Bad ball joint faliure

my 02 taco just gave up i was driving on a road around 45 hit a small bump and bam wheel falls an i grind to a halt 50 feet from the bump now problem is i live in south america. What are the best parts and are japan parts cheap its a 2002 tacoma 3rz 2.7 manual 5 speed

 

Parts are rarely cheap.

 

Either buy stock replacement or moog Don't buy any Chinese off brand shit

 

are there any good diagrams for the front axle and cv joint to the front diff?

 

Everything you need...

 

holy shit that is horrible. Any indication of ball joint failure before this? Were they leaking bad? Torn boot? Grease everywhere?

 

Before you get too worked up about this, There is some prevention stuff you can do for yourself.

When a wheel comes off like this, it's usually a failure of the mount on the LCA, not the ball joint itself. The BJ assembly is held on by 4 bolts. If you look closely at the pic the OP provided, you will see the LCA and 2 of the 4 holes for the BJ assembly mount.

If you loose 2 bolts it is enough to cause the other 2 to shear under the stresses. Mark (The Raisin) had this happen to his a few months ago. Lisa (MTgirl) also had this happen. On hers tho the wheel did not come off completely. She caught it just in time and was able to tow it to a shop for repairs.

You can crawl under your truck and check the 4 bolts that hold the BJ and spindle to the lower control arm. I can't recall exactly what the torque spec is but just make sure they are tight.

I actually replaced all 8 bolts on mine before we went to moab.

 

OP, call Toyota and give them your VIN to see if your truck was included in the LBJ recall, and if it was ever performed. If not, they should strongly consider fixing it for free for you. And apologize for almost killing you.

 

there is no way i can bring it back to the states i live near brazil... i checked under the truck both arms were fine when i left no grease any where, in the pic the grease came out of the front tripod those 3 ballbering on the end of shaft. when i took of the lower ball joint on the wheel hub the screws were so tight like if they were from factory it has 150k miles now broken. the bolts are still yellow marked

 

If you replace it I would look into moog ball joints. A bit pricey but solid.

 

Just did this! Install was about an hour to do both sides, and you already have a head start on disassembly... Not funny but anyway Goodluck with the matter, and glad you and or passengers are all safe!

 

Get MOOG. Check online for prices. I have found them on Amazon cheap.

 

yea i ordered moog parts but i got triple 555 japan lower ball joint , the upper ball joint is moog i just need to order the steering rack points

 

First gen Tacomas has bad ball joint design..its a pull apart design and if ball comes put of socket it fails catastrophicaly!! Second gen is a push together design a d wont fail and allow the wheel to fall off!!!

 

I feel for you as i recently had this happen as well.. Lower Ball joint seperated at the socket.. Mine were aftermarket brand (mevotech, and would never buy again). As in your case this could have been deadly on the freeway. I'm buying my parts from rockauto.com Moog is good and raybestos professional are good too i hear. (i'm going moog).. New CV Axle is best bought with lifetime warranty through a local parts distributor and i was able to get mine for $70USD..

 

tear down pic

 

ps.. those ball joints were replaced about 20K miles ago.. never going cheep again..

 

The socket and the ball look dry as a bone. Were they cleaned before you took the pic?

 

I thought the same thing. Looks like it was dry for a while too, looking at the wear pattern on the ball. This was not a sudden failure. You should never see this with 20K on a ball joint.

 

Toyotas stupid non Failsafe design!!! Balljoint under tension all the time and fails catastrophicaly. Thank god they realized the problem and changed it to a compression balljoint on the newer trucks. First gen Tacoma balljoint design was a carry over from the Torsion bar trucks..difference is the top balljoint t was the load carrier and of the compression design..the lower was an idler minimal load design. First gen Tacoma has the lower balljoint as the load carrier with pull apart tension design..foolish idea!!! Hence the catastrophic failures.