-40. Compress the springs and lube the collar threads when adjusting the coilovers. The first install, we didn't and we (three of us) could barely get 2" of thread showing. Since then, I alone have adjusted my coilovers 3-4 times all by my self. Remove, compress, lube, adjust, compress, adjust, compress, adjust, tighten hex nut to hold collar, uncompress reinstall. I can do this from start (truck in driveway, not even jacked up) to finish (truck back and everything cleaned up) in less than 2 hrs.

My coilovers now have settled and the last adjustment is 4" thread showing on passenger side, and 4 1/4" on the drivers side. This gives me about 2.5" of lift. (38" from ground to fender well while running 285s).

auslandt -- thanks for the detailed write up. I may give it a try.

I think this is the kit Tundra 168 is referring to:
http://www.offroadwarehouse.com/Store_ViewProdDetail.asp!ProdID!12523

[chuck U. Farlie]

Originally Posted by auslandt

I called Camburg and they said I should use Urethane Grease on the posts during assembly. I didn't do that, so I'll give that a try.

Greetings,

I am new to this site as well as a new Tundra owner (well kind of). I purchased a used 2001 extra cab 4x4 V8 with 43,000 miles. Modifications have proceeded as follows:

1. 2.5" King coilover lift kit. Once installed the front of my truck was leveled with the rear.

2. 285 BFG A/Ts. I did encounter rubbing against the plastic wheel well cover, which went away after some trimming.

3. Glass Works fenders. These will not been installed until after they are painted.

4. Camburg uca. These were installed by a local shop.

When I picked up my truck and began to drive away I quickly noticed a sort of grinding noise which appears to be coming from the front too ! I put it in reverse and spoke to the person that installed them and he assured me that every thing was tightened, alined, and that they used the lube that came in the kit that I gave them.

As soon as I got home I came straight to this site and found that some people had sprayed WD-40 on the ball joints, so I tried this and it did tone down the apparent grinding a little (which mainly happens when I am accelerating from a dead stop). The installer told me that he did notice that grease seemed to be spraying out of both plastic boots ! I beleive I saw something regarding this problem on this site and switching to a 930 cv boot?

I was wondering if you were ever able to resolve this issue. And if so, "How" or "What" did you use or do? Any advice or guideance will be greatly appreciated .

Thank you,

[auslandt]

I havn't encounted the grease coming out the CV Boot. But I remember reading up around here that you can 1) get a drop diff to help with the angle, and/or 2) use a good screw type hose clamp to clamp down the CV boots TIGHTLY instead of the crappy factory clip type.

[mattjensen]

u can switch to a 930 boot, and the total chaos diff drop spacers, will solve the problem.

[chuck U. Farlie]

Well thanks for the replys. Last night I did come across the thread that recommends upgrading the inner CV boots with a 911/ 930 boot from Kar Tek. Their shop is awesome, a lot of inventory !!! The tech there was great and very informative (just like this site).

I also picked up the diff. drop kit and will hopefully install everything this weekend. As for the grinding noise I sprayed some more WD40 before my ride out to Kar Tek. The grinding was still pretty loud but on the way back home it seemed to really tone down.

I spoke to Scott at Camburg and he did say that the uniballs will take some time to brake in, and that I should just make sure to keep spaying them and they will brake in. BTW the tech at Kar Tek also told me the same thing. So I will continue to spay them and report back.

Thanks to every one of you guys on this forum for all your help, suggestions, and solutions.

[fbazzo]

I had the same problem and was told to use chain lube because it'll last longer than WD40. Even with WD40 you only have to lube it about every 3 months. I also had a problem with the bolt that holds the Camburg arms to the frame of the truck. My A-Arms were loose after about 5000 miles and were rattling around. Camburg told me that some Tundras came with a bolt that isn't threaded very far and when you tighten the nut it bottoms out. Mine were fine until the rubber on the A-Arms wore in a little bit. They told me to take off the nut and put a couple of grade 8 washers in each side and tighten them back up. This worked and now everything is nice and quiet up front.

[4cloud9]

Originally Posted by fbazzo

I had the same problem and was told to use chain lube because it'll last longer than WD40. Even with WD40 you only have to lube it about every 3 months. I also had a problem with the bolt that holds the Camburg arms to the frame of the truck. My A-Arms were loose after about 5000 miles and were rattling around. Camburg told me that some Tundras came with a bolt that isn't threaded very far and when you tighten the nut it bottoms out. Mine were fine until the rubber on the A-Arms wore in a little bit. They told me to take off the nut and put a couple of grade 8 washers in each side and tighten them back up. This worked and now everything is nice and quiet up front.

It might last longer but both products leave an oily residue that will attract dirt and dust which can be harmfull to the uni-ball. Try a Dry-Lube that leave no residue, it last pretty long and will not attract dirt. I get mine from Homedepot for $5.00. You can find it near the WD-40.It is also next to the white lithium grease(that you should use on the poly-bushings).

Dry-Lube
Dry-Lube
Mine has PTFE instead of Cerflon.

[DevinSixtySeven]

good post...im surprised you guys were using wd40. good to know there's an alternative that's easy to get.

the grinding some of you have mentioned...is it a metal on metal grinding, or a loud scrunching squeak like someone rubbing their fingers on a massive wet balloon? if the latter, put some grease between the washers and the poly bushings...really gunk it in there. if you can, use the teflon stuff. you can either order it online in grease gun tubes or you can find it in small quantities at high-end bicycle shops (not department/sporting goods places). it will last longer than most "normal" greases, the suspension will ride smoother, and it wont squeak.

-s