Ball joint replacement time?

While thoes are awesome there $1600. To get the full steering set.

Sorry for the mis quote.

 

It all depends on what you're after.

As others said, you 100% need to replace them. By far the easiest and most straightforward is to go with OEM or even 555's (next best thing to OEM for ~1/2 the cost).

The anonymous fab ones have "been around" a few years, but kind of off and on. The guy went off grid for a couple years but apparently has gotten back into it recently. But with how much people have talked about them, I'm very surprised no one has posted about having a set. They look really cool, but I'm definitely not one to be the first kid on the block to try them out.

As for others, like Solomotorsports, those aren't just stock replacements (like the Anonymous claims to be). The link above states you need their custom spindles (another $2000). At that point, you're going full long travel, and that gets seriously spendy. Cool if you want long travel and own middle eastern oil fields, but probably not worth it of you're just looking to replace your ball joints.

 

They're done

 

I will be trying the anonymous fab ones as soon as my OEMs are dead this go around.

 

I was just reading the Solo's site I believe the spindle is needed for tundras .

 

$925 for the 4wd 1st gen, plus $1950 for the spindles which are required.

 

Doesn't specify. I can't see a reason it'd be required for the tundra but not the Tacoma, it's the same suspension.

 

The ball joints are different/bigger on the tundras. I think the tie rod location might be in a different spot too.

I was reading about how someone swaped to a tundra spindle and lower ball joints for use on a tacoma. But I believe that you had to use the tundra tie rods also and ream the lower control arms to fit the bigger ball stud.

 

So the conundrum is were to spend the $$

Set of new oem with new bolts is $250.
Anonymous fab. With cors and bolts $ 627
Bald beaver Motorsports $612 shipped

Uniball conversion starts making sense if you need to replace them more than 3 or 4 times.

 

As long as you don’t spend the money on the side of the road waiting for a tow. I don’t have experience with anything other than the OEMs but they sure fit nicely the first time.

 

That all depends. For a daily driven truck that doesn't see hard off road, you're unlikely to need to buy OEM BJs more than 2x given the average life of the truck. Maybe 3 times. There are people running OEM BJs on 200k+ miles. Not that I'd ever recommend that, but still... By the time you replace your BJs 3x (at an "acceptable" replacement interval of ~100k), you're already at 400k miles, which if we're being honest, there aren't a lot of those around. And that's not a ding on reliability, just statistically you're going to total the truck at some point if you're on the road long enough.

The problem with the Anonymous Fab ones is that from what I've seen, a large % of the stock "BJ failures" I see are from the bolts failing, not the ball/cup. Usually some type of "user error" issue (improper torque, etc). Those uniball replacements don't even try to address that issue. So you could potentially install the Anonymous Fab unis and be just as prone to a failure as with OEM BJs. It is what is it, though. It would be impractical to try and address that given the price-point, since doing so would require new spindles (like the Solo Motorsports ones that would run you like $3k).

The calculus changes when you abuse the thing off road and need/want the extra strength associated with uniballs. But uniballs are not a lifetime part. They wear out too, and likely wear out more quickly than conventional balljoints would. Just like high end coilovers that need to be rebuilt regularly, uniballs wear out and need to be replaced, especially when they're open to the elements.

I'm certainly intrigued by the Anonymous kit. The bolt thing doesn't bother me as I own a torque wrench and locktite. My truck is a dedicated 'froader and home depot delivery truck, but I am too cheap for a full TL kit, so something like the Anonymous would be ideal. But like I said earlier, I'm not one to be the first kid on the block to get them. They are untested and unproven as far as I'm concerned.

 

My truck stopped being a daily a few years ago. It's now my trail / camping rig. I definitely put it though it's paces.
I like the idea that the uniball is rebuildable. I live in the desert south west. Mud and snow are pretty rare to me.

 

I just bought some OEM lower ball joints, watched a couple of videos on how to replace and there seems to be a huge discrepancy on the torque for the 4 bolts. I have a 98, my FSM is for a 96 and it says 83 ftlb for the 4 bolts (112 ftlb for the castle nut).

I have seen 2 videos and they say 37 ftlb. Perhaps its a misprint in my manual - looks like they may have copied the wheel torque from the previous line.

It is a ridiculous number for a 14mm bolt but want to be sure.

 

That does seem pretty high. I'll look at mine and see what it says.

Also I ended up ordering a oem set with ne bolts. 225 shipped..

 

Now I looked at a comment in the vid (below) and I'm even more confused, I don't have the ball joint protectors but fail to see how this would affect it. So I'm guessing mine is 59 ft-lbs as my bolts do not have washers.

There is mixed publications about this. Per the service manual, it is 37ft/lbs if you have the ball joint rubber protectors and 59ft/lbs if you don't. He has the rubber protectors. For the 2001-2004 Tacomas, they use a different bolt than the prior years. The prior years used a bolt with a flange while later years used a bolt and washer(what you see here) that commands 37 ft/lbs.