Wheel hub catastrophic failure

Hit a few potholes recently and last night the ball joints decided to give out on a stretch of smooth road after 28 years. Right next to the casino

Anyone else with a similar experience? Today I will get the truck jacked up and tire removed and evaluate the damage.

 

They have been bad for awhile.

 

What fails up must come down.

There is a reason it was redesigned after the first gen, you just found out why. On the first gen, when it's loose/old, it WANTS to come apart due to the design.

 

Sorry to hear this happened OP. Hope you're physically alright.

These situations are a shame, because a few-hundred dollars in ball joints replacements could've saved a couple thousand in collateral damage to the truck

 

That sucks, dont worry OP we will add your truck to the collage. There has got to be hundreds of posts like this where the ball joint becomes no more and the wheel falls off.

 

Yeah very common failure unfortunately. Thankfully it is avoidable, but you have to know about it to avoid it. Seems like a lot of people only learn about it after the fact unfortunately.

Here’s mine: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/lbj-failure.506985/
Thankfully I was going very slow, looks like you weren’t quite as lucky. Hope you’re alright

Just got to keep track of it and replace with new (OEM ONLY) joints every 75-100k and it won’t happen again.

Heres a couple good informational links for the LBJ and LBJ bolts

https://adventuretaco.com/guide/ste...s-lbj-on-a-1st-gen-tacoma-or-3rd-gen-4runner/

https://adventuretaco.com/guide/choosing-lower-ball-joint-lbj-bolts/#google_vignette

TLDR:
04005-03235 is part number for LBJ kit, comes with both left and right but no bolts. Saves quite a bit of money vs buying the left/right separately. If one failed, just replace the other now.

90119-10933 part number for the 'best'bolts, though hard to come by in stock.
The bolts are also a common failure point, don’t reuse the old ones.

 

The root cause of this is a lack of proper maintenance. What else has been neglected?

 

Hmm let’s start with the front shocks in view, proceeding back to the lower control arms, the passenger side is a whole nother thread. But there ain’t nothing wrong with the radio.

For all expressing their concerns for my wellbeing, I appreciate it very much. My lady and I got lucky. We were about to head down a 26 mile long twisty windy dirt mountain road and had just finished filling up the gas tank. Pulled out of the station going about 25 mph down the road and it just gave out. I was able to veer over to the curb, threw the hazards on and waited for a tow at the casino bar. New ball joints otw

 

With your luck, don’t go to the casino

 

Glad you are alright. If you didn’t order new OEM Upper and Lower, send them back and pick some up at your local dealer.

 

So I got her all put back together again.
This is a 1995 truck.

I used:

LBJ #

$136 Genuine Toyota 43340-39436 Ball Joint Assembly

43340-39436 w/ black bolts #90119-10933
UBJ #

$53 Genuine Toyota Parts - Joint Assy,Fr UPR Ba (43310-39016)

43310-39016
NAPA CV axle #941733
NAPA OTRE #PCC ES3546

Also changed the rubber brake line.

I got shafted by NAPA because it appears they sold me the extended travel CV for $170 more and not a direct replacement. My bad for not checking. Seems as if it will be much harder to remove in the future as there are no spots to pry on.

My clutch pedal has a loud pop in it when I push it down now, any ideas what to look at there?

 

Have you tried having someone push the clutch pedal in, while you look from underneath?

Reason I ask is on a friend of mine's truck (98 Tacoma), his clutch slave cylinder hard line wasn't bolted up to the fender/firewall area properly (mistake on our part after replacing the slave cylinder), and it was hanging up on the steering column (and causing a tightness in the steering), when the clutch was depressed.

Inspect for something strange like that happening on yours. Assuming this is a new symptom that arose since you had the LBJ failure, something may be awry down there from collateral damage caused when your knuckle vacated it's position.

 

I was pushing the pedal by hand and looking where the rod goes through the firewall inside the cab, and it seemed as if the noise were coming from that area or maybe just past the firewall in the engine bay.

 

Take a look at the shaft from the pedal to the piston. Mine had some sort of bushing at the fork that disintegrated causing it to buckle a bit. Clutch still worked but with additional effort and a pop.