I installed the Alta LCA's about a month ago, and today I was doing my rear sway bar, and noticed while i was under the car that one of the nuts on the end of the LCA was loose... whether this wasn't tightened enough initially or the tech who did the alignment didn't retighten it, im not sure. Either way, I tightened it back up. This particular bushing at this joint end, the bushing was not too freely spinning originally. After tightening up the loose jam nut, i realized that the control arm would not rotate anymore, the bushing was locked up against one side.

My intial question would be, do your alta LCA's rotate about the bushing area, i'd say about 1/4 turn of the bar, where the joint ends and the center of the arm rotate together, with the bushing rotating within the joint end?

And if they do, now that this arm is locked up against this one position/side, is it going to be a problem? I feel like it should have some play, but i'm not sure whether the load from the car will be forceful enough to move it when going around a corner, as that force will be much stronger than any torque my hand can produce.

Third question... can I lube up the PTFE (teflon) lined bushings? Or is that a bad idea? Since that one joint end/bushing was pretty stiff.. id like to lube everything if it would be okay, but I've never dealt with ptfe lined bushings, so i'm not sure the correct process on this. Sorry for the noobness, thanks for your help in advance.

 

Hello,

Sorry for replying so late.

You should be okay, I'm assuming you looked at this with the vehicle in the air since you where installing a rear sway bar. If you put the car on the ground does anything change?

You do not need to lube the teflon lined heim joints. Its also possible there is too much pressure on the joints, meaning they are adjusted to hight (either inboard or outboard).

Since I responded so late please let us know if this has been resolved.