What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

On the Moog subject..
when I joined this site, I too fell victim to the cheap parts bandwagon. In some cases it's ok, in others, it's a matter of safety.

I had my front end done with Moog lower ball joints and Moog outer tie rods just about two years ago.
The tie rods had under 20,000 miles and they were replaced, both shot. The ball joints were replaced shortly after that, less than 30,000 miles. Very gritty in the ball and socket, lots of play beginning at that point. Yes they are greasable, but you have to take them out to grease them. Never had to grease the OEM parts.
Both I replaced with OEM. I would have saved money and time by going OEM from the beginning.

The originals from the factory made it over 200,000 miles. Do the math, replace with Moog every 30,000, give or take, until you hit the 200,000 mile mark, (roughly 7 times)... compared to OEM one time replacement.

The Lower Ball Joint is subjected to forces that normal ball joints never see. It spends it's life literally being pulled apart by the front end weight as opposed to being pushed together.
Yes, some bolts have sheared. But there are some that also simply pulled from the socket.

Moog makes good parts, for other vehicles. I will never install another aftermarket part, except for performance parts, on my truck again.

 

Yes you do. You have to remove the plug, install a zerk, and grease it up. The zerk opening faces cast material on the lower swing arm. The only way to get to it is to remove the tire, the tie rod end, and lastly the ball joint itself to get to it.

 

Awesome.
Here is the shitty Moog LBG.
Notice the little plug.


Here is the lower swing arm, notice the bend in the cast that the lbj mounts to?
Not sure how a grease gun gets in there. Maybe some of you have something I'm not aware of.


These next two pics say a lot about the quality.



It's your truck, do what you want. There are members here who have already been down that road and know what to expect. I'm just trying to make sure nobody makes the same mistake I did. If you're on a budget, then go cheap. When you're more flush, spend it again later on when they fail.

 

All you have to do is turn the wheel.

 

(Goes to the dealership)
-sir that's a big hole, are you sure a hammer wasn't the reason.
(holds happen behind back) - nope that rust is just that bad. Sooo can I get a new frame please?

 

Anyone here running a catch can on a naturally aspired 3.4l? Debating if I should...
Thanks.

 

way to promote inferior product.
I know you're just being helpful.
Ok, turn the wheel and grease them. I'll spend the next 200,000k not having to fuck with mine. Nor do I have to worry about it coming apart.

 

Good information thank you for sharing. Replaced my lbj at 125K with masterpro parts. Guess when I hit 10K on these I will go back to OEM.

Really do see a difference. Like people say buy cheap get cheap.

 

Truth be told, they inspect the frames with a hammer. Take a hammer or screw driver and if you can puncture the frame with barely any force they will give you a new frame.

 

im not. i even said last page i replaced a perfectly good pair for oems.

 

There are some threads on here about catch cans in general. I would look them up.

I know that my manifold was caked in oil when I took it apart from the pcv system.

Some say there is no point of using one, some say that it's a good idea....

 

LBJs....with enough abuse all will fail. some sooner than others. get what you can afford. anything will be better than parts with 200k miles on em. i put the moog ball joints on my brothers 4 runner in hawaii 4 years and 50k miles ago, after a 6 months old factory ball joint failed. While my sister-in-law was driving with her three babies. shit happens. give me a ball joint made by anyone and I'll show you it can & will fail. I'm a service manager, so I can attest, alot of factory parts are quite better than their aftermarket counter parts, but that in no way makes the aftermarket irrelevant. on dodge trucks the moog BJs are far and away better than factory, for half the price. the key here is maintaining your vehicle, looking over the vehicle for worn parts at each oil change, LBJs, UBJs, u joints, brakes, tires, shocks...normal shit that are just like humans and begin dying from day one. 200 bucks can be alot to spend in todays economy for a lot of people. if all you can afford is moog then do it, but do so knowing the service interval may be shorter than a factory unit. but you guys cant blame moog because the ball joint, made for a vehicle with smaller everything when stock, failed after bouncing around on 33s or larger tires and wheeling and jumping and the host of other awesome shit we do in these trucks. expecting a corvette on a corolla budget doesnt mean you can just blame a manufacturer, who manufactures generally to stock or factory specs, when some dumb shit you did led to a parts failure.

 

Didn't know about that. If my frame was that rusty I would've taken it to the dealer. My dad used to own the truck and for 14 years the frame never rusted besides normal rust from salt and sand.

I have a SC and don't have one on my truck. Don't think I really need it.

 

Every time this comes up I start giving my truck sideways glances. I know that the LBJs were replaced at about 30,000 miles when they did the recall replacement. But now they have about 175,000 miles on them since then. I just need to bite the bullet and replace them.

 

I think you guys are missing the point.

Regardless of how one uses their truck, and what sizes tires they have, an aftermarket balljoint (for our trucks) will last substantially fewer miles than OEM. Looking at cost per mile the OEM joint is actually cheaper, the point @BDN was making. Yes my bigger tires and abuse will wear the joint quicker no matter which ball joint I choose.

I agree that failures occur due to lack of maintenance. If you want to prevent failure with your aftermarket LBJ, you better be keeping up on that maintenance. Have fun replacing you LBJs every year or two because it will wear faster than an OEM unit.

 

@Dirty Pool has some of the best info on this site in regards to our trucks. Take a look at what he has to say about LBJs.

 

I'm beginning to understand why some of the senior members stopped participating in this thread.

I'm not giving advice because of what I've seen on the interweb, It's due to what I have experienced first hand, in the last two years.
Some of you with a couple years here under your belt know exactly what I have gone through with that aftermarket crap. In fact, I'm still replacing that aftermarket shit. Literally less than 2 years on all that aftermarket shit and having to replace it again. Moog LBJ's, Moog outer tie rods, some unknown brand of steering rack, all a complete waste of money and time. Even with a lift and big tars like you all claim is the issue, and it prolly is, I expect more than 30,000 out of it. This is a daily driver, not a daily beater.

My bad dude, I know you have seen the results.

 

Just got me this about a month ago

 

Hell yeah! Welcome aboard.

 

[QUOTE="sente3, post: 13516160, member

Thanks man. I need to do a few upgrades. Like suspension