Difficulty Greasing SPC UCA Bushings

[Mr Nick]

I recently developed a terrible bushing squeak. I was able to grease the LCA and all other steering/suspension zirks as well, except the SPC UCA zirks. My grease gun simply won't flow any grease and the handle is difficult to squeeze. I removed a zirk fitting from one of the UCA and inserted it into the grease gun, and it flowed just fine. Reinstalled the zirk fitting into the UCA cross shaft, and once again hard to squeeze the handle and no grease flowed.

I've emailed SPC about it, but was wondering if anybody else has experienced this?

Something else I noticed while investigating the squeak... if I loosen the nuts on the LCA bolts, the car is much easier to bounce by hand. Even after greasing the LCA bushings and snugging the nuts (not overly tight), the suspension becomes much stiffer when trying to bounce the car by hand. Like the bushing is being pinched by the frame mount. Shouldn't the metal bushing sleeve be long enough to prevent the poly bushing from getting pinched like that?

Thank you!

[Mr Nick]

Update: I pulled the driver side UCA today with a plan to disassemble it, clean and grease the bushes, reassemble and install. Once it was removed, I even tried swapping the zerk fittings and the issue stayed with only the front bushing. The front bushing also had more resistance and a bit of a gritty feel as well, compared to the rear bushing. The rear bushing accepts grease just fine.

I began to disassemble it, and notice it uses double snap rings. After I had one snap ring removed, there is a little movement in the bushing and the mount, so I thought "what the heck" and tried to grease it again. It worked! I pumped grease in till it started to spooge out the sides, put the snap ring back on and tried to grease it some more... no dice. Weird.


I put it all back together and went for a ride, no more squeak!

I will add that the metal sleeve around the bushing that the adjustable arms bolt to rotate nice and free when the arms are not snugged in place. Once I tightened the adjustable arms into the bushing sleeve (shown above) they don't rotate as freely. Maybe they distort a bit, not sure.

[qwk406]

Did you give Mark at SC&C a call?
By the way I'm ordering these arms this week to install on my 69 chevelle, what's your experience with them?

[CTravis]

Did you give Mark at SC&C a call?
By the way I'm ordering these arms this week to install on my 69 chevelle, what's your experience with them?

FYI... https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...spension-parts

[Mr Nick]

I did not call Marcus, but I did get a very lengthy and informative reply directly from SPC. I'm confident we'll get it figured out.

Other than this weird grease issue, I have no issues with the SPC upper or lower control arms. I'd confidently buy from them again, especially after how quick and thorough their tech department replied to me. Good luck in that area with China parts.

[Mr Nick]

SPC has been very helpful with this, their customer service is great.

Turns out my UCA's with the snap ring retainers are an older style and service parts are not available. I am replacing the cross shafts and pivots to the newer bolt on style, which also have the zerk fittings in a more convenient location.

[pitts64]

SC&C has been ghosting a lot of people lately. I quit referring customers to him.. Time for a new plan...

[Sleeper68]

SPC has been very helpful with this, their customer service is great.

Turns out my UCA's with the snap ring retainers are an older style and service parts are not available. I am replacing the cross shafts and pivots to the newer bolt on style, which also have the zerk fittings in a more convenient location.

I have the newer nut style like you're going with. To grease mine I back the nut off so the old grease has somewhere to go. I guess the snap rings hold in the old grease, not allowing new grease to enter. Kinda like an engine cylinder with water/coolant in it. The liquid is non-compressible.

Why change the cross shafts out specifically? Are you concerned about replacing the bushings themselves or the snap rings? If it's just snap rings I'm sure SPC will tell you who they procured them from back in the day, or you can measure them and find a replacement option. The bushings are a different story but they shouldn't really be wearing out. I would think the bushings would last 100K+ miles.