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So a couple months ago I upgraded to a set of tubular UCAs and the beefiest Idle arm I've ever seen. Both are from JD fabrication and are pretty pricey however since my truck is leveled in the front I have killed 3 sets of Moog upper ball joints. As well as one idler and pivot arm so I wanted to be done with it for a while.
The UCAs use a heim joint instead of a ball joint and I was worried about them being squeaky but I've only had them get squeaky one time. Probably due to the 3 months of straight rain Florida has gotten. I gave them a quick shot of spray lube and they are quiet as new again. Compared to the factory UCAs I think I gained 2-3 inches of down travel which is noticeable when hitting deep whoops in the road.
The idle arm was super easy to install although it did require some drilling since the hardware is thicker. It also eliminated my Cognito support arm since it braces from both sides already.
Both of these combined with my Atomic coil over conversion and Kryptonite tie rods has this truck riding and steering better than any truck I've ever owned.
Also when I ordered my UCAs and idle arm they were backordered waiting on powder coating so I told them to send me them raw to save a couple bucks and because I was thrashing to the get truck ready to move across country. I'm currently cleaning them and painting with chassis saver a paint over rust product.
That’s the nature of uniballs...any application...they don’t discriminate.
Sure beats broken ball joints. Lol I’ve got uniball uppers on my 07 nnbs and they squeak like crazy b/c I live a few blocks from the beach. The noisy comprise is worth it for piece of mind.
Btw check out Jesse’s obs prerunner..(the “J” in JD fab) It’s insane. They do top notch fab work. Rumor is they designed the original ford raptor front suspension and they didn’t get a patent, so ford ripped em off then ran with it.
They were the first ones to build 4x4 long travel kits for the 04+ F150 back in 04..(same geometry as later raptors) as well as 4x4 kits for nbs 1500 Silverados. The lesser known, most progressive and innovative company in the OffRoad race community.
Good choice on their uniball uppers. They are true fabricators.
Those guys graduated from my high school and every year would return to the welding/auto shop program to show us their own trucks, as well as long travel kits up close. So I’m slightly biased. As a 14 year old looking at double stitched tig welds was inspirational.
They wouldn’t accept any work that wasn’t absolutely perfect. Mig or Tig welded, every notch and bend perfect.
long story short, if you want their quality you’re going to get QUALITY...but you will pay for it.
Okay...phew...memoir over.
That’s awesome to hear! I spoke to them on the phone and they had great customer service. Extremely knowledgeable of their products and asked I a bunch about my setup to ensure their parts would work without flaw. I should have taken some pics of the welds before I painted them because they did look perfect. I've been very pleased with their products so far. I'm glad someone is making mid travel stuff for the GMT 800s I feel like it’s a huge missed market.
As far as the squeaking goes I never even noticed it from inside the cab with the windows up I noticed it just a little at a drive through with my window down. Don’t want people to think it sounds like some rust bucket going down the road and like I said quick spray of lube and its been solved for a while now.
No new upgrades to the truck however it's got over 15kmiles on the blower setup now without any issues. The other day I had a neighbors kid ask me if I could help him on a photography class project. He needed pictures of stuff in motion and thought it would be cool if I slung my truck around in some sand. Who am I to deny our youth proper education. Here's some of his pictures!
Been wanting to replace my worn out steering box for a while and finally called Red Head Steering and spoke to them about what my options were. My truck cam with the "3 control valve housing bolt" gear box. The 3 bolt box is not only the weakest internally but it has the least amount of steering assist. So my options were a rebuilt 3bolt, a rebuilt 4 bolt or a 4 bolt built as a 4 turn lock to lock box. Since I didn't want much more assist I opted for the 4 bolt rebuilt box. It's a pricey unit but the install is exactly the same as the removal of the 3 bolt box and I had the job done in less than 2 hours.
The steering is much tighter! I can turn the wheel with one finger with 33s on hard ground. No leaks whatsoever no strange noises or anything weird like that. Couldn’t be happier their customer service was awesome as well as their shipping and core return.
It weighs a good pound or so more on the ole arm scale. I was worried about buying an auto part store reman box and figured this one should last me 10+ years without any issues.
Also the bleed process was pretty easy. They recommend letting the truck sit 24 hours before you start it up to let the box gravity bleed. I followed the printed instructions to a T and have no air pockets
Black Friday sales got the best of me and I picked up a Texas Speed cam kit. It's a 212/218 with 118 LSA. I didn't want anything crazy since it often pulls DD duties. When I do the cam swap I will also be replacing the factory radiator with a Mishomoto one.
In other news its been in the 50s here in Florida and I've seen 17psi at the top of third gear with the same 2.8 pulley. Only thing I've changed is a big ice box and 100mm idlers. Maybe the extra belt wrap has helped with some of the slipping.
Did an oil change today and checked my catch can. It seems to have doubled in fluid caught. This is about 5k miles. Seems to be mostly water could it be due to the high humidity lately?
08-03-2018, 11:47 AM
