Everything You Always Wanted About Lower Ball Joint Bolts

Over half of the ball joint failures I've seen have been the failure of the bolts. (That's on and off road). The separation (failure) of the actual ball is almost exclusively due to total lack of maintenance and the LBJs being passed, well beyond, their service life... like to the tune of tens of thousands of miles past their service life.

The bolt failure is not exceedingly rare. It's actually exceedingly common. And it very often has nothing to do with offroad driving.

 

As stated earlier in this thread, ball joints typically fail from lack of maintenance and bolts typically fail from hard off roading.

This is an approach to remove the lbj

https://solomotorsports.com/shop/suspension-kits-ford-toyota/toyota-suspension-kits/tacoma-4runner-fjcruiser-off-road-suspension-kits/xlt-suspension-kit/

You can buy or make your own lower arms and spindle.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. Even though its easy to see in the design of the 1st gen ball joint assembly I didn't realize that that the location of the tie rod/steering was different between 1st and 2nd gen. And I can see that adding to the forces on the 1st gen that would contribute to shear

 

Another issue I've had is the odd angle I'm holding the torque wrench at during torquing of the bolts makes it difficult to get a positive click for two of the LBJ bolts (I think the two closest to the spindle.
It sucks because you'll think it's possible you've inadvertently over-torqued, but then you don't want to back them out and re-torque for fear of distortion fatigue as shown earlier in this thread.
I literally went out and replaced bolts on my truck the last time a re-read this thread--even though I'm pretty sure I replaced them the first time I read this thread--- and I probably over-torqued at least two of them while trying to keep the torque wrench in line.
These bolts are driving me crazy, makes me not trust the truck in the field.

 

Im getting my LCAs replaced so my truck can hold an alignment and my mechanic said the LBJs should be replaced at the same time since it’s hard to pry the control arms and ball joints apart without ripping the rubber and/or possibly damaging some other part of the joint. My OEM joints only have 20k or so miles on them though. Does anyone have experience with this?

Also, the part I found on Ourisman Toyota comes with hardware - does anyone know the torque specs for these? I recall there being some disagreement on what they should be torqued to. Thanks.

 

That sounds like a ridiculous statement to me. I've removed my LBJs many times (to replace them) and have never ripped the rubber boot or damaged them in any way. That's the whole point of a pitman arm puller.

Those are the green bolts. 59 ft-lbs.


You can look through everything involved in the process, with photos, here: Step-by-Step Replacing Lower Ball Joints (LBJ) on a 1st Gen Tacoma – AdventureTaco

 

Great research. Have a '99 4WD V6 Extended Cab Tacoma. "Black Bolts" look like best option but I'm entangled in the "do I have to use the dust cover with them" thing since apparently those weren't used till 2000. Have the ARP bolts but then tripped over info here that they rust almost immediately. Am acumulating parts to do ball joints and more and the LBJs came with 4 bolts each, no part number associated, look dull grey. Dunno which bolts / torque to use. (ARP 59 ft lbs, Toyota greys 37 ft lbs? Any clues for me and my '99?

 

Toyota parts counter or online ... 90119-10933

You need 8 of em

 

Ok, so I have just about everything I need to re-do these LBJs. (M12 ARP bolts took a while to get here from Summit).

I'm going to build up the spindle and @TOTAL CHAOS LBJs to change from the M10 bolts to M12 bolts.

 

Disassembly underway.



One thing I found interesting. The locater sleeves are completely GONE. (This is the side that did NOT break).

 

are the missing sleeves same size as OEM sleeves?

 

It'll be kind of hard to tell. Being as the missing sleeves are... not here to measure.

 

I think they would since it fits into the spindle, right? Have you given any thought into filling the spindle space between the inner bolt holes? Between the 2 ears where the bolt holes are.

 

Mine are machined out. Looks like yours are actually sleeved like OEM or am I seeing it wrong?

 

You are correct. Mine were sleeve like OEM. You can see where the sleeves were broken off where it's flush on the LBJ.

 

Interesting. I wonder when they changed that design. When did you buy yours?

 

May of 03

 

Sorry, I meant the TC lbjs. I’m guessing they had a redesign at some point.

 

I'm surprised they were machined out of the billet chunk vs being pressed/tapped in roll pins like the ones that line up a cylinder head. Making them out of the original body of the BJ conversion makes them a very thin feature.