poly washers on UCA bolts

[w261w261]

I just got my car back from the shop where they tore the whole front suspension apart, including the install of new adjustable mounts for the UCA's. The car drives great, but I did hit a sharp bump, and noticed a pretty loud "thwock" from the right front suspension. I thought it might be that the UCA mounting bolt was not tightened enough (40 ft-lbs), so I took off the wheel, got out the torque wrench, and proceeded to reset it. It took more than I anticipated, and when I looked closer, I saw that the two poly washers (my substitution) right inside each mounting post had deformed into cupped saucers instead of nice circles. This can't be good, I says, so I backed off on the torque.

Anyone else had a similar problem? I don't remember what is the stock situation. Steel?

Thx

[LX-incredible]

Same here with the ingalls kit. Total garbage. I decided just to get the fixed moog studs after one of the bolts stripped out.

[Oldblueaccord]

Yeah its a touchy setting. To much and the washers are mashed. You may have to replace them if there busted in 2. I kinda set mine over the course of a couple weeks a little tightening at a time.

wp

[w261w261]

Yeah its a touchy setting. To much and the washers are mashed. You may have to replace them if there busted in 2. I kinda set mine over the course of a couple weeks a little tightening at a time.

wp

If you didn't use a torque setting, how did you know when it was tight enough? When it didn't crash on a bump?

[Oldblueaccord]

Pretty much. My set up is a little differant since I use solid bushings but I just gave it enough not to rattle around and then maybe a little more. The arm has to be able to move up and down and the bolts thru the body need to line up correctly as well. I am using lock nuts and lock tight as well JIC. The bolt is captured up in there it cant back out to far.


wp

[carotman]

I noticed the same thing with my ingalls kit. It seems I also get a small "thunk" comming from the right side UCA

[w261w261]

I backed the nut off so that the poly washers are only mildly dished, and went out looking for something to hit (but not too hard). The problem seems to be ok now. If you're getting a thunk from up there, maybe tighten the nut a revolution and see if that does it.

[DBMaster]

That was why I ended up ditching the Ingalls kit on mine as well. Near the end I tried some harder, thicker plastic washers and they were better, but still not as sturdy as the OEM setup. I don't even have my car lowered. I was just trying to get better life out of my tires by getting rid of the negative camber on one side. I guess it wasn't worth the racket.