yayfortrees

Yes, I'm a newb on here. I have been reading/looking at all the posts regarding lower control arms for about 3 hours now, and I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for.

I'm finally getting around to making repairs on my old truck that has been sitting for 2 years. It was already lifted and had been ridden hard before I ever bought it. Unknown UCAs, unknown shocks, Powerbar torsion bars, and rear shackles. It might have an add a leaf, I'm not really sure.

I knew it had a bent passenger side UCA and cross shaft, so in addition to those, I am replacing all 4 ball joints, both control arms w/ new bushings, shocks, and brake calipers. (the calipers seized up from sitting so long)

First mistake: I started with the easy side, the driver's side. All of that went very well considering the tools on hand and working on the ground. Moving to the side with the known problems is proving to be more interesting.

First thing I noticed was that the passenger side suspension seemed to be locked out in full extension. The front was being supported by stands just like how everybody else does it. But when I tried to jack up the suspension, (under the lower ball joint, on the bolts sticking down) it would almost immediately lift the truck off the stand, without any compression from the suspension.

I carefully removed the shock, both ball joints and the UCA. It is still locked out, which means it's the LCA, right? Upon closer inspection, it looks like the LCA is pushed towards the front of the truck, causing it to rub on the frame support on the back. See pictures below

Here is the passenger side LCA, showing the lack of clearance at the rear mount

Here is the same spot, different angle

Here is the front mount of the same LCA

Here is the rear mount of the driver side LCA

Here is the old passenger side UCA. I would love to know how that happened!

Any advice you might have for me would be very appreciated. I am hoping I don't have to take off the LCA and deal with all of that, but I think I know better. From the sounds of it, that is not a lot of fun. I have never worked with torsion bars and I don't want to lose any fingers!

I do have a few more things that I'm uncertain of, if any body can answer them for me.

1: The mounting locations for the cross shaft on the passenger side are approximately 1/16th of an inch too close, they no longer line up perfectly with a new (straight) cross shaft. Is it time to realign that tab with a BFH?

2: What is the name of the part that bolts to the bottom of the LCA, (under the lower ball joint) and attaches under the front bumper with the two rubber bushings? I need to replace the bushings on both sides, but don't know what to look for.

3: How do I know if my truck has an added leaf spring as part of a lift? I know it has shackles, but I don't know what is stock and what's not from there.

Thank you in advance for your help. I really have been searching through previous posts, but couldn't find the right answers.

yayfortrees

Sorry everyone, this is a '90 2wd, 22RE, Manual trans., DLX extra cab. I thought that info would show under my username.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

With your UCA that bent, I would be looking at taking that to a frame shop. It takes a LOT to bend an upper arm like that.

1. see above

2. We call that a strut rod at our wrecking yard. Its also called a torque rod, and Toyota calls it a "Strut Arm". Call toyota for new bushings.

3. Stock leafs in a 1/2 ton 2WD should be 3 leaf, and an add a leaf typically goes between the upper 2 full length leafs, and the lower overload leaf, giving you 4 leafs. Some 2wd's had 4 leafs from the factory, but the upper 3 were full length and the lower overload was shorter.

yayfortrees

Thanks DeathCougar, for all the info and the super quick response! Even though that's not what I wanted to hear. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to take it to a frame shop. Just getting the parts that I have so far was a stretch, and I am broke because of it.

Thank you so much for the other info. Everytime I looked at struts for a Toyota, I knew that wasn't what my truck has. Now I know what to ask for when I'm ready to buy more parts. Thanks for letting me sound like an idiot here instead of in person!

I wasn't sure about the leaf springs. That lower overload leaf (stock) was throwing me off. I didn't know if that was an add a leaf or just what exactly, and I wasn't able to find pictures of a known stock leaf stack.

Thank you all around for your help. Today, I'm going to try lubing up the LCA and see if I can get it to start moving more freely. If I can, I'm going to have to run it as is for now, at least until I get more money to throw at this poor truck. I'm sure I'll be back when that doesn't work.

yayfortrees

Update: After finally reading enough to understand the torsion bars, I found that the passenger side T-bar was cranked down quite a bit more than the driver side. That helped things quite a bit, so I'm not going to worry about the LCA for now.

Everything is back together, and the only thing left to do is align everything. The instructions that came with the Fabtech UCA kit said to leave out the camber plates, but I can see that is not going to work. The camber is WAY off as it is right now. The short test drive really did help settle everything, it feels much better than before.

Thanks again for all the info.