cotter pin in lower ball joint bolts

Looking for others input whether this is a good idea. I was thinking about adding a cotter pin to the 4 bolts that hold the lower ball joint to the hub. These bolts are notorious for backing out. I may only be able to get a cotter pin on two of the bolts because 2 of the 4 bolts aren't exposed at the end once tightened. I put lock tight on them when I reassemble but was thinking about this to avoid lock tight every time and more peace of mind. Red lines in picture indicate where the cotter pins would go. Anyone ever done this?

 

A cotter pin will not prevent the bolt from failing if it does back out to the point that the cotter pin is actually doing something. The constant cycling at that point would fatigue the bolt in no time and it would fail anyway. If you use medium grade locktight and torque them to spec (59 ft-lbs), and check them every once in a while, you will have no problems. You can also use a paint pen or similar to make a match-mark once they're torqued, then it's really easy to see if they move at all without having to check them with a wrench.

 

if I'm looking at this right, even if the others backed out, these two by leverage would hold the joint steady. But drr is prob. right. On my tractor pins like this would get wiped out by grass constantly anyway.

 

Thanks for your input, you are probably right that the bolts will fail at that point anyways. Marking the bolts after tightening them is a good idea. It will just take a quick glance each time I'm under there.

 

Red Loctite applied, Torqued to spec, holds.
I've never seen a Taco BJ bolt back off if done so.

besides...
You likely won't need bust them loose for at least 100K or more.

if ya gotta turn them off by hand, heat up the bolt and it'll soften the Locktite and turn.

or use pneumatics and that'll bust them free pronto.

Remember... always use new BJ bolts if removal occurs.
Even if ya don't replace the existing BJ.
~ New Bolts, Red Loctite, Torque to Spec. ~

^ One of the plausible reasons why others BJ bolts have failed.
~ busts 'em loose, re-uses bolts, blue locktite cause it was handy, blame's the truck ~

 

I have been using the blue loctite and they have come out easy with an impact gun, been lucky so far. I need to buy a bunch of these bolts it sounds like. I take them out frequently replacing cv axels.

 

If you remove them often... then I'd say so

Problem is thread stretch after they've been torqued to spec.
I believe toyota labels these particular bolts for single use only.

Stretched threads deform and will not bite, hold as well as new would...
and the failure to understand, could become life threatening.

Plus if that lower BJ mount busts loose...
gonna be a whole lot of extra repairs needed $$$$

 

yes some of my threads were a little stretched. Need to get some new ones asap. Plus trying to get all the old loctite out of the threads is tedious. I didn't know these had to be replaced each time. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

$2.00 each bolt at the dealership. I replaced the balljoints last month. I used blueloctite and torqued to specs. Good to go for next 2 or 3 years

 

would it be safe to take the bolts out and replace them one by one with all four wheels on pavement, or does anyone recommend jacking the truck up to get weight off?

 

OEM fails after 100K + miles, new OEM balljoints and bolts, blue loctite and torque to specs like others have said. If you do this yourself and do it right it's not as worrisome a problem as people make it out to be. Whenever you change your brakes inspect your bj's and bolts. You now have more time to worry about check engine lights revolving around the emission system.

 

If you have removed your lbj bolts often, it might not be a bad idea to replace them. However, there is no need to replace them every time you bust them loose, they are grade 10.9 bolts (~136 ksi yield) and torquing them to spec will not even come close to permanently deforming them. Also, medium grade loctite (blue) is plenty of torque augmentation if you're checking them regularly.

 

if you are really paranoid you can always safety wire them.

 

tac weld them

 

What type of bolt is this? I'm interested because I think it could be the QD solution to mounting a tool box in my taco.

 

As others said, just throw some red loctite on the threads and torque to spec. Done.

 

Jbrant- I'm not looking for my lower ball joint. I am trying to find a cotter pin like this (ironically google image search took me here). Basically want to do the drop bar mod for the bed track system, then mount my tool box with bolts and cotter pins, so I can pull in and move the box out (I've got a 3 fold tonaeu cover).

 

Well, generally you should always support the truck on jackstands when doing work on it. However I wouldn't see a problem with doing one bolt at a time.

That said, why would you be replacing the bolts, but not the BJ itself? These bolts aren't "wear items". The bolts will last FAR longer than the BJ itself.

 

Just make a new thread about what kind of bolt it is. You're just going to have people chiming in for years that it's not a ball joint bolt.

 

figuring that out now...lol. Thanks