Help flipping ucas!

[AGENT SMITH]

So I'm in the middle of my lift and I flipped my ucas without much of an issue until I went to put them back together. For some reason, I cannot get the bolt back through where it connects to the ball joint. When I look through the hole I can see just a small part of the ball joint pin that is preventing the bolt from passing through. The arm connection needs to go down on the pin just a teeny bit more, but I can't get it to budge down any more. Anybody else have this issue when flipping theirs? Please help me out here.

[The Roadie]

Pry the slot a bit more open with a chisel or huge screwdriver. Or use small hammers and backing blocks with a bit of cleverness.

[JoeyV]

I just flipped and reversed new UCAs and changed the upper balljoints when I did my build, which I have yet to post. I did have a problem with one side where the bj boot kept pushing the UCA up out of alignment with the bolt slot on the upper bj. I used a chisel on the UCA, as Roadie mentioned, and had to put downward force on the UCA as well. It went down further but was still slightly higher than the slot and I was unable to force it down any further. What I did was maintained downward force on the UCA and tapped the head of the bj retaining bolt with a rubber mallet until it was all the way through. A second pair of hands is always helpful, but the job can be done with a single set and some ingenuity.

[AGENT SMITH]

Trust me, we used plenty of ingenuity and still couldn't get the hole on the u uca to line up perfectly with the bj pin groove. Used the chisel in the slot and squeezed and hammered the two together in every way I could. Even used a c clamp to try and close the 16th of travel that I still need and couldn't get it to budge.

[AGENT SMITH]

One thing we did notice when looking at the uca was that there is actually a bit more steel thickness above the retaining bolt hole than below it on a normally oriented uca. So when flipped, that extra 16th is now on the bottom. That may be what's causing the retaining bracket to be off of the bj pin by the same amount and not allowing the bolt to freely pass through. So the hole in the retaining bracket not being dead center vertically was the only explanation we could come up with. If all that makes sense to anybody.

[Norcrosski]

I have had the same issue but my resolution is put UCA on ball joint and then bolt UCA to frame works the best so far

[The Roadie]

Or just run a drill through there to open up the bolt hole.

[v7guy]

Did you try lifting it all higher from the lower control arm and then pushing it down?
I've found occasionally the angle it's all at makes a big difference.

[TBYODA]

I found lifting the LCA like Jason said make it's easy to get the angle right that and bunch of pb blast

[ErikSS]

You said you're bolt hole is uneven causing you to need the control arm to come lower for the bolt to pass. Bills advice of opening the slot should have worked. You said you've opened the slot. It seems it must be bottoming out, or you need to clean the ball joint shaft.

[AGENT SMITH]

Yeah we did lift the whole assembly and that did help up to a point. It seriously seems like it's seated as far as it will go down at exactly the same point on both sides. I'll try messing with it some more, but we had already thought of just drilling through it as a last resort like you mentioned Roadie.

[The Roadie]

Could be just a tolerance issue of that specific brand UCA with its tolerances, combined with that particular brand of ball joint and its tolerances, not cooperating on the flip. Interesting nobody ever posted getting bit before, but I wouldn't read too much into it. It's not like the designers ever thought we'd be doing this sort of stuff.

[JoeyV]

Did you happen to also replace the balljoints while doing the lift? The reason I ask is that the new bjs come with a bolt that is threaded all the way to the end of the bolt, while the OEM bolts have a narrower hex head at the end. (See my comparison pic below). Due to the narrow end, the OEM bolt acts as guide and can help realign the UCA's bolt hole with the bj's bolt slot, whereas the Moog (or whatever aftermarket brand) bolt tends to just bind up if the two are slightly misaligned. The remedy I used was to tap the OEM bolt through to seat the UCA and bj. Then, I knocked the Moog bolt through on the opposite end, which allowed me to use the new bolt while forcing the OEM bolt back out.

As Andrew mentioned, unbolting the UCAs from the frame could give the UCAs some more freedom. Also some white lithium grease or other lubricant on the clean bj shaft should help to alleviate any binding issues of it being at a slightly different angle than the UCA when trying to mate them.

[AGENT SMITH]

Hey, I finally got it! I used a combination of all the things I had tried separately plus what you guys had suggested. Wasn't perfect, but got it to move enough to wiggle and tap the retaining bolt through. What I did was clean up the bj pins really well, then placed the uca on. I put a c clamp around the whole thing to tighten them together as I worked. I used the chisel in the middle to spread it and sprayed it all down with pb blaster and beat down on the uca, all while continually tightening the c clamp. After a while of that and taking the chisel out occasionally to check with the bolt, I got it through. I was so close to getting out the drill bits, but my persistence payed off. Thanks for all the feedback, hopefully this thread will help somebody else who might have a real difficult time getting that connection made like I did.

[AGENT SMITH]

That's a clever idea Joe. Mine is all OEM. If I wasn't worried about the threads and maybe had another bolt, I would've pounded the bolt through to hopefully align it. Couldn't find anything i had with the same diameter.

[JoeyV]

Awesome. I hate when one thing can hold up the rest of the project. Glad it worked out for you.

[Trail X]

Glad you got it through. I seem to recall it hanging up for me also, but I always support the LBJ directly with a jack, and have a pipe that I place in the conveniently-located hole in the frame, and use that as a lever on top of the UCA. Seems to work every time and makes it go fast, but your hangup sounded particularly heinous. My bet is that there was a small burr somewhere that you had to shear off. With a tight tolerance hole like that, a small burr can really wreak havoc.

Or just run a drill through there to open up the bolt hole.

That sounds like a bad idea Bill.

[Moots1288]

I usually just hit things with my hands or hammer or the nearest ratchet until they work... Hey whatever works for everyone.

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[Trail X]

Not everyone has clubs for hands like moots.

[Moots1288]

Not everyone has clubs for hands like moots.

Hahaha