Moog UCA bushing installation

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dartfreak75

dartfreak75

Restore it, Dont part it!
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I know this has been discussed before and I searched and couldnt find the thread so I'm just gonna ask to make sure before i start. I'm getting ready to press in my uca bushing and want to make sure I do it right. The instructions say to point both arrows towards the ball joint but it seems like I remember reading to ditch the instructions and do it a different way. So how do yall install them?
 
I finally found the diagram from before I had it saved on my old phone. Does this looks correct to yall?

20200326_104720.jpg
 
dartfreak75 said:
What direction would the arrow be like that seems to me to accomplish that one would go in and the other would go out because of how the sleeve is off center?
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Honestly, I wouldn't even look at the arrows. Just orient them so the front mount moves the UCA furthest out and the rear mount moves the UCA furthest in. That moves the BJ rearward, which is what you want.
 
mopowers said:
Honestly, I wouldn't even look at the arrows. Just orient them so the front mount moves the UCA furthest out and the rear mount moves the UCA furthest in. That moves the BJ rearward, which is what you want.
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Thanks bud I appreciate it.
 
dartfreak75 said:
Is that a good caster? I dont know alot about alignments that the one thing I actually take my car to a shop for lol
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That’s about the best you can get with stock control arm.
I believe you can get up into the 7.0 caster with aftermarket control arms
 
Caster is expressed in positive and negative. Positive caster is when the steering axis is inclined forward.
 
Demonic said:
Caster is expressed in positive and negative. Positive caster is when the steering axis is inclined forward.
Click to expand...
Positive caster, the spindle is tilted rearward. Or it can be said that the upper ball joint center is rearward when compared to the lower ball joint center.
 
Yup, agree with everything here so far.

With the offset bushings you want to follow the instructions you posted here, NOT the included instruction. The original instructions are based around using them as a repair deal, not maximizing positive caster for use with radial tires.

The SKOSH chart is a good starting point for an alignment for radial tires. Personally I think the positive caster settings in the SKOSH are a little conservative, you can add a couple degrees of positive caster to all their categories across the board. Especially if you have power steering. Positive caster improves the “steer ahead” action of the car, it makes things a lot more stable at speed. With wide tires up front it helps counteract the tendency of the wide tires to seek out ruts. But the more positive you make the caster the harder it gets to turn the wheel, so if you have manual steering you might want to be careful as it can make the steering pretty heavy.

With stock control arms and offset bushings though about the best you can do is about +3.5*’s anyway, depending on ride height and camber settings. With tubular arms most of the non-adjustables can get up to around +5*’s, the adjustable UCA’s can go more.

I managed to get +8*’s with a non adjustable set of tubular UCA’s with offset bushings installed, but there’s no reason to run that much. I had the SPC’s up to about +7*’s at one point and they weren’t maxed out. But I run them at +6.25*’s, with 275’s and 16:1 manual steering the steering effort really starts to go up after that.
 
Ok thanks guys so much I appreciate it as always. I will try and get them pressed in in the morning. It getting really exciting now that its time to start reassembling my newly restored and painted parts lol. I'm hoping to get this thing moving by this fall. Even if its pushing it haha
 
Just out of curiosity what would be the most caster you can get out of it if you followed the instructions?
 
Another question can I get rid of them PITA pressed in washers and just use regular washers? I spent all morning getting them damn things in and I finally got them and my bolts wont go thru them. So I took the uca back out and tried to push the bolt through out of the car and the damn things popped off again :BangHead: so can I just ditch them and use washers?
 
Are you talking about the bushing caps? Maybe spread the brackets just enough with some threaded rod and a couple nuts?
 
72bluNblu said:
Yup, agree with everything here so far.

With the offset bushings you want to follow the instructions you posted here, NOT the included instruction. The original instructions are based around using them as a repair deal, not maximizing positive caster for use with radial tires.

The SKOSH chart is a good starting point for an alignment for radial tires. Personally I think the positive caster settings in the SKOSH are a little conservative, you can add a couple degrees of positive caster to all their categories across the board. Especially if you have power steering. Positive caster improves the “steer ahead” action of the car, it makes things a lot more stable at speed. With wide tires up front it helps counteract the tendency of the wide tires to seek out ruts. But the more positive you make the caster the harder it gets to turn the wheel, so if you have manual steering you might want to be careful as it can make the steering pretty heavy.

With stock control arms and offset bushings though about the best you can do is about +3.5*’s anyway, depending on ride height and camber settings. With tubular arms most of the non-adjustables can get up to around +5*’s, the adjustable UCA’s can go more.

I managed to get +8*’s with a non adjustable set of tubular UCA’s with offset bushings installed, but there’s no reason to run that much. I had the SPC’s up to about +7*’s at one point and they weren’t maxed out. But I run them at +6.25*’s, with 275’s and 16:1 manual steering the steering effort really starts to go up after that.
Click to expand...

Not to hijack,
Thank you very much for the good explanation, I think the alignment shop did a crappy job on my Duster, it wants to wander like the steering box is not wanting center, now I thinking they got the caster screwed up, everything is new including the box in my front end.
I asked for a print out when they did the alignment, and they gave me the excuse the printer was broke.
 
Daves69 said:
Are you talking about the bushing caps? Maybe spread the brackets just enough with some threaded rod and a couple nuts?
Click to expand...
Yea the caps or washers whatever they are called. The bracket is fine the bolt wont go thru the caps. It's like when I pressed them in the inside diameter of the cap swaged down
 
dartfreak75 said:
Just out of curiosity what would be the most caster you can get out of it if you followed the instructions?
Click to expand...

Which instructions? The original Moog instructions? Probably not more than +2° caster.

The instructions for maximum caster should give up to about +3.5°
moog7103installinstructions-jpg.jpg


sireland67 said:
Not to hijack,
Thank you very much for the good explanation, I think the alignment shop did a crappy job on my Duster, it wants to wander like the steering box is not wanting center, now I thinking they got the caster screwed up, everything is new including the box in my front end.
I asked for a print out when they did the alignment, and they gave me the excuse the printer was broke.
Click to expand...

If they wouldn't give you the specs, then I would absolutely suspect the alignment. You don't need a printer to give the specs. Most alignment shops now have no experience with aligning one of these cars. And their computers always show the factory specs anyway, which are for bias ply's and call for negative caster and positive camber. Which is a disaster for radials.
 
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