Front Adjustable UCAs - Suggestions

CDsDontBurn

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I'm going to tackle this here soon, next month hopefully. I had a set I was looking at over on Amazon, Ingalls Engineering, but they're no longer available it seems. Searching the FeeBay and elsewhere, I can't seem to find any other adjustable UCA set. I'd like to know what my options are.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UCBLA0/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UCD70C/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

When doing this I'll also replace my LCAs, but those will be easier to come by.

I'm just tired of having to replace 65k mile rated tires at 40k miles because of the mad negative camber up front.
 
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Enne

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Re: Adjustable UCAs - Suggestions

I'm pricing out these ones right now because I want to do the left front. But I don't need adjustable.

Here's what RockAuto has for atypical suspension.
http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/honda,2000,accord,3.0l+v6,1366691,suspension,control+arm,10401

Daily Driver - Offset (For lifted/modified, difficult to align, or significantly off spec suspensions)

MEVOTECH CMS601194 {#MS601194} Supreme
Fits Rear Lower Rearward; Adjustment range: camber -1.5° to +3.0°; Lateral Arm
Or Rear Lower Forward; Adjustment range: camber -1.5° to +3.0°; Lateral Arm
$77.79

MOOG K90204
Rear Lower; Contains 2 Complete Adjustable Arms And Hardware; Minus 1-1/2 To Plus 3 Degrees Camber
$100.79

ACDELCO 45K0092 {#88913998} Professional
Rear Lower; Contains Front and Rear Arms; Minus 1-1/2 Degree To Plus 3 Degree Camber
$121.79


ACDELCO 45K0159 {#89048911} Professional; Complete Arm w/ Ball Joint
Rear Upper; Adjustable; Minus 2 Degree To Plus 4 Degree Camber
$53.79

Premium - Offset (For lifted/modified, difficult to align, or significantly off spec suspensions)

MOOG K100067 Problem Solver; Complete Arm w/ Ball Joint
Rear Upper; Adjustable; Minus 2 To Plus 4 Degrees Camber
$63.79

Economy - Offset (For lifted/modified, difficult to align, or significantly off spec suspensions)

MOOG RK100067 R-Series; Complete Arm w/ Ball Joint
Rear Upper; Adjustable; Minus 2 To Plus 4 Degrees Camber
$80.79

MOOG RK641885 {#521698, CA59505} R-Series
Rear Lower; Contains Front And Rear Arms; Minus 1-1/2 To Plus 3 Degrees Camber
$80.99
 

Enne

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All they seem to have are rears :/ Some of the listings for the lowers say "Contains Front and Rear Arms" but I'm not sure if that actually means a front LCA and a rear LCA...
 

Rusty Accord

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Re: Adjustable UCAs - Suggestions

I guess I should have specified, but I need FRONT adjustable UCAs.

I'll tell you first, that there really aren't any front adjustable UCA's. There is however an adjustable upper ball joint available thru several manufacturers (like Moog, AC Delco and others). The Ball joints themselves (each) cost more than a complete UCA (or a pair of UCA's from Detroit Axle). If this is to fix a camber wear issue, you might want to look at replacing the uppers with standard parts, and then doing the lowers with standard parts. This should get you close to stock spec.
It's also what I'm looking at doing on my wife's car, as the toe in is on the money, but it's wearing the inner 1 inch of tread on both front tires. But then at 238K, it's probably more than due for parts replacement. On hers, I'm looking at doing the lowers first.
I replaced the UCA's on my 99, but I was also in there doing other work, and had the entire front end apart at the time. The only thing extra that I had to do was remove the strut assembly on both sides to get to the bolts. Note; those bolts just screw into the surrounding metal around the strut tower. I was mainly replacing the ball joints on my own car, which is why I swapped out the UCA's. The uppers and lowers were shot on mine (very sloppy).
You can't use offset bolts here either, as you'd have no way of locking them down. If you could find some offset UCA bushings, and combined it with an adjustable upper ball joint, then you'd have something to work with. However, I didn't see any offset bushings offered anywhere, not even e-bay.
I hope this helps.
 

CDsDontBurn

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Re: Adjustable UCAs - Suggestions

I'll tell you first, that there really aren't any front adjustable UCA's. There is however an adjustable upper ball joint available thru several manufacturers (like Moog, AC Delco and others). The Ball joints themselves (each) cost more than a complete UCA (or a pair of UCA's from Detroit Axle). If this is to fix a camber wear issue, you might want to look at replacing the uppers with standard parts, and then doing the lowers with standard parts. This should get you close to stock spec.
It's also what I'm looking at doing on my wife's car, as the toe in is on the money, but it's wearing the inner 1 inch of tread on both front tires. But then at 238K, it's probably more than due for parts replacement. On hers, I'm looking at doing the lowers first.
I replaced the UCA's on my 99, but I was also in there doing other work, and had the entire front end apart at the time. The only thing extra that I had to do was remove the strut assembly on both sides to get to the bolts. Note; those bolts just screw into the surrounding metal around the strut tower. I was mainly replacing the ball joints on my own car, which is why I swapped out the UCA's. The uppers and lowers were shot on mine (very sloppy).
You can't use offset bolts here either, as you'd have no way of locking them down. If you could find some offset UCA bushings, and combined it with an adjustable upper ball joint, then you'd have something to work with. However, I didn't see any offset bushings offered anywhere, not even e-bay.
I hope this helps.


I've seen the adjustable ball joints, and you're right. They're very spendy. For the cost of one ball joint alone, I may have just purchased the entire UCA. The UCAs I linked earlier were going for about $160 or so but didn't buy them because I didn't have the money for them at the time. Now I have the money, but I can't find them.

Though, if you're suggesting that I can get away with getting a new non-adjustable set of UCAs, then what should I go with? I've always been a fan of ACDelco Pro and Raybestos, but if there's anything else out there that provides better results (outside of Honda OEM), please let me know.

I'll be doing both uppers and lowers as I'm sure these are still original to the car and have nearly 315k miles on them, so they're obviously overdue for replacement. I'm also afraid of the lower ball joint just giving out on me and leaving me with "immediate negative camber" syndrome....
 

Rusty Accord

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Re: Adjustable UCAs - Suggestions

I've seen the adjustable ball joints, and you're right. They're very spendy. For the cost of one ball joint alone, I may have just purchased the entire UCA. The UCAs I linked earlier were going for about $160 or so but didn't buy them because I didn't have the money for them at the time. Now I have the money, but I can't find them.

Though, if you're suggesting that I can get away with getting a new non-adjustable set of UCAs, then what should I go with? I've always been a fan of ACDelco Pro and Raybestos, but if there's anything else out there that provides better results (outside of Honda OEM), please let me know.

I'll be doing both uppers and lowers as I'm sure these are still original to the car and have nearly 315k miles on them, so they're obviously overdue for replacement. I'm also afraid of the lower ball joint just giving out on me and leaving me with "immediate negative camber" syndrome....

I went with Detroit Axle for my UCAs. They have a 10 year warranty on them, versus a year or 2 warranty. If they're willing to carry that kind of length, they should last a while. I also know I'm not the only 1 on here running them. I got a package deal on mine, as I went thru their online store on e-bay. I got both UCA's, both lower ball joints, and inner and outer tie rod ends from them for around 70 bucks. I had to pay tax on them since I live in Michigan where they're located too. I didn't use the inner tie rods, as they normally don't go bad. Like I said, I was already in there, so it was the time to do it. I was mainly replacing the hub bearings, but also wanted to do the ball joints (both uppers and lowers), but couldn't find a decent price on both sets. Then I went looking at UCA bushings, with no luck and found that I could get a pair of UCAs complete cheaper than just buying the ball joints (upper). Then when you add the lower ball joints, it got even more expensive to replace them. So, I really started shopping around. This became more evident when talking with others and finding the quality of some of the normal name brands dropping. Having seen it with the MOOG sway bar end links (Mexico and China) for my 99 that I purchased earlier in 2017, I was having a hard time justifying purchasing them. Note; I've seen the same thing going on in the Air Cooled VW community too, so I wasn't sold on buying them. It doesn't help that Allied Signal is buying up some of the other name brand companies, and dropping their parts.
Maybe the AC Delco Pro might be an option. For a GM, I wouldn't think twice about it, as you might get "old stock" genuine GM parts.
 

CDsDontBurn

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I keep hearing the, "Don't buy ACDelco unless you have a GM car" argument, but on several of the cars I've worked on over the years, my own ones included, they've held up quite well in terms of performance and quality. My Thunderbird group for example, always says that in terms of suspension components, the ACDelco stuff is the best aftermarket to buy if a FoMoCo product can't be found.

I don't buy on eBay much, only like lifetime 50 rep points since joining in like 2001, but I do shop around. RA and Amazon are my first go-to places. If I can't find what I'm looking for there, I'll go to like Andy's Autosport, Summit, etc.

So far, I'm looking at about $230 - $275 depending on brand, model, and store I purchase from for front UCAs and LCAs.
 

Rusty Accord

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I keep hearing the, "Don't buy ACDelco unless you have a GM car" argument, but on several of the cars I've worked on over the years, my own ones included, they've held up quite well in terms of performance and quality. My Thunderbird group for example, always says that in terms of suspension components, the ACDelco stuff is the best aftermarket to buy if a FoMoCo product can't be found.

I don't buy on eBay much, only like lifetime 50 rep points since joining in like 2001, but I do shop around. RA and Amazon are my first go-to places. If I can't find what I'm looking for there, I'll go to like Andy's Autosport, Summit, etc.

So far, I'm looking at about $230 - $275 depending on brand, model, and store I purchase from for front UCAs and LCAs.

Personally I've got nothing against AC Delco parts, other than their price. I've got a couple of GM's here too, along with a want a be Toyota (a Geo Prizm), so I have a tendency to shop around. I've only in the last year started looking for parts on e-bay, but that's mostly for NLA stuff for projects. But, sometimes I'll price compare against Rock Auto. Free shipping helps sometimes, but the cost with shipping is usually less with RA. In my case, I stumbled onto finding Detroit Axle for parts, then I went looking to see what they were offering, and checking their prices and such. Don't get me wrong, I've also bought stuff from Honda Parts Direct too. In fact I purchased a few NOS Honda parts thru e-bay for my Honda at better prices than the dealer wanted. I've even shopped between dealers trying to get a better price on some parts. It really just depends on what you're looking for, and how much you want to spend for an item. When I ordered up my hub bearings (thru RA), I looked on e-bay, and found I could get 2 for 1 thru RA, and Honda wanted 100 a piece for the same bearing that I paid 25.99 for. :O I ordered up a Timken bearing, and got a NTN bearing in a Timken box. And what I took out were NTN bearings. So did Timken buy out NTN? Or did NTN buy out Timken? I don't know, but at 233K I was hearing bearing rumble and they needed to be replaced.
I'd say go with whoever your comfortable with. Replace whatever you need to since you've got "high" miles on it. Double check everything, or purchase all of the parts ahead of time. In my case I bought what I knew I was going to replace before I laid up the car for a couple of days (not knowing how long it would actually take to do). Would I have liked to do LCAs, sure. But I didn't have the extra cash available at that time. With owning several vehicles, I have to spread my dollars out as best as I can, and put the money where it needs to go first. Hence why I shop around, and don't buy my parts from the Zone. ;)
 

CDsDontBurn

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Eesshhh. The 'zone. I buy from them only if I need something right now.

But, you've made some really good points; namely, buy from who I'm most comfortable with. I just hope that whatever I get solves the inner camber wear on my front tires. If that's the case, then I should have gotten front UCAs shortly after installing my Eibach springs. :lol:
 
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