Taco down, wheel fell off...

So the other day the wheel fell off on a buddy of mine's truck...make that the wheel and the spindle etc. (see pics)

The truck driving through town at maybe 30 mph when it happened.

Does anyone have an idea of why this happened? My thought was that one of the ball joints failed, thus causing the the other to fail, the CV to pull out, the steering rack shaft to break, etc.


Any input on the cost to fix etc would be appreciated.

Sam S.

 

had he done any suspension work or had any done? anything under torqued or not checked after break in period could work its way loose and eventually cause wear to cause something else to break etc.

 

probably the lower ball joint separating from its cup.

 

Is the truck part of the balljoint recall?

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/documentList.xhtml?docId=05V225&docType=RCL

 

yep, LBJ failure. Its super common on 4runners, not so much on tacos. Tacoma LBJ and Outer tie rod ends are actually stronger than the 4runner ones and are a common swap as preventative maintenance.

 

The truck was lifted with a Revtek spacer lift by the previous owners. However, the steering rack was replaced back in December. There was only a few hundred miles put on the truck since the rack replacement.

Thanks for the info on the LBJ failures.

I forgot to mention that it is a 95 4x4 4 cylinder regular cab manual. 3 inch lift on 33's.

 

ball joint fail