RCX 6” rear lower control arm issue

[Jesse farias]

What’s up guys , ima new member and this is my first thread I’ve started, so a quick intro before I state my issue . I have a 2015 Ram 1500 5.7l 4x4 crew cab , I’ve had it for about a year now here’s a quick pic #1 mines the blueish grayish one . Since I first bought the truck I’ve added a few different mods , an S&B cai, rough countries front bumper guard , and rough countries DS2 side steps, and rough countries leveling strut here’s another pic#2 okay so I didn’t like the leveling strut much not for the ride quality it rode real smooth very close to stock but I wanted more height so I ultimately went with the rough country 6” lift kit with the full struts up front and full coil spring in the rear , install took a while here in the driveway , bought 13 hrs total . I ran into an issue with the hard ware they sent for the driveshaft and spacer , it was a half inch to long and would bind on my transfer case when I would spin the front drive shaft by hand so I cut them down and boom problem solved he’s a pic#3&4 of the 6 inch lift with method racing wheels MR605 20x10 -24offset and a set of 35x12.50 yo-yo open country R/T tires. Anyways 2,000 miles go by I’m doing my regular check up for lose hardware on the suspension when I come across this pic#5. I’m curious to see if anyone with this lift has had this issue or maybe y’all haven’t noticed yet I’d definitely check it . If some one can post a pic of theirs so I can see if maybe I installed it wrong somehow or where and how this issue occurred , any help is much appreciated and sorry for the long thread

 

[Lyle Longboat]

Rear lower control arm slightly crooked. Unloose the bolts and use wedge in there when tightening down. Looks like your bushings blown out but can’t see the top. She’s crooked anyways and that may have did in your bushing. How much torque you put in those? If you really wanted too, ditch them and go with core 4x4 rear control arms, even just the lowers. Way better!

 

[Lyle Longboat]

Oh, and that’s a nice looking truck brother!

 

[RedSRT4Me]

View attachment 212008 View attachment 212009 View attachment 212012 View attachment 212013 View attachment 212015 What’s up guys , ima new member and this is my first thread I’ve started, so a quick intro before I state my issue . I have a 2015 Ram 1500 5.7l 4x4 crew cab , I’ve had it for about a year now here’s a quick pic #1 mines the blueish grayish one . Since I first bought the truck I’ve added a few different mods , an S&B cai, rough countries front bumper guard , and rough countries DS2 side steps, and rough countries leveling strut here’s another pic#2 okay so I didn’t like the leveling strut much not for the ride quality it rode real smooth very close to stock but I wanted more height so I ultimately went with the rough country 6” lift kit with the full struts up front and full coil spring in the rear , install took a while here in the driveway , bought 13 hrs total . I ran into an issue with the hard ware they sent for the driveshaft and spacer , it was a half inch to long and would bind on my transfer case when I would spin the front drive shaft by hand so I cut them down and boom problem solved he’s a pic#3&4 of the 6 inch lift with method racing wheels MR605 20x10 -24offset and a set of 35x12.50 yo-yo open country R/T tires. Anyways 2,000 miles go by I’m doing my regular check up for lose hardware on the suspension when I come across this pic#5. I’m curious to see if anyone with this lift has had this issue or maybe y’all haven’t noticed yet I’d definitely check it . If some one can post a pic of theirs so I can see if maybe I installed it wrong somehow or where and how this issue occurred , any help is much appreciated and sorry for the long thread

Pic #5 looks like you tried greasing the bushings after it was torqued down.

Loosen the bolt, use a screwdriver to relieve excess grease from the bushing.
Once you are ready to torque the bolt back down grease the bushing. You'll start to see it expand in the joint.
Lastly torque back to spec.

 

[ram1500rsm]

OP, I thought that offshot was closed in Cleghorn. assuming that's Cleghorn of course
It seems your bushing just deformed badly. What LCA's are those ? They seem to be stock ones but i've never seen a rubber bushing deformed like that unless you did the tightening while the truck was in the air applying load to the bushing without having the bushng in a neutral position. when tightneing control arms with rubber bushings is best to do them with the full weight of the truck on top of them with your suspension at rest and sitting flat.

Also if those are stockers they don't have zerk fittings for greasing, and they don't need to be angled in any way because they only fit one way and the bushing doesn't flex side to side, plus assuming you can apply 200 ft/lbs to them you're not going to hurt them putting Gorila muscles in them to tight them down.

I'll be inclined to think you did put torque in them while the wheels were in the air with either your suspension at full droop or with the suspension compressed, so the bushing was binding for a while. but it's weird they look like like that either way, that's how poly bushings will look like when you put too much torque or like it was said when you greased them without removing torque from the bolt assuming they don't have an internal relief.

 

[ram1500rsm]

Are those RC arms ?
This is how the stock rear lowers look like, top is stock, bottom looking brand new are the Moevotech Supreme stock replacements.
by RAM RSM, on Flickr

Stock rear uppers
Untitled by RAM RSM, on Flickr

Untitled by RAM RSM, on Flickr

We can't appreciate from the picture if those arms are tubular ? it seems the RC kit comes with rear control arms? so it may be also possible that if those are RC arms their bushings are notoroius for being on the very and absolute cheap side.
I have a 4" long arm RC kit in my my 01 Jeep WJ and i think it's decent though i don't care about running the best of the west in that application. For what it is it gets the job done but i do know their bushings are a hit or miss. If they last you scored them for very cheap

 

[Jesse farias]

Rear lower control arm slightly crooked. Unloose the bolts and use wedge in there when tightening down. Looks like your bushings blown out but can’t see the top. She’s crooked anyways and that may have did in your bushing. How much torque you put in those? If you really wanted too, ditch them and go with core 4x4 rear control arms, even just the lowers. Way better!

I used the torque specs I found somewhere In this form , it said 200ft/lbs , do you think it became crooked when because I locked em down while the truck was still jacked up ?

 

[Jesse farias]

OP, I thought that offshot was closed in Cleghorn. assuming that's Cleghorn of course
It seems your bushing just deformed badly. What LCA's are those ? They seem to be stock ones but i've never seen a rubber bushing deformed like that unless you did the tightening while the truck was in the air applying load to the bushing without having the bushng in a neutral position. when tightneing control arms with rubber bushings is best to do them with the full weight of the truck on top of them with your suspension at rest and sitting flat.

Also if those are stockers they don't have zerk fittings for greasing, and they don't need to be angled in any way because they only fit one way and the bushing doesn't flex side to side, plus assuming you can apply 200 ft/lbs to them you're not going to hurt them putting Gorila muscles in them to tight them down.

I'll be inclined to think you did put torque in them while the wheels were in the air with either your suspension at full droop or with the suspension compressed, so the bushing was binding for a while. but it's weird they look like like that either way, that's how poly bushings will look like when you put too much torque or like it was said when you greased them without removing torque from the bolt assuming they don't have an internal relief.

The pic was taken in Honda valley near 173 and 138 , and you are absolutely correct I did torque down while suspension was on full droop, whoops ! Same with the grease man your like a psychic haha , okay so how should I go about fixing this? Is the bushing done for ? Here’s another pic of the other side of the control arm

 

[Jesse farias]

Are those RC arms ?
This is how the stock rear lowers look like, top is stock, bottom looking brand new are the Moevotech Supreme stock replacements.
by RAM RSM, on Flickr

Stock rear uppers
Untitled by RAM RSM, on Flickr

Untitled by RAM RSM, on Flickr

We can't appreciate from the picture if those arms are tubular ? it seems the RC kit comes with rear control arms? so it may be also possible that if those are RC arms their bushings are notoroius for being on the very and absolute cheap side.
I have a 4" long arm RC kit in my my 01 Jeep WJ and i think it's decent though i don't care about running the best of the west in that application. For what it is it gets the job done but i do know their bushings are a hit or miss. If they last you scored them for very cheap

The rough country lca’s are in fact tubular , here’s a pic of the other side

 

[Jesse farias]

OP, I thought that offshot was closed in Cleghorn. assuming that's Cleghorn of course
It seems your bushing just deformed badly. What LCA's are those ? They seem to be stock ones but i've never seen a rubber bushing deformed like that unless you did the tightening while the truck was in the air applying load to the bushing without having the bushng in a neutral position. when tightneing control arms with rubber bushings is best to do them with the full weight of the truck on top of them with your suspension at rest and sitting flat.

Also if those are stockers they don't have zerk fittings for greasing, and they don't need to be angled in any way because they only fit one way and the bushing doesn't flex side to side, plus assuming you can apply 200 ft/lbs to them you're not going to hurt them putting Gorila muscles in them to tight them down.

I'll be inclined to think you did put torque in them while the wheels were in the air with either your suspension at full droop or with the suspension compressed, so the bushing was binding for a while. but it's weird they look like like that either way, that's how poly bushings will look like when you put too much torque or like it was said when you greased them without removing torque from the bolt assuming they don't have an internal relief.

Here’s a top view

 

[ram1500rsm]

Unfortunately they might be toasted depending how long you ran them like that. Loosen all the bolts liberally on all 4 if you touched all 4 arms, then jump in your truck bed and rock the rear as much as you can then tighten everything to specs. I'm affraid it'll be too late as judged by the pics though.

As for options if you need replacements, send the pictures to RC and see if they can send you new control arms, they seem to be good in that regards. Otherwise you'll need a new set of rear arms.

Good luck.

 

[RedSRT4Me]

I used the torque specs I found somewhere In this form , it said 200ft/lbs , do you think it became crooked when because I locked em down while the truck was still jacked up ?

Bingo. You need the truck to have weight on the suspension when torquing the bushings down. Just press new ones in. It's all labor, parts are fairly cheap and will really improve your ride

 

[Jesse farias]

Bingo. You need the truck to have weight on the suspension when torquing the bushings down. Just press new ones in. It's all labor, parts are fairly cheap and will really improve your ride

Gotcha , my next questions going to be how do I find bushings for these control arms if they are an aftermarket Lca for a 6” lift ?

 

[ram1500rsm]

Call RC. I don't think you can change the bushings on those just like the stockers. If they have them then you can save some dove. You may need new control arms though but it doesn't hurt to ask them.
Good luck.

 

[RedSRT4Me]

Gotcha , my next questions going to be how do I find bushings for these control arms if they are an aftermarket Lca for a 6” lift ?

Press replacement bushings in.