Freedom Off-road UCA bent my spindles?

I have had these new upper control arms on my truck from freedom off road with the Uniball for about four months now and the other day I looked underneath my truck and noticed something odd. It seems that my upper control arm upgrade has turned disastrous.
The day I put the new upper control arms on is immediately when I started having problems but could never figure out where the sound was coming from. Whenever I hit a dip in the road (at low or high speed) or a sudden bump, metal banging sound and can feel it coming from the front in the floor.
Any thoughts on how this could be possible?
I did contact the company and currently awaiting for their response.

 

Ouch! That sux. I'm sure several of the members here could find a reason.

Looks like it reached a maximum limit travelling up before it bent.

 

Thats not good.

no rubber boot?

 

I agree, but I don't think they reached travel limit, I think they were limited from traveling. OPs truck has been banging on that spindle since install on any bumps.

 

I don't mean to offend but is there any chance they were installed incorrectly?

 

Yeah, somethings wrong there, is there anyway they could be installed upside down

 

Are the left and right sides mixed up?

 

Yeah, thats how it looks to me.

I mean, they aren't really, I don't think its possible...but it looks so wrong that is what my first impression is.

I really don't know how the heck this could even happen. Somehow the the top arm would have to hit its limit, and then the bottom keep coming up with massive force.

 

Yeah, I was thinking like a T-shirt, inside out and backwards.

 

I had to check the Freedom website, but those UCAs are on the proper sides. I can't imagine alignment would have been possible if not, among other things. Something prevented up travel of the UCAs. I can't figure out what that could be. But, the UCAs locked probably about where they are in the pics and the suspension wanted to keep moving up on bumps.

 

BTW, OP posted and never looked back. Maybe nothing, but if I was a concerned owner, I would have been looking at replies.

 

I can thank the OP for making me reconsider spindle gussets.

 

I was thinking along the same lines, glad I have mine. But, they wouldn't fix or prevent this, just bend differently.

 

Im having a had time understanding how that flipped ball joint works. I can't tell what would prevent the bolt from sliding in the spindle from the pics. Looks to me like when your suspension compressed it tried to go further than the arms could handle.

Do you have bump stops?

What other suspension do you have going on? How much lift?

Edit- something else I'm noticing. If those pics are with the truck up on jack stands there isn't much droop going on. Thats about the angle of my uca at ride height. Really curious.

 

Funny, I was trying to understand where the jack was placed for the same reason. I think it's under the cross member, but the lack of droop looks like under the spindle...

 

Is that a contact mark?

 

Maybe the jack is lifting at the lower arm cam tabs and is preventing droop. This is damn mysterious

 

Did you unbolt it yet? If the arms and the ball joints are moving freely I’m gonna guess it’s not the arms fault.

 

The bitch is - we'll probably never find out.

But now that you walked me through it a bit - has to be an angled bind and not a linear limit, if that makes sense.

 

The rust pattern on that bolt from the ball joint also bothers me. Almost looks like the ball was maxed out forward and aft several times. And then I think, no way you could drive like that.

 

only time i've seen damage like that was someone not running bump stops

 

I think for the spindle to contact there, it would need to have sheared first.

 

This may not matter a bit, but I've not seen any other arms have this gap at the pivot bolt. I've seen at least two others with these arms have the gap. I can't tell but looks like the inside washer may be missing here too.

 

Crazy force, right? Thats why I'm in the bind camp. The shock should have exploded if it was no bumps IMO.

 

Are those by chance Rancho Quik Lifts?

I had those on my 06 Tundra along with Uniball Upper Control Arms

I took off the stock bump stops,used a tap in the hole,and installed Energy Suspension Extended Bump Stops

Never had an issue with over travel that I was aware of

Also member @Darkness has a valid point

I do distinctly remember my Uniball Uppers having thick washers on there. I had to clean them off whenever I loosened up the long bolt and greased my fittings/inner bushings

 

More evidence toward the angle/bind theory. I like it.

 

I just can't picture why a gap like that would be acceptable. There should be around 100ftlbs to tighten the nut on that bolt. The washers sandwich the sleeves inside the bushings and its a pretty tight fit with other arms. For some reason these arms have a big gap.

 

Here's the Freedom install on a Tacoma. Screenshot from vid.

 

Here’s a pic from the other thread, still a big gap. Remember these are not double sheer.

 

Wild ass guess...whoever changed the upper ball joint put a torch on the spindle, perhaps weakening it?