[TCao]

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I helped mbisson with the installation of the Total Chaos Upper Control Arms on his FJ Cruiser and thought it may be useful to post the steps we used today.

Installing Total Chaos Upper Control Arms (UCA) on a FJ Cruiser​

Removing factory UCAs (ref.: FSM 02600410):

1. Chock rear tires
2. Lift vehicle and place jackstand under frame
3. Remove wheel and tire
4. Support front Lower Control Arm (A arm)
5. Retain spindle with wire or rope to prevent spindle from falling away when upper ball joint is removed
6. Remove bolt holding ABS wire bracket; remove wire from bracket (bracket is not re-used)
7. Remove cotter pin and remove nut holding the upper ball joint to the spindle (Exercise care since nut is fairly soft and may be rounded easily)
8. Use ball joint separator to detach upper ball joint from spindle (a pickle fork may also be used)
9. Loosen nut on UCA pivot bolt
10. On driver’s side, loosen battery and place wedge under battery and detach wiring harness from bracket next to battery; on passenger’s side detach AC line from plastic bracket to make room for the pivot bolt removal
11. Remove pivot bolt and the two washers

Remove balljoint from spindle using a balljoint separator

Installing Total Chaos UCAs:

1. Thread pivot bolt through washer, front UCA arm, washer, UCA mount on frame, washer, rear UCA arm, washer (make sure ABS wire is outside of UCA)
2. Install nut onto pivot bolt and torque to 85 ft-lb
3. Insert adaptor onto spindle
4. Insert bolt through upper misalignment spacer, uniball, lower misalignment spacer, spindle adaptor, washer
5. Install nut and torque nut to 100 ft-lb
6. Zip-tie ABS wire onto rear of TC UCA
7. Grease polyurethane bushings at zerk fittings with synthetic grease such as Redline CV-2 or SuperLube
8. Spray Tri-Flow teflon lubricant onto uniball
9. Cycle UCA to make sure there’s no interference and there is slack in ABS wire
10. Install wheel and torque wheel nuts to 85 ft-lb
11. Lower vehicle
12. Repeat on the other side
13. Inspect and adjust front alignment

Total Chaos UCA installed shown at full droop

edit: added link to Total Chaos instruction

Total Chaos UCA PN 96504 instruction

 

[Woodsman]

Re: Installation of Total Chaos UCAs on FJ Cruiser

I did get the alignment and it tracks great now. I immediately drove it out to Colorado/Utah and did the Kokopelli Trail, Poison Spider and Fins 'n Things. It felt as good coming back as it did going there.

Here's some pics per TCao's request. TCao already made instuctions but I'll add a couple o' notes.

This is what you get for each front corner of the FJ: an upper arm, set of four red bushings with steel inserts, set of four large washers, two zerk fittings and uniball bolt with special fittings already placed in correct order on the bolt. You supply the grease and loctite(if so desired) and you'll reuse the original pivot bolt.

I presoaked the nut to help pop it loose and used a rag to keep the solvent from dripping on my CV boots.

Seperating the ball joint was a real PITA. I've always had others do my suspension work in the past and never realized how hard you had to beat on a picklefork to seperate the joint. I looked for a tool like TCao used but could not find one locally.

While I did not have to bend any fenders in order to remove the pivot bolts, I did have to pull back the lining in the fender and remove a small bracket on the frame in order to make room to use the torque wrench on the pivot bolt. I was able to get the bolts back in myself while placing the washers on it and pushing it through the pivot bracket and arms but having an extra set of hands would have made it much easier.

Bracket reattached to frame, all bolts properly torqued, lines zip-tied to arms, and fender lining buttoned up . . . ready for the alignment.

The FJ did temporarily sit higher in front than usual (shown) but a quick drive made it settle down.