Been chasing squeaking ucas for a while now. In fact the entire front end is new. Every bushing and control arm has been replaced and I leveled the truck. I had to use the moog upper control arms with offset bushings to keep the camber in spec. And I replaced the cam bolts with kryptonite.

But I can’t get the UCAs to stop squeaking! First time it was because the alignment shop that didn’t torque them properly(they were pretty much hand tight). So I torqued them and the squeak went away for about a week. But now I have to keep retorquing them. What gives?

Is there any solution to this? I’m about to weld the nut and cam to the frame at this point.

 

try blue loctite.

 

the fact that the bushings are making noise I would spray the bushings with lithium grease and then like Bronxteck said use blue or red loctite on the nuts.

There shouldn't be enough resistance on the bolts to make them loosen from jounce,

Neal

 

Ah, critical bolts that you do not want coming loose....

I would go with some stainless interference fit lock nuts. You can also make them yourself with a hammer and a chisel, make a small dent in the threads on one side of the nut in three locations.... Thread the other side of the nut on first and tighten down. Will stay put thousand times better than a nylon lock nut, or a lock washer.

And if you really get desperate, from back in my Air Force days working on the F-15 D.... We used fasteners that had a small hole drilled.... Such as through one side of the nut, threaded safety wire through it and twisted four twists per inch and secured it to another bolt or nut that was also prepared for safety wire.... Lol, I've actually considered doing this on the valley plate cover to keep with the image of the Hummer


Actually a bad example, too many twists per inch weakens the wire, but you get the idea.

 

Ill try the loctite first. Robert I believe the bolts from the kryptonite kit are that style of lock nut. there is significant resistance when tightening or loosening them, but they're all metal no nylock.

 

[QUOTE=Robert I believe the bolts from the kryptonite kit are that style of lock nut. there is significant resistance when tightening or loosening them, but they're all metal no nylock.[/QUOTE]

Excellent. Those should not come loose at all. They are rather a one-time use. Once taken off they need replaced, or use the hammer and chisel method and you can reuse them.

Definitely lubricate inside the bushing as mentioned.

One thing to keep in mind about interference fit lock nuts.... They do tend to affect the actual torque reading because of the drag on the threads. On those I would probably go 5 to 10 foot pounds over the spec. That may be in fact why they came loose, nobody compensated for that style of lock nut.

 

As a side note, if you look at the head of the bolt you can identify it's hardness. You can look it up online and see what the maximum torque is for it. Definitely do not reach that number, as it will either stretch or snap. And use the red loctite. If you ever need to remove it, heat slightly with a pencil tip torch and it will come free.