Need lower ball joint help.

I have a. New to me 99 tacoma 4x4. I was under the truck today and noticed this out of place bolt at the Lower Ball joint. I need either the name or the size of the bolt so I can replace it with the proper one. ( hopefully it's not striped. Maybe I can just run a tap up it?)

Did I mention I love fixing other people's screw ups.

 

Don't drive it like that if at all possible! You need to replace them all as well. One looks bent! You can get them at Toyota I believe.

 

And they should not have nuts on them either... that looks extremely scary.....

 

These are the correct bolts

 

I'm not. I was going to pull and replace the bolts one at a time with the correct ones. Plus I have to do front rotors and pads and rear shocks.

 

If I had to guess, which I suppose I am, it looks like someone stripped out the threads, then drilled the hole oversize, and used the bolt and nut.

 

Bingo.
You could try a helicoil. But replacing the entire spindle would be the proper fix.

 

I'm betting the reason there is a bolt/nut there is because the threads stripped out. I recently posted about a similar situation I'm in, as I stripped one out on reassembly a few weeks back. I stripped the outter threads, closer to the wheel.

You are likely looking at a whole new spindle to "properly" fix it.

There is debate about how strong a helicoil type repair is, I would try and reseach the strength of a helicoil repair, and maybe talk to a mechanic to see what they would do (I bet a toyota mechanic will just tell you to replace the whole thing...).

You might be able to fix that one if you can fabricate an angled spacer so as to not bend the bolt like that. But then you bring the bolt that much closer to the CV housing so not sure that would clear, and the spacer would have to be extremely strong.

You start to see why people usually recommend just replacing the whole spindle for the best possible outcome, and piece of mind... this is one of those times I would say get a genuine oem part, though I have had good luck before with non oem ball joints (moog, and now 555). I would see if you can get a spindle with the bearing pre installed, might as well get a new bearing while you're in there, too...

 

If I had the time to do a tensile test between a thread replacement and original threads I am sure it would prove interesting .

If anyone has any better way to test the two I would love to hear.

 

There are always things that can happen when theory hits the real world. That said these guys probably aren't blowing smoke.



http://www.helicoil.in/pdf/helicoil catalogue.pdf

http://www.stanleyengineeredfasteni...loads/Tensile_Strength_Bulletin_Metric_LR.pdf

 

The bolt/nut is a much smaller diameter than the original hole. I won't know the reason it was done until I get time to look at it this weekend. I'm assuming it is stripped. I was hoping to just chase the hole with a tap and see if it will torque. ( big maybe) What I really need is the bolt specs so I can pick up a replacement.

If that Fails then I'll replace the spindle.

 

I believe the bolts are a 10 x .125 metric. I think they are 10.9 grade as well.

 

This is the out of place bolt in question. It looks like the old bolt broke off in the spindle. The previous owner just drilled a small hole and ran this tiny bolt. I'm going to try removing the remains of the old bolt. If that Fails what is everyone's thoughts on drilling and tapping the hole? ( I know quit being cheep and replace the spindle. ) funds are low this is the 3rd Maybe 4th repair to the truck in the 2 months I have owned it.

 

Man if you take the spindle all the way off .
File down the old bolt flat if can the slowly drill it in increasing in size sometimes you can use a small punch,pick etc and tap the remaining slivers out and the stock threads will be mostly intact, Chase w tap.
If you end up over sizing. Idk try tappi g to next larger but then ur weakening the amount of metal around bolt.
Man it's just such a costly part to have a failure on. Could mean death in all honestly if it let go wrong time.
It could be more then oops need another tow truck.

 

Toyota guys are drama queens. If the old bolt is broke off in there see if you can get it out, chase the threads and insert proper bolt. If you can't get it out or the factory threads are buggered, drill and tap it one size bigger and use a quality bolt and you'll be fine.