Front End Rebuild Help

Hi all, I’m putting together a list of parts and tools to install the following on my 2001 Pre Runner (2wd) (225K miles):

-Upper and Lower Control Arms (both sides) (Moog)
-Upper and Lower ball joints (both sides) (Moog upper, OEM lower)
-Monroe shock/strut assembly, both sides
-Remanufactured rack and pinion

I have a 1/2” impact, lots of wrenches, sockets, breaker bars, jack stands, floor jack, torque wrench, dead blow hammer, and lots of other misc tools.

I know I’ll be needing a front end service kit, either a fork or threaded puller for ball joints (although since I’m replacing both the arms and ball joints maybe I don’t need this?)

I’d love to hear what I’m missing in terms of tools and hardware (I know there’s some bolts I’ll probably need to replace but I’m going to try and reuse what I have. I live in Texas and my truck is virtually rust free—in my past projects I’ve never encountered a rusted or stuck bolt).

I’m gearing up to do all this as efficiently as possible and I need help making an exhaustive list so I don’t have to run to the store or put the project on hold while waiting for an order. To that end, I’m willing to overbuy and return to make sure I have everything I could possibly need.

Any comments or links to helpful threads would be MUCH appreciated. I’ve done quite a bit of work on this truck in the 10 years I’ve had it and I’m reasonably confident in my abilities—however, I’ve never done suspension work/ steering rack before.

A friendly note: I’m not looking for advice or comments on stuff I’ve already bought. My local Advance auto went out of business last month and I bought most of these parts at 90% off retail. Just thought I’d head that off since I know people have strong opinions on brands

Thanks to anyone and everyone who can chime in—I really appreciate it!

 

That's a big chunk of work, even for someone who has done all that before. I'd budget considerably more time than you think it's gonna take you. Take good pictures. Adventure Taco and Timmy the toolman both have great instructional resources on those tasks. There is a sticky thread at the top of the 1st gen forum where you can find a digital copy of the FSM. It will have all the torque specs.

You'll need line specific wrenches for the steering rack. can't just use a regular open end wrench on the PS or brake lines.

For the lower, because you're replacing both the LBJ and the control arm, you don't have to worry about removing the stud from the arm, but you'll still have to get the outter tie rod out in order to reuse it in the new lower ball joint. DO NOT reuse the (4, x2) existing LBJ bolts. They should be replaced. In order to replace the upper ball joint you'll still have to separate the upper control arm from the ball joint stud - or just cut the stud. You'll still have to press the cup out of the top of the spindle- remember to remove the c clip, or you're gonna have a bad time.

I'd start spraying bolts with pb blaster for a few days before starting the work.

Unfortunately, because of your choice of products, you'll probably be doing the work again soon once those moog parts prematurely fail; not to mention the monroe "quick struts" aren't worth the price of the box they came in- expect the front end to sit lower than your old sagged coilovers. At least you'll have all the tools when you redo the work. These aren't so much "opinions"- they are facts based on years of experience, both personally and anecdotical.

 

Thanks for your input! I’m trying to avoid spending thousands of dollars on this. It’s a 25 year old truck with lots of miles on it. Since people can’t seem to resist commenting on the choice of parts—maybe I’ll amend my post with the caveat that if you disagree with my choices, at least provide alternatives that are affordable. This is a daily work truck for me and I can’t afford to let it sit while I amass a fortune to buy fancy parts.

 

You will likely need new eccentrics for the lower control arm as the bolts like to rust/cold weld in place and often need to be cut out to remove the thing. Additionally, you could just buy new bushings for the control arms and press them in/ bring them to a shop to press in- it would be cheaper and maintain the OEM arms. You could look into using Bilstein 4600 shocks in lieu of the Monroes for a nicer OEM style ride. I’m not sure how much cheaper Monroe is, but the 4600s are fairly affordable for a decent shock.

 

car-part.com lists used control arms in sub $100 range, ES or whiteline bushings aren't expensive. Not sure how the price compares to moog, especially since you got the parts at a step discount. And as mentioned you can get decent pricing on 4600's pre assembled with new moog coils which would be a significantly better choice than the monroe "quick struts". Even if you did buy new OEM arms, you could recover some cost by selling your existing OEM arms on here for someone to R&R the bushings in and slap on their truck.

I don't think anyone here is gonna tell you that you have to spend thousands of dollars to do this "right" (unless it's a lift, then 40 & tons is the only answer). What we are gonna tell you, is that we've seen this all before- The moog products simply do not hold up over time (especially not another 25 years ). Are they fine for a year or two? Sure, but then you'll run into issues holding alignment or just a hard or sloppy front end cause the bushings are toast. It might seem cheaper up front, but it won't be in the long run when those parts wear out much quicker than you're expecting.

 

agreed with Andy01
-set aside double the time for the wrenching
-spray PB blaster at least 2 days b4 starting
-start one side and finish one side(dont try to do both at same time)
GL

 

Gonna be a little order of operations dance doing the Lower control arms and the rack. Probably, coilovers out, rack out, new rack in but not attached, R&R lower and upper control arms (one side at a time), attach new rack, coilovers in...

 

You'll need a ball joint press with the proper cups to press the upper ball joints out of and into the knuckle. Most kits do not come with the cups you need. I ended up buying the OTC kit and spent an extra $50 for the "asian" Toyota/Honda press tools.

 

Please post a link to the "asian" Toyota/Honda press tools if you can. Many Thanks

 

I put Monroe quick struts coil overs and rears on my rusty winter single cab. I bought them off Amzn. Truck is a daily driver and one rear shock was sheared, and one front was leaking. At first I felt like they were too tight, but considering what I had on there as originals (180kmi) this is not surprising.

Then I put Billstein 4600 coilovers from suspention lifts .com with 4600s on rear on my non-winter xtracab replacing the original TRD set up. There was very little noticeable change in ride quality. I was hoping new shocks would stiffen it a little bit. With a year on those, and 3 years on the quick struts, I prefer the tighter ride of the quick struts. Not sure how long they'll last -- they've rusted a bit in 3 years. But that truck will be rotted out before the quick struts fail...

So, I'd say you're fine with the quick struts on a daily driver. I'm happy with them for that purpose and for $300 for a full set of 4 (vs $700 for 4600s) its all good.

I recently did LBJ and had to get a ball joint separator from HF for like $15 to free the outer tie rod end from LBJ. Hammer method did not work. FYI...

A long crowbar is critical for doing front coilovers to pry down the LCA so the strut fits. But since you're taking LCA off maybe non issue.

good luck!

 

The attached PDF shows all the necessary parts. The Amazon link is for the removal tool. Instead of buying the tool, some people choose to saw through the ball joint spindle so that it's short enough to press out some other way.

$76 OTC 6733 Asian Vehicle Ball Joint Adapter Update Kit

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000RIYPSS

Video: https://youtu.be/-sY2azyLBuI?si=_DALEdBpOyftTNPC

 

Thank you!

 

Thanks to all who responded! I opted for Bilstein 4600 coilovers, OEM control arm bushings (I’ll press them in myself or find a shop), OEM lower ball joints, Moog upper ball joints, and a reconditioned rack and pinion. Also a set of OEM lower control arm bolts. With the discounts I got buying these parts on eBay/ closeout it looks like I’ll have spent about $900-$1000 all in. I’ll try to sell the Moog/Monroe parts I got at a steep discount on eBay to recoup some of my cost. Will update when I begin work. I’m considering doing a write up/ photo document of the whole shebang.

 

For anyone still following/interested, here is what I have ahead of this install:

Parts
-(8) OEM control arm bushings
-(4) Moog camber/alignment bolts with sleeves, etc. (in case mine happen to be rusted in place/unusable)
-(2) Bilstein 4600 coilovers
-(2) OEM lower ball joints
-(2) Moog upper ball joints
-(1) Reconditioned steering rack
-(8) OEM lower ball joint bolts

Specialty Tools
-OTC Tools 38354 Receiving Cup
-OTC 7249 3-1 service set
-OEMTOOLS 7/8in Fork Opening Ball Joint Separator (Autozone Rental)
-Pitman Arm Wedge (also considering picking up a threaded pitman arm tool, or renting the whole front end service kit)
-Red Loctite for LBJ bolts (in tutorials, I've seen both red and blue used, but I imagine red is correct)
I guess these bolts need loctite because they're prone to vibration/loosening more than others??
-Grease for camber bolt sleeves
-Anti-Seize


General Tools (already owned, unless noted)
-(2) MAC 6 ton jack stands (good brand, super sturdy jacks, confident in my placement of them, still going to be mildly freaked out most of the time I'm under this truck)
-Daytona 4 ton floor jack
-Milwaukee M18 1/2" impact
-Grey Pneumatic 1/2" impact socket set 10mm-35mm (bought used for this project)
-Snap On torque wrench
-Extensions, ratchets, sockets, chisels, hammers, pry bars, crowbars galore
-Milwaukee Fuel sawzall (hopefully I won't need this)

Tools I might buy
-Harbor Freight or Lisle creeper (Thought experiment: in case of sudden jack stand failure, which exit are YOU going to rocket towards on your creeper? Towards the rear of the truck seems logical, but I thought maybe the rear differential might impede your escape. Sides? Closest, but you can't use your feet to propel the creeper as easily, I imagine you'd be better off just rolling off the creeper to safety...) I'll stop catastrophizing.
-cheap set of HF 3 ton jack stands to support control arms/other parts during the project
-HF wheel chocks
-HF service wrench kit (someone mentioned this might be helpful)

Work will begin in about a week! Most everything has arrived. Chime in if you think I'm leaving something out. Mainly just posting this here to keep track of what I have, but everyone's comments have been super helpful!

 

Thats a good list, looks like my wish list almost exactly but My list is plus and minus a couple items. I do not need a steering rack but i needed front bearings and plus 2 moog end links. I have already done the 4600's
On my coils and timken bearings. Also did powerstop regular front brake kit - calipers, rotors and pads. My shocks were still original tokico's. Doing that on its own made driving so much better night and day. Bearings were a must they were beyond toast. 266,000 miles. I'm plugging away at mine ill be done in a couple months. Good luck happy wrenching.

 

Update: 2.5 hours of wrenching today and I was able to remove both coilovers and free most of the steering rack. Having a bit of trouble with the rag joint bolts (tricky to access even with a wobble joint, plus it was getting cold and dark). Also will probably be picking up some new tie rod ends as the rubber boots were in bad shape. I will also post more detailed pictures of the upper control arms soon—I’m wondering whether or not I even need to mess with the bushings in them. When I got this inspected by Toyota last year they did not mention anything about the upper control arms and so putting new bushings in them may not be necessary. (I know I know, I have them and so I might as well…). If I can limit the scope of work at this point, I probably will. Here’s some photos:

On jack stands and soaking in PB blaster.



Strut bolts came out very easily with the impact.


It’s clear (as the daylight through the bushing) these were thoroughly trashed.

Sway bar out.


Painted the threads on OTREs so I can match later.



Most steering rack bolts came out easily, except the ones connected to the rag joint. I’ll reassess in the morning. Really want to be careful here—stripping these would be a nightmare.


OTRE boots are worse for the wear.


Pic of my totally rustless lower control arm just to piss off the folks in the rust belt.

Steering rack to OTRE connection.

More updates to come!

 

Out of curiosity: why is it necessary to do these one at a time? I’m having a local shop press the new bushings in and it seems like it would be expedient to bring them in all at once?

 

Day 2 update:
Around 4 hours of wrenching today (with a lunch break). I was able to complete the following tasks:
-freed up pesky rag joint bolts
-old steering rack completely removed
-removed lower ball joints
-removed lower control arms
-cleaned up threads and removed gunk from all bolts and parts I plan to reuse
-mounted new steering rack (not totally connected yet)

A couple things to note: for those who plan to tackle this rebuild, Autozone has most (not quite all) the specialty tools you need to get the job done, and rental is free as long as you don’t damage the tools. The only downside is that you need to fork over the complete cost of the tools as a deposit, which in my case was a few hundred bucks (I over-rented to make sure I had everything I needed).

STEERING RACK: my oem remanufactured rack came with zero instructions, and did not have the “witness marks” that Adventure Taco mentions in his write up. Thus, I had to assume (as he notes in his post) that the indexed post on new rack was in a centered position. To make matters more complicated, I found it impossible to couple the two halves of the rag joint the way he describes. Even after sliding the coupled rag joint all the way up the shaft and pivoting the rack, there wasn’t enough clearance to slide it down onto the indexed post. I was therefore forced to take the rack off, bolt the rag joint together, mark the position in paint pen, and then slide it up onto the shaft. Here’s hoping I got the indexing pretty damn close—I had my wife hold the steering wheel in the center position as I was reinstalling the rag joint. YMMV, but this was my experience. Maybe the extra $$$$ for a new OEM rack would have helped. In any case, I got there eventually. Just wanted to note this complication.

Lastly, because I am taking both control arms into my friend’s shop to press the new bushings in tomorrow, I took both of them out at once. I’m still not sure the reasoning behind doing them one at a time, but a couple people have said it’s advisable. Oh well!

Here’s some photos:

Pesky rag joint just before it came loose.


LCA camber bolt before removal. I used a paint pen to mark the positioning of the bolts before removal.






Photos of the camber bolts which were in surprisingly good condition. They'll be reused. I used a sharpie to label them.

Rag joint attached to new steering rack.





Last three photos are views of the new steering rack in position.

Fingers crossed all goes well with pressing in the new bushings tomorrow! There was a shipping delay on the Bilstein coilovers, so they might not get here until Tuesday or Wednesday. Luckily I have the week off. Cheers!

 

Day 3 update:

All went relatively smoothly with the new bushings. I had a local machine shop remove the old ones and press the new ones in. They did a decent job (although parts of the control arm near the bushing are a tad banged up, I assume from the removal process. A fairly small gripe. Today the following tasks were completed in a couple hours:
-New bushings in
-control arms reinstalled and camber bolts aligned to their original position. Note: it’s helpful to leave the control arms supported by a floor jack and slightly adjust the pressure on the jack to help get the camber bolts aligned. This was a bit of a trial and error process for me, as the camber tabs tend to move in tandem at just the wrong moments! Make sure to have a couple wrenches so you can hold one side in place while adjusting the other side. When you have both tabs where you want them, tighten them up. As I’ll be getting an alignment immediately after the shocks get installed tomorrow, I didn’t see the need to fully torque them down. The shop is around the corner from my house.
-new Lower ball joints installed
-sway bar ends installed (the installation of the bar itself will be the last thing I do).

I opted for OEM bushings and lower ball joints, and Moog tie rod ends and sway bar ends. I’ve heard good things about the 555 brand, but these Moogs were readily available and cheaper. We’ll see how they hold up. A quick note on Moog and other aftermarket parts: folks’ experience varies widely with these brands, but my opinion is to stay within your budget and don’t fall for scare tactics by certain members of this forum who like to toss around terms like “Chinesium.” Advice is helpful, but people on here tend to worship at the altar of OEM parts. Great if you can afford them, but just do what you can do to get the job done—save money where you can. Chances are you’ll be fine. I’ll update you if my Moog sway bar links break in half and then the naysayers can have a good laugh. I’ll bet they last a good while. Here’s a few photos:

Pic of new LCA bushing.


Slide the steering rack back while supported by the large bolt so you can gain enough clearance to insert the LCA camber bolts. You will still probably have to insert the bolt with the tab facing down, then rotate it up once you’re past the rubber boot of the steering rack.


New lower ball joint installed. The thin wall 3/8” sockets from Grey Pneumatic were really helpful here because there’s very little clearance on the bolts closest to the rotor.


LCA camber bolts aligned to the marks I made with paint pen.

Tomorrow my Bilstein coilovers will arrive, and I’ll install new upper ball joints, put the struts in, reinstall the sway bar, check to make sure my camber isn’t wildly off, and high tail it to the alignment shop. I’ll post a final update either tomorrow or Thursday and let you all know how it turned out! Cheers.

 

Good update, thanks for posting all the photos. There's a reason some of us worship OEM parts around here. Believe it or not, I had Moog sway bar links installed in 2017 and they did in fact snap in half. Admittedly,, it's not a critical part and I was able to drive 150 miles home without the sway bar attached... The steering was just a bit more "lively."