Factory control arm bushings?

Several months ago I noticed some pulling (pass side on acceleration and driver side on decel) and thought I had a bent front lower factory control arm. Under the weight of the Jeep the pass side arm measured nearly 1/4" shorter than the driver. After I removed the factory arms I noticed the frame side bushing on the pass arm appeared much softer than all the others. The actual length of the factory arms, not under load, were exactly the same. This lead me to believe the bushing was the cause of this. I replaced the LCA's with Rock Krawler's and things have been good until last week.

A pull to the pass side under acceleration and during continuous driving reappeared. It is a slightly different feel than the pull I had before. Hard to explain online...

Before re-checking torque specs I grabbed all 8 arms, twisting and shaking them in the process. The front upper pass side arm has a lot of movement on the frame side. All of my paint pen marks were still lined up and all fasteners checked out. My camber is off on the pass side again, at about 6 degrees, no matter what I do.

Without knowing how to check the bushings for sure, is it likely this bushing is bad too? Is there a sure fire way to confirm a bad bushing? I've only guessed my other one was bad.

With only 34000 miles part of me wants to take it to the dealer, but another part of me thinks I should just go ahead and replace the upper arms too in order to avoid a repeat of this.

I'm only running an EVO leveling kit so I'm confused why this seems to be repeating. Everything else suspension/steering-wise is stock, except Rancho shocks. Has anyone else had these issues with the factory arms/bushings? What was your fix if you did experience the same?

Thanks in advance!

Bump for a little help

I would go thru and just recheck your torque on the arms both at the frame and axle. I do t think your bushings would be blown out at only 34k miles. Especially when your only on a leveling kit

I assume you mean caster, not camber? 6 degrees camber is a ton, lol. Caster should be the same on both sides unless you've got a twisted axle tube or something which is unlikely.

Did you put in the kit yourself or someone else? The only thing I can think that would cause a bushing to go bad with that low of mileage is if the arm bolts were left tight during the leveling kit install. Any time you modify the ride height on a Jeep, you really should loosen all bolts a little then install the lift/leveling kit, and then re-torque the bolts with the weight of the Jeep ON THE GROUND to ensure the bushings don't twist when they're torque down. If not, this can cause premature bushing wear. Unlikely with a leveling kit being a small difference in ride height, but still a possibility.

Another test you can do if you're very careful....with the help of a friend, have him/her put the Jeep in Drive, with left foot on the brake pedal, rev up the engine with the right foot. Then you visually watch the control arm bushings for any movement while the powertrain is torqued. Do the same thing in reverse. Again be very careful and make sure the person in the driver's seat is someone trustworthy. It will be much harder to see the uppers while doing this as you really don't want to crawl under the vehicle during this test.

Also, the symptom you're describing is usually a rear axle thrust/steer problem, not the front. Good luck, hope you get it figured out.

Thanks fellas. Yes, caster. Dang it (I keep screwing that up). On top of the ball joints its measuring around 6.



At the flat machined spots on the diff it shows 90.

I have retorqued everything up front. When I installed the EVO kit I did loosen the arms at the axle and frame. But, before that I installed Rubi springs, didn't know any better and DID NOT loosen any of the arms. Even after checking torque I have some back and forth wiggle, frame side upper arm on the passenger.

I'll go through the rear and check that out too.

UPDATE

After changing wheels and tires last weekend, this issue does not exist anymore. I still plan on checking the arms and track bar in the rear. It's been awhile since I went through those.

I may be doing more than is needed, but when I do a 6 month general suspension look over/maintenance, I'll loosen everything up, give the Jeep a good shake then torque it all to spec.

I figure after running trails if anything is loose it'll have other components may be bound up - not real scientific but it gives me peace of mind.

jeeeep said:

I may be doing more than is needed, but when I do a 6 month general suspension look over/maintenance, I'll loosen everything up, give the Jeep a good shake then torque it all to spec.

I figure after running trails if anything is loose it'll have other components may be bound up - not real scientific but it gives me peace of mind.

Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense. I've been trying to be more organized with a maintenance log of everything I do. In the log I show it's been almost a year since I checked anything in the back except new shocks 5-6 months ago. It's on my to do list along with my first differential service.