[cohunter14]

I have been trying to replace the ball joints on my Rough Country UCA's this morning and ran into an issue. I bought the FA903 Autozone ball joints that Rough Country recommends, but when trying to get the new ball joint into the UCA, I found that it doesn't fit. The top portion of the ball joint where the bolts are is definitely wider than the original ball joint that I removed and because of that, I cannot for the life of me get the new ball joint into place. Anyone else run into this issue or have an idea on how to make it work? I confirmed that the part is correct from Autozone as well. Any help is appreciated!

 

[PaPro4x]

Do you have the older style RC or new ones?

 

[cohunter14]

Older style. The ball joint is a bolt on.

 

[PaPro4x]

Did you specifi that to RC?

 

[cohunter14]

Yes, and the new ball joint looks identical to the old one. It's just 1/8" or so wider and will not fit.

 

[cohunter14]

I'm going to go ahead and post this up for anyone who runs into this issue down the road. So I have the older model Rough Country arms. I believe these were the original design. The ball joint bolts in with four bolts and the ball joint actually fits in between two lips on the Upper Control Arm. The next model had the same ball joint, but they got rid of the lip design and the ball joint just bolted in. They made this change because the ball joint changed in design, now being about 1/8" thicker than the original design. Because it was thicker, it no longer fit in between those two lips. The newer model completely changed ball joints, so you wouldn't have to worry about this issue. After speaking with Rough Country, there is really now way to replace the ball joint on this model, so they offered me a new set of the upgraded UCA's for $180. Although I'm not thrilled about this, I think it was good of Rough Country to at least be able to offer that (they are normally $300). Just an FYI to anyone out there who runs into this issue!