OK I'm at an impasse with upper control arms and hoping someone has encountered this. Picture 1 the OE style control arms note the ball end mount circled in red for the pass side suspension angle sensor thing is on the inside of the U shape and this is the direction the ball joint points. Picture 2 the ball joint faces out of the flat side; this is how I received them also, thought maybe the balljoints were just put in upside down no biggie, flipped them over put them on suspension sensor hooks up no issues. Now the new control arms are at a steep upward angle and the over all ball joint is 1/2" taller than the old one and it won't align correctly. Should these adjustables been installed the way they're pictured to compinsate for that extra 1/2" and if so how do you hook up the arm for the suspension sensor?
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New Control arm issues [SOLVED]
adam.sparks101
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OK I'm at an impasse with upper control arms and hoping someone has encountered this. Picture 1 the OE style control arms note the ball end mount circled in red for the pass side suspension angle sensor thing is on the inside of the U shape and this is the direction the ball joint points. Picture 2 the ball joint faces out of the flat side; this is how I received them also, thought maybe the balljoints were just put in upside down no biggie, flipped them over put them on suspension sensor hooks up no issues. Now the new control arms are at a steep upward angle and the over all ball joint is 1/2" taller than the old one and it won't align correctly. Should these adjustables been installed the way they're pictured to compinsate for that extra 1/2" and if so how do you hook up the arm for the suspension sensor?
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I don't think those are OE style. They are just formed steel. Aren't the factory ones kind of like forged in that they are from a chunk of metal?
The ones that came off were also stamped steel. The lowers are forged for whatever reason. I've not found a different style upper.
Well, that's the same PN and photo as on Steve White Parts page so I dunno. Do a quick search for upper control arms and you'll find a current thread on someone putting new ones on, but in that thread, @PatentlyPhil gives a good alternative to use.
I see they recomend Mevotech TTX I've been eyeballing those and I would absolutely use those if $ wasn't an object. Admittedly I ordered from Detroit Axle with the ones I just put on and that seems to probably been a mistake; I will see if they will do a return on them.
From what I can see in pictures there's a lot more positive caster built into the 11-15 UCA nothing else really popping out at me.
I used the Mevotech TTX upper control arm on my 2007 DD 4WD when I replaced them about two weeks ago. They are certainly heavy duty with a serviceable grease fitting at not much of additional $$. Here is the image comparing the OEMs with TTX.
SOLVED!! So I contacted Detroit Axle and their engineers claim that Dodge made both an upward and downward facing UCA / BJ and the picture #2 is the upward facing one is the correct orientation for that part. That part just doesn't fit my suspension. Kudos to Detroit Axle, they are taking the part back (after it was installed even) and covering shipping and no restock fee. So don't order that part in picture 2 if your looks like picture 1 😂
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What ?!? That sounds crazy. Glad they treated you as well as they did, but that still sounds crazy. Could it be something like RWD vs AWD? Could it be '11-15 vs '16 and newer? Could it be normal vs SRT? There just seems to be no good engineering reason to have one upside down vs the other.
I looked at RockAuto over all the years, engines, brands and such and could not find a picture like you #2. I just wonder if someone put them together upside down by mistake and that's why they were so helpful in taking them back
I looked at RockAuto over all the years, engines, brands and such and could not find a picture like you #2. I just wonder if someone put them together upside down by mistake and that's why they were so helpful in taking them back
Agreed. They did not go into detail as to what model or trim the other one went to though.
Doing more research on the topic, i found 2 other companies that make an upside down control arm (Moog & ACDelco) and this is what their part descriptions say:
"This adjustable Control Arm allows you to correct the Caster, Camber and/or Toe angles of your suspension, for proper alignment. Adjustable Control Arms are designed for lifted/modified, difficult to align, or siginificantly off spec suspensions. "
so my thoughts are perhaps for lifted / lowered / extreme camber Durango you have to have a weird UCA/BJ setup.
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Most likely for the lifted JGC market place then.
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