What should I do?

[2002tbva]

Hello good people out there......

I have a problem I'm hoping you can help me with. I was about to start the work of replacing the front and rear Stabilizer Bar End Links and bushings on the family TB tonight and I noticed the Right Upper Control Arm bolt a bit out of place. This is not normal right(see attached pic)? I tried to hand tighten it this morning but couldn't move at all but didn't want to put too much into the pul as i could have stripped it even more. What torque are these bolts set at so it may help me to estimate the power i should put into it?

I'm wondering if the last allignment I had with FireStone may have stripped the bolt while completing the allignment. The did explain to me that my allignment was better in some but worse in others. Either way.... do you think this could be causing a steering vibration and an occational thump, metal sounding creak while driving?

See attached.... and thanks for all the help you guys provide.

 

[tbyoda]

How many miles?
I am no expert but you should get that fixed ASAP and maybe think about getting towed to the shop on flat bed and not drive it until it is fixed. I also would also have them check every bushing on the front end.

 

[jrSS]

Umm no that's not good. Tighten er up.

 

[Wooluf1952]

Service manual for a 2003 Envoy is 111 ft. lbs for UCA mounting bolts.

 

[djthumper]

Hello good people out there......

I have a problem I'm hoping you can help me with. I was about to start the work of replacing the front and rear Stabilizer Bar End Links and bushings on the family TB tonight and I noticed the Right Upper Control Arm bolt a bit out of place. This is not normal right(see attached pic)? I tried to hand tighten it this morning but couldn't move at all but didn't want to put too much into the pul as i could have stripped it even more. What torque are these bolts set at so it may help me to estimate the power i should put into it?

I'm wondering if the last allignment I had with FireStone may have stripped the bolt while completing the allignment. The did explain to me that my allignment was better in some but worse in others. Either way.... do you think this could be causing a steering vibration and an occational thump, metal sounding creak while driving?

See attached.... and thanks for all the help you guys provide.

Get a manual on the vehicle so that you have all of the torque information. You can get copies of the service manuals available on the forums. If you feel comfortable enough to do it, I would actually take the UCA out and take a look at the bolt before I put it back in.

It is probably the cause of the vibration and other problems that you have mentioned. I would not keep driving it until it was fixed.

 

[Boricua SS]

definitely do not drive it... worse case scenario, that bolt will break (I've seen it happen on us lowered folks).. its not pretty when that happens, and with yours being out like that already, it just screams a broken bolt to me if you keep driving it... either take it out yourself and inspect it like others have said, or take it to a shop and have them tear into it...

 

[2002tbva]

Thanks for the replies guys !

The truck has 108K miles and is the family daily driver. I found my Haynes repair manual (Couldn't find it last night) and the TB also requires 111 Ft-lbs of torque. So what I'll do is see if I can even tightener up to that torque specification with my torque wrench and if she goes in then problem solved but if not, I'll bring it somewhere after i complete my stabilizer bar end link and bushing job today. I just hope it's not stripped since it looks like this is a single bolt with no nut so i'm assuming it's threaded and this could be a problem.

Question - Is the upper control arm on a 2002 TB adjusted when completing a alignment job. I'm starting to think no since there is a single bolt and not really any adjustment that can be had. If no, then I'm not sure how this bolt could end up like this unless it's just slowly coming out due to normal driving. I was thinking maybe the FireStone dealer may have left this out during the allignment I had back in January but i guess i'll find out soon enough.

Thanks again for your help !!

 

[The_Roadie]

Those bolts go into a nut that's welded to the shock mount bucket. And they never need to be touched in an alignment, and there's nothing that can be adjusted in the vicinity. An alignment tech who loosens it hasn't been properly trained on the GMT360 platform. You only take them out if you're replacing (or flipping) the UCAs.

Lifted folks often flip their UCAs upside down and from side-to-side to improve the mounting angle of the upper ball joint. The OEM design puts a lot of stress on the ball joint shaft when the suspension is fully extended. Some have been known to break.

Here's my buddy Teebes where his driver's side UCA broke after a HARD, HARD day of wheeling in the Truckhaven area of Borrego Springs, CA. 6 hours offroad, and then 3 miles of pavement, and it comes loose on pavement. What are the odds?

 

[jrSS]

Oh snap!

 

[2002tbva]

Thanks for the clarification. I was able to tighten it up pretty well but it took the wrench and pry bar to get it done. I'm sure I went way over the recommended torque but I got it in so I'm happy.

On another note I was able to get my front stabilizer end links and bushings in but the rear will have to wait till I know they are bad (they looked pretty good) since there is no way to really reach the top bolts unless you remove the trailing arm which I am not in the mood to do. What a PITA

Well about to start adjusting the Parking Brake by adjusting the rear brake thingamagigger which you Roadie have explained in a walkthrough elsewhere.

Thanks for all the assistance...really appreciate a site like this !!

Bill

 

[2002tbva]

Hey Roadie - I read your write-up on adjusting the Parking Brake but I have a question. Do you move the star adjuster up or down to adjust to get better grab while pulling the Parking Brake handle inside the truck? The post didn't say anything about which way to adjust so thought i'd ask before I touch it. Don't want to make it worse than before

Thanks !

 

[The_Roadie]

I did that on purpose to make people find out for themselves how sensitive it is. You can also look closely at the threads and predict which way will make the adjuster longer and the fit tighter. But you're going to be putting the rotor on 4-5 times to test each attempt and do it right, so it's not terribly important to get it right the first time. It's also very sensitive, like 2-teeth on the star wheel will take it from too loose to just right.

 

[2002tbva]

I did that on purpose to make people find out for themselves how sensitive it is. You can also look closely at the threads and predict which way will make the adjuster longer and the fit tighter. But you're going to be putting the rotor on 4-5 times to test each attempt and do it right, so it's not terribly important to get it right the first time. It's also very sensitive, like 2-teeth on the star wheel will take it from too loose to just right.

Thanks Roadie - I was able to figure it out. I pretty much adjusted the star (larger gap means adjusted higher) till the rotor couldn't slide back on without out touching the parking brake pad and then adjusted down till they did fit. Parking Brake is a lot better now and grabs nicely on a half way pull from the handle.

Note: After changing the Stabilizer Bar End Links and Bushings I'm having less vibration in the steering wheel while driving but still having a weird thumbing / popping sound while pulling into the driveway. I'll keep an eye on it for the next few days and see what else I can do. I'm going to head to the local shop to ensure the UCA bolt is tight enough and a overall front end inspection since having a lift would help in diagnosing any concerns I can't do with a jack and jack stands.

Question Though - I found some grease around the right CV joint boot (like it was flung out) but I looked and it had no rips in it. How could the grease get out without a rip in the boot? Just curious

Thanks again !

Thanks so much !

 

[v7guy]

If you're getting the popping just when you pull in the driveway... I assume there's a bit of a slope pulling in. Then my first guess would be the new end links aren't in quite tight enough. It's pretty common to have trouble getting them tight enough to be quiet.

Other than that, control arm bushings come to mind. After the rubber in the bushing degrades significantly, the inner metal sleeve that the bolt goes through can smack the bushing housing making a pretty decent clunk/ pop sound. You would mostly hear it when turning up an incline and cycling the suspension a good bit.

I'm sure there's other possibilities too, but these are the most common I've seen,especially considering your mileage.

 

[2002tbva]

You are correct. My driveway has a pretty big incline and that's really when the wife and I hear it. I really did torque the end link bolts to spec and maybe even a tug futher so not sure if this is could be the issue. I will have a shop diagnose for me which I'm thinking is going to be worth the diagnostic cost since I can only do so much with the jack.

It could be the UPA bushings especially since that bolt was out pretty far so it may have caused some issue or occurred due to another issue.

I also have the CV Joint grease issue I noticed so this could also be the issue but i'm thinking I would be hearing a popping when turning sharply but we're not.

Either way keep trying to figure it out since it's the daily driver for the family so I want to make sure its safe as possible.

Thanks so much !

 

[2002tbva]

Just wanted to provide an update on the issue. I took it to a local shop and it looks like the Right Lower Control arm bushing is bad. I also had a little play in the passenger lower ball joint. I'm going to have the shop do the control arm bushing work since it will be a bitch to do in the driveway and I'll tackle the ball joint since I just got done doing the drivers side (up and low) a couple months ago. I might as well do the upper ball joint while I'm at it since I'll have some comfort knowing all 4 are nice and new.

Thanks for everyone's comments !