The Frankenstein Build! LT/Expo/Trail rig..and BS

I asked this In another thread but haven't gotten an answer yet, is there a replacement for the LBJ that is a better option than oem? Like the 1" unibals that come in camburgs?

 

Only two options I am aware of

DD fab and Trac performance make long travel kits with uniball lower control arms to replace the ball joints.

Not cheap and its a 3.5+ kit which not a lot of people want to begin with

 

LSK dipped their toes in the water awhile back about a LCA replacement, but no go

shame nobody's done it yet, I know a lot of us would be in the market

it makes me squeeze a bit every time my shit squeeks hahaha

 

Yeah that's bs there should be a non LT replacement, any companies make a heavy duty lbj? It seems toyota is the best option, I would happily pay for a better option.

 

I think it's more the design than the strength of the bj. The suspension is always trying to rip those bastards out

i guess designing a flipped bj or uniball is a bit much for a stock replacement

some 1st gen LT kits use BJs on the LCA too IIRC

 

Toyota oem is the way to go. No one makes a replacement thats heavy duty so to speak

All Lt kits use lower ball joints other then the two I mentioned.

 

Here's what I don't get and the reason for my previous comment. How often does a LBJ fail before it has, say, 50K miles on it? Hell, if you don't wheel, double that. Monte you had what, 130K on these? Change them out religiously with OEM, and don't worry about it. No need for LT or SAS just becuase a LBJ failed. Hell, if you SAS and then don't touch it for 130K miles, I wouldn't be surpirsed if shit starts breaking too...

I carry trail spares. Monte, how fast were you going both these times that it caused so much other damage? When my bolts let go at 25ish mph, my UBJ was fine. Of course when it's just the bolts the steering isn't affected, but still.

 

ahh, thought there were more with unis

so whats the plan for frank?

(Unless I missed it )

 

Seems like a no brainer and honestly not very hard. Replace the joint



With the uniball, wouldn't even need to have a whole lca kit.




I'm pretty sure my friend could easily make them if you guys know where I could get ahold of the unibal bearing by itself

 

I agree. They needed changed and I was planning on it. Was waiting on other parts to do one big change over. But haven't shown yet.

If you just change them out regularly as they are a wear item then you will be totally fine. Id replace them and keep the old ones as a spares and then when you replace the other set just keep the newest ones as spares.

There is no fault other then my own. I was delaying it waiting for my new front setup.

But too late now haha

First time I was around 10-15ish I think.

This time was over 25mph. Was way scarier and had way more damage this go around.

 

Fix him. Then..not sure

You can get them from SDHQ

 

Cool found them on poly's site. This has me brewing some ideas.

 

Btw Monte I have at least 1 good UBJ and my stock UCA's if you need them they are yours

 

Yea be nice to do something. Bet it wont be cheap but could be worth it

I appreciate the offer man. I have a good UCA and upper ball joint. Ill just get a 555 lower for now till the oem ones come and call it good. Steering rack and ripped off mount is the major issue atm.

 

Word.

Double word, my fab friends back from vacation soon I'll pick his brain.

 

Damn dude...Glad you're ok, thats a shitty deal.

 

Yea me too. Coulda been bad.

 

Fuck haha. Ok, it's settled. I'll knock that one out before I go.

 

Good

 

Monte, So Imlooking to do my LBJ's to and was talking to an old friend (Toyota tech) whosaid the 1st gen Tundra's used the same LBJ assembly but he thought theball joint itself was a bit stronger after the TSB/Recall (he said initiallythey had the same issues and recall as the Tacoma's did).

I searchedall over and haven’t found anything on this except the Tundra's LBJ recall was about thesame time as the Tacoma’s…

He saidworse comes to worse, the Tundra’s are at least the same and tend to sellcheaper on ebay/etc… (but tend to be more expensive at the dealers). Im going to Toyota this week (either tomorrow or Friday) to look atgetting an alignment and plan on comparing the LBJ assemblies and verify this.