BillyBobJoe

I installed a set of lakewood adjustable LCAs a few months back, they worked great for the first few weeks and I beat on them for thos first few weeks pretty hard. I got up to Tallahassee where its somewhat hilly and I started hearing a loud pop every once in a while from the rear (especially the driver's side) when I'd start from a stop. Then it got louder and I noticed that it was cauing the axle to shift sideways and I'd be steering somewhat sideways. Basically when the rear end is under a medium load it pops sideways and then if I brake or upshift hard it knocks back but in first and sometimes second it's troublesome. I got under the car earlier and noticed a significant amount of grease around the bushings of the driver's side LCA where it mounted to the car. That is the only bushing with a lot of grease on it.

Could I just need to tighten up the bolts and make sure the LCAs are the right length, or could it be something worse like the pinion angle? Thanks in advance.

22kart22

They could be loose, but my guess is that the polyurethane bushings wore out, probably because of not enough grease.

Take the rears off and check for slop.

Worse comes to worse you need to get new bushings, thats all

PLstang

I have the lakewoods and haven't had any problem. However, I haven't had them that long. Let us know what it turns out to be.

F1Fan

Hi BillyBobJoe,

Call Lakewood up and order new bushings for all four corners of the LCA's. Go to the local hardware store and buy some blue LocTite. Go to your local Ford dealership and order any of the fasteners foryour LCA's that Lakewood did not include new fasteners in the kit for. Break out your 1/2" torque wrench and tools.Once you have thenew Ford bolts andnuts in hand put the car's *** up in the air supported by jack standson theframe or if you have them,pinch weld jacking pads. Pull off the wheels andput a floor jack under the pumpkinlifting slightly about a1/2" or so.Removethe suspect LCA's fasteners, clean and inspect the fastenerslooking for damaged or strectched threads in the area where the nuts were when on the car. After inspection throw out thebolts and nuts,do not reuse them! Disassemble the bushings, clean with solvent and dry throughlyinspecting closely for tearsor cracks. Pull one of your stock LCA's and use it for a measurement fixture confirming that both Lakewood LCA's are adjusted to the correct length which should be thesame as stock using thestock bolts confirming length.If the bushings are in good shape with no damage grease theclean dry bushings with Mobil Pure Synthetic Grease or Synthetic marine grade greaseof you choice and reassemble carefully. Using the new Ford sourcedfasteners reinstall the LCA and torque to factory specs unless the Lakewood instruction sheet specifically specifies torque specs on the installation sheet. Go to the other side and repeat followed bydouble checking your under car work and mounting the wheels. Drop the car to theground andtorque the lug nuts in a star pattern in three steps finishingat 100ft/lb.

HTH!

BillyBobJoe

Thanks. This is what I needed to hear. My current story is that I took my car to a friends house. I parked the car there and he drove me the remaining 5hrs home with some other buddies. I'm putting together a box of tools and stuff to take back with me. So far, my "kit" includes:

2 jackstands
Handtools
Tq wrench
loc-tite
new LCA fasteners
grease
measuring tape
and just in case...both stock LCAs.

F1Fan

Hi BBJ,

Bummer thatyour car is far from home. BUT IMO better safe thanin a ditch with suspensionproblems that cause your carto steer in anunpredictable way. As to the length of the LCA's I was assumming that your car was not lowered based on your signature and that the LCA's are not needed to set proper pinion angle. If this is not the case and the LCA's were set to length for proper pinion angle confirm that they are the same length and if not set them to the stock length for th ride home. Thenonce back in town set thepinion angle using the level or digital angle finder methods. Do you have a small floor or bottle jack? You may need it to get the LCA's to align when reassembling the LCA's into the chassis and axle.

Hope this helps your get back safe, and keep us posted!

BillyBobJoe

will do. I don't have much ability to check pinion angle, but a buddy of mine is working on getting a shop built in my area so I'll take the car there soon enough and get it fixed to 100%

BillyBobJoe

so i brought up what I could, not much space to work, just a parking lot, but as soon i can i'll jack it up and get to work. I have to order the fasteners, the dealer I went to didn't have them. Bushings are also on order so it could take a few days before I fix this. I'm pretty sure the bushing on the driver's side LCA is shot. I crawled under with some better light and it looked pretty messy so I'll try and replace it all next week when everything is ready.

F1Fan

Hi BBJ,

Ugh, sorry to hear you have to wait a few days for parts.I think it will be work the waitto only have to pull the LCA's once and have EVERYTHING needed to repair the car properlyon hand. Remeber the LCA's are 129ft/lb torque on both ends unless Lakewood has supplied you new hardware and specified a different torque level. Keep us posted and good luck!

Cheers!

Slink

F1Fan,

Instead of the Ford fasteners, could you purchase grade 8 bolt and nuts from your local hardware store ?
Is there something special about the Ford fasteners? On my 72 Chevy PU with trailing arms, I just replaced all the bolts and nuts with grade 8 hardware when I rebuilt the suspension.