Redline
Likes to Drive and Ride
On my first off-highway trip after the Light Racing Arms were correctly/perfectly set-up, lots of caster - drove terrific, I had a problem. At the end of a long day of on/off-highway travel, I was intentionally driving very close to a large, basketball sized rock. I intended to drive close, but not into the rock. I hit this rock with my right-front tire/wheel and the resulting solid 'thunk' made me think I had hit it with the wheel. I stopped and had a look thinking for sure I would have a big gouge out of the wheel. There were no marks.
We were coming to the end of our trail and we came to a straight and smooth section of road, before hitting the pavement. It quickly became clear something was wrong. The Steering wheel was cocked badly to one side and vehicle stability control warning light was on (because the 'Yaw sensor' knew the steering wheel wasn't straight).
Upon further examination it was obvious that I had not kissed the wheel, but the right-front tire. The Maxxis Bighorn wasn't damaged, so how hard could I have hit the rock? In hindsight I'm convinced the loud thunk I heard was upper ball-joint nut (that allows for much Camber adjustment) slipping all the way to the to the inside of the Arm. The right-front tire now looked like a Trophy Truck with lots of negative camber.
Camber Nut/bolt slip
My friends and I were only on a day-trip and over 100-miles from home. I considered calling a tow truck, but the 4Runner drove fine at speed and I decided the tow bill would be more than a new tire. I drove it home and the tire survived. Now fixing/adjusting the A-arms again became the focus.
My new alignment guy Mike checked his work when I brought the Mall Crawler back to him, and the top camber nut was still torqued to spec., it had simply slipped in its adjustment groove which possibly doesn't have enough of a detent to help the nut hold in difficult situations. Mike and I both talked to people at Light Racing about this. Light Racing was both concerned and interested in solutions. Mike took digital pics and emailed them to an engineer and confirmed the torque specs had been followed. Of course all the blame was on me for running the tire into a big rock, but this does happen on occasion and this incident made me consider going back to my All-Pro arms because certainly this would not have occurred with the UniBall joints as there is no camber nut to slip.
While sorting out the above camber slip I gave serious thought to the likelihood that I also had defective ball joints like those detailed earlier in this thread. After talking to the tech who originally installed the Light Racing A-arms and remembering that he commented that the ball joints didn't seem to have much travel I got Light Racing to send me a replacement set of ball joints. They did this quickly and happily, no questions asked (of course they knew they had some poor manufacturing/not to spec parts on their first batch of ball joints).
Defective and new Light Racing Ball Joints
New Light Racing Ball Joints compared to All-Pro UniBall joints
I really wanted to like the Light Racing Upper A-arms, their stock-type joints with better weather protection seemed to be more desirable for an on/off-highway (non-race) truck. But between their poor instructions, not so great alignment shops doing work for me, and now the camber slip, I was loosing faith. Since I had paid a few times to get work done on the Light Racing arms I thought it was not fair for me to pay yet again to have the defective ball joints replaced. My new alignment shop was understanding. I had quickly become a good, regular customer, and they agreed to charge me a reduced rate to R&R the ball-joints and re-align the Toyota.
I politely relayed my tale of A-Arm woe to Light Racing customer service, then later a vice-president of customer service. He agreed to reimburse me up to $150.00 in labor to have the defective ball joints replaced. After paying to have the ball joints replaced, I faxed them a copy of my invoice and in a few days I had a reimbursement check!
I was always calm, polite, and reasonable about the issues I was having with their new product, but many companies still don’t get it. Light Racing obviously cared about their product and customer and I have become a fan of theirs because of the excellent customer service I received.
Since the ball joints were replaced with the correct, flexible ones and the camber nut was re-torqued (a little above the LR spec but not too much for the bolt) I have had no more problems with the Light Racing arms or ball joints. Of course they are quiet compared to UniBalls as they are a sealed/stock joint design. The alignment is perfect, the car drive perfectly, and it has seen some 4x4 use since the last repairs.
A few months and a few thousand miles are a good start. If everything stays in adjustment and hold up to the hard use the 4Runner will see in a months from during the Nevada Trophy then I will have no need to even consider other A-arms.
Again, Big Kudos to Light Racing/SPC for great customer service.
We were coming to the end of our trail and we came to a straight and smooth section of road, before hitting the pavement. It quickly became clear something was wrong. The Steering wheel was cocked badly to one side and vehicle stability control warning light was on (because the 'Yaw sensor' knew the steering wheel wasn't straight).
Upon further examination it was obvious that I had not kissed the wheel, but the right-front tire. The Maxxis Bighorn wasn't damaged, so how hard could I have hit the rock? In hindsight I'm convinced the loud thunk I heard was upper ball-joint nut (that allows for much Camber adjustment) slipping all the way to the to the inside of the Arm. The right-front tire now looked like a Trophy Truck with lots of negative camber.
Camber Nut/bolt slip
My friends and I were only on a day-trip and over 100-miles from home. I considered calling a tow truck, but the 4Runner drove fine at speed and I decided the tow bill would be more than a new tire. I drove it home and the tire survived. Now fixing/adjusting the A-arms again became the focus.
My new alignment guy Mike checked his work when I brought the Mall Crawler back to him, and the top camber nut was still torqued to spec., it had simply slipped in its adjustment groove which possibly doesn't have enough of a detent to help the nut hold in difficult situations. Mike and I both talked to people at Light Racing about this. Light Racing was both concerned and interested in solutions. Mike took digital pics and emailed them to an engineer and confirmed the torque specs had been followed. Of course all the blame was on me for running the tire into a big rock, but this does happen on occasion and this incident made me consider going back to my All-Pro arms because certainly this would not have occurred with the UniBall joints as there is no camber nut to slip.
While sorting out the above camber slip I gave serious thought to the likelihood that I also had defective ball joints like those detailed earlier in this thread. After talking to the tech who originally installed the Light Racing A-arms and remembering that he commented that the ball joints didn't seem to have much travel I got Light Racing to send me a replacement set of ball joints. They did this quickly and happily, no questions asked (of course they knew they had some poor manufacturing/not to spec parts on their first batch of ball joints).
Defective and new Light Racing Ball Joints
New Light Racing Ball Joints compared to All-Pro UniBall joints
I really wanted to like the Light Racing Upper A-arms, their stock-type joints with better weather protection seemed to be more desirable for an on/off-highway (non-race) truck. But between their poor instructions, not so great alignment shops doing work for me, and now the camber slip, I was loosing faith. Since I had paid a few times to get work done on the Light Racing arms I thought it was not fair for me to pay yet again to have the defective ball joints replaced. My new alignment shop was understanding. I had quickly become a good, regular customer, and they agreed to charge me a reduced rate to R&R the ball-joints and re-align the Toyota.
I politely relayed my tale of A-Arm woe to Light Racing customer service, then later a vice-president of customer service. He agreed to reimburse me up to $150.00 in labor to have the defective ball joints replaced. After paying to have the ball joints replaced, I faxed them a copy of my invoice and in a few days I had a reimbursement check!
I was always calm, polite, and reasonable about the issues I was having with their new product, but many companies still don’t get it. Light Racing obviously cared about their product and customer and I have become a fan of theirs because of the excellent customer service I received.
Since the ball joints were replaced with the correct, flexible ones and the camber nut was re-torqued (a little above the LR spec but not too much for the bolt) I have had no more problems with the Light Racing arms or ball joints. Of course they are quiet compared to UniBalls as they are a sealed/stock joint design. The alignment is perfect, the car drive perfectly, and it has seen some 4x4 use since the last repairs.
A few months and a few thousand miles are a good start. If everything stays in adjustment and hold up to the hard use the 4Runner will see in a months from during the Nevada Trophy then I will have no need to even consider other A-arms.
Again, Big Kudos to Light Racing/SPC for great customer service.
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