Total chaos upper control arm help

Who knows how to install upper total chaos control arms on a first gen Tacoma? I've looked at YouTube videos of the second gens it don't look hard but what I'm confused about is my castle nut is on top of my stock control arms and on the second gen it's on the bottom now it would be nice to see pictures so I know what I'm getting myself into thank

 

cant say for sure, a lot of things I see that change from pre fist gen (before 1995.5) to the first gens (1995.5-2004) are just most things are reversed from drivers to passenger sides.

im guessing its sort of the exact same for a lot of other stuff too. maybe the second gens are going to follow the same video procedure you saw is how you do it just from the opposite end is all but im just assuming here?

 

Dude there are two nuts to undo..it's way simple.

The bolt on the arm and the nut on the spindle.

Just go out and look at yours. You'll see it's easy. The hard part is getting the old ball joint out of the spindle.

But really it's not that bad. Stop over thinking it haha just go out there and rip shit apart! Haha

TC also provides instructions.

 

Send them to me and ill make you a video step by step

 

1. undo castle nut.
2. pickle fork to separate the ball joint.
3. Remove spindle.
4. Put spindle in press.
5. Press out ball joint.
6. Press in uniball receptacle slug thingy into spindle top (where the ball joint resided)
7. take a break, drink a beer.
8. Remove UCA long-ass bolts (which requires some finesse with sheet metal and airbag sensors)
9. Remove old UCAs
10. Install new UCAs with long-ass bolt.
11. Join uniball to uniball receptacle slug thingy in top of spindle.
12. Reassemble spindle onto vehicle and the brakes, OTRE, wheel and whatever else came off during disassembly.
13. Take a break, drink a beer.
14. Wait for BAC to drop.
15. Test drive and alignment time.

 

Thanks guys helped me out a lot thanks

 

lol i had the same question. I didn't realize I would need a press so I just got a ball joint separator.

I think we have a press in the office shop but I don't think it has been used in years. Hopefully we have the right size cup to press with.

 

Get the spindle gusset installed while you're at it...

 

i dont think they make a gusset for the first gen

...wishing i had gotten new polyurethane bushings for the LCA tho

 

... they sure do. I have them on my '03 in the pic I provided. $32.00 from Off-Road Warehouse. They are also on the Total Chaos website.
Cheap insurance if you beat the crap out of your rig.

 

Well now that's on my list lol. At least next time i will b faster at pressing out the joints.

Edit: Does Total Chaos have a bunch of new stuff for first gens? I don't remember seeing the outboard shock mounts (rear) or the upper coil bucket gussets (front).

 

If I recall, the coil buckets were designed for the long travel set-up and an extra shock, all of which I do not have.
I am referring to the actual spindle gussets. They are to be welded in place and support the spindle for aggressive off-road activities.
The pic I attached in the previous post shows where it sits in relation to the spindle. To the RT of the CO, it is spotted and has 3 holes punched into it.

Hope this helps.

 

Got one side done. Several trips to the rental place for two different types of puller/press. I needed parts from both to do the job.

Also needed some heavy duty washers to span the press adapter on the pull, and to span the bottom of the new fitting on the press and give the puller something to grab onto. Thinking back about it I could probably have done it without the washers.

I cut the ball joint bolt off with a sawzall so i could shorten the assembly and do the pull in the wheel well.

Put anti-sieze on all the metal-on-metal parts before pressing back together.

 

The upper ball joint is a bitch.

 

I'm thinking about the spindle reinforcement kit but I wonder how you would press the collar in/out once the gusset is on.

 

TC sells a set of bungs for removing and replacing the ball joint and slug.