Yet Another UCA/LCA Ball Joints Question

Do yourself a favor and do the rack bushings. You’re going to have to drop the rack to get to rear alignment cam bolts out anyway. They are like $25 and made a big difference on my truck.

Energy Suspension -

$32 8.10103R 4WD RACK & PINION BUSHING SET

8.10103R 4WD RACK & PINION BUSHING SET

 

Got a decent incentive check today from work and lower CA's, ball joints, lower BJ bolts all in the cart and I'm about to pull the trigger. I have a set of Energy Suspension steering rack bushings on the bench, might put those in this weekend when I replace the engine belts (the CA/BJ project is two weeks out as I'll have to get tires and an alignment, might have to take off work.)

McGeorge won out against 6 other vendors, TRD shop came close but failed. I have two questions at this point.

Should I take a chance that my cam bolts/hardware are still good? You can see in the video there's a little rust, one might give me trouble but looks do-able. What I don't want to happen is to get it apart and find things rusted so bad I have to replace them (and wait for parts, and take time off work, etc., this is my only ride.) It's almost another $200 for this project to replace all the LCA bolt hardware (boo fn hoo waa fn waa again LOL)

Is is common practice on the Tacos to do a preload before final torque on the LCA's? I've seen a lot of people recommend getting them gootnteight in the air, then take it off the jacks and set the final torque to spec. The reasoning is if you torque it in the air when you set it down it might distort or tear the LCA bushings.

Since you mentioned this I have been giving the rubber a keen lookover and I mean everywhere. The rubber all seems fine, even the window trims that are exposed to weather. Under the hood all the vac/fuel/washer hoses look good. You can see in the vid the rack bushings rubber are fine (but replacing them anyway.) I see no cracking and everything is still pliable and . . . rubber -ey.

You can't really see it in the video, but in rolling around under there I gave all the BJ boots a good squeeze and wiggle, they all still seem pliable and solid, even the lower BJ covers are usable. I would totally agree with you and don't know why, but everywhere I look I'm not seeing the usual problems you see with old rubber parts.

 

Are you replacing the entire lower control arms or just the bushings?

 

Lots of aftermarkets can have bad rubber in the bushings and wear out, crack, split or whatever else pretty early. OEMs more often than not will out last the vehicle. You can get them at a discount from a wholesaler online. Not a job I'd want to do more than once personally so if it were me, OEM would be the way to go.

 

The only aftermarket part I'll install are the Energy Suspension poly steering rack bushings, CA's and ball joints OEM from McGeorge. I'm replacing the entire lower CA's, went back and forth about it (in this discussion as well) and it's worth the extra hundred bucks a side not to spend the time and effort to press the old bushings in and out. Color me lazy LOL.

 

I personally would take the chance on reusing your existing cam bolts. Overall your truck looks like it has very little rust, so I'm willing to bet with some good PB blaster soaking the night before you tackle this project, they come out without much of a fight, and totally intact. However, maybe you can order a set from a place that offers returns without some ridiculous restocking fee. That way you've got a backup set on hand just in case, but can return it to get most of your money back if they're not needed.

 

X2. @rocknbil, I can't tell where you are, as it isn't stated in your sig, but if in a reasonably dry climate, the cam bolts should be fine. Mine came out and went back in on my 2003 when I did this same job a while back. No rust at all.

 

Boise area, Idaho, but previous Sandy Eggo, the rust it does have was acquired from the original owner who I believe was in PA. I'd thought about doing just that, getting a set and returning them if I didn't need them but I just dropped 1K on new tires (TODAY!) so yeah I'm going to have to chance it. :-D

Is it correct to torque them under preload?

 

For suspension, I just snug it up by hand and then give it a final torque to spec once its on the ground.

 

^^ This.

 

A little PB blaster and heat may be in order then, to gently coax those suckers out without jacking them up. Have also heard ATF works wonder for these kinds of things. Best of luck!

 

There's a post here somewhere that compared commercial penetrating oils against a mix of ATF and acetone and it came out way ahead! Going to have to try it. I am encouraged by the Timmy the Tool Man video posted on page 1 of this thread, his just popped right out! LOL

 

This thread is full of so much

don't know if your doing steering rack bushings or not

but don't how with energy suspension, go with Total Chaos bushings, they're more better

 

Heh, sorry, that is the problem with a linear discussion such as forums, things change context often enough and most people don't have the time (or patience) to digest every word.The cliff notes as of today 04/14:

- Handles fine, no wander, no noises but if you let go of the wheel it will drift slightly right. Tried an alignment in 2018 and was told LCA's and steering rack (specialist #1.)
- Before this thread I knew nothing about Taco suspensions, I'm still no expert but enough to know the two "specialists" I took them to were down the wrong path so I researched myself, got under the truck and it appears the LCA's are the main culprit.
- Eventually will refresh the entire front end but this project is the lower CA's and ball joints, both OEM with BJ bolts. Hoping I don't have to replace cam hardware at this time, so reusing existing (I hope.)
- Yes I'm going with Energy Suspension rack bushings (they're out on the bench) they seem highly recommended by a lot of users here. If I don't like them, it's a half day project (at my age) and I can swap them out.
- I opted to replace the entire CA's because it would probably add another 6 hours to the project and I can replace the bushing in the original set later for a backup or re-sell.

 

When I changed the LCA bushings I just bought a used pair of arms and rebuilt them. Basically what you did but I got to choose my bushings and maybe saved a few bucks depending on how much moog arms are.

 

Soooo I guess I know what my weekend looks like.




Not real happy with the factory-installed rust spots and scratches, so I'm off to Lowe's to get some gloss black, going to shoot a coat on. This one in particular is in a spot where you'd never know if you "got it" when doing an undercoating, which is likely in my future. :-\

 

More than a weekend actually lol . . . LCA's/Ball Joints done.



ES bushings



I know, I hate my phone too LOL

I totally underestimated the time for taking some of this stuff out. About halfway through I realized there was no way to get this done anytime this month with hand tools. I added more to the budget with a new 1/2 drive impact driver and set of metric sockets. Truthfully, I don't know how I've survived without them so no loss there.

The tie rod ends almost made me give up, broke my favorite old school adjustable puller on it, resorted to an O'reilly's that needed some Dremel work to slide on the tie rod end. Cranked it until it felt like something should blow, hammering the rear point like Thor or something, no luck. Check on all these videos of guys hitting it with a hammer twice and thinking "man, I wish I were him right now." I squirted it with yet more PB blaster, took a nap, tried again with two more hits and it fell right out.

Then I did the other side. 20 years of stuck-ness (didn't see much rust.)

I didn't budget for bump stops and taking off the old ones discovered the front stops spinning, the welded nut on the inside of the arm had failed. On both sides, the front. I had lofty dreams of saving this for a backup set but it was Saturday night, I was zonked, looked at the layers of rust and hours of reconditioning it would take to live up to that one and came to the conclusion I wasn't doing this s**t again for a very long time. Drill and edge grinder, cut hole, vice grip that slacker and use the old ones for now.

Got it aligned and still drifts, they're saying the strut bushings are shot, which you can "kind of" see in the horrible pic above. They were on my list, just hadn't labeled them "next" yet.

"But don't rule out a steering rack."

So maybe they're not sure but they were straight about it, the shocks are next. Upper CA's gotta wait, and they look OK for now.

 

Sorry I didn’t see this post sooner as I could have commiserated with you. I just went through this exact process and as others suggested, followed the excellent guidance on AdventureTaco’s page for the LBJ replacement, LCA bushings and steering rack bushings. Unfortunately, my 2003 has lived through 20 NJ winters so rust was a real issue. I had to cut my alignment bolts out (as well as my sway bar ends). I went with the Strongflex LCA bushings, and Energy Suspension for the steering rack, and OEM LBJs from McGeorge. I also. Ought the KPOffroad alignment bolts. I’m still in the middle of my automatic-to-manual conversion, so I can’t speak to how well my suspension upgrades feel, but congrats to you on getting the work done! Did you notice a tighter feel in the steering?

 

I got lucky, some of them fell out as soon as I pulled the bolts and there was very little surface rust. They went back in shiny.

Not yet, only took it to the alignment shop then home to sleep lol . . . seems like it cuts a little harder which reveals the mushy shocks, thinking new set of 4600's and recon the current springs.

 

Kudos for getting it done. I did the same thing a few weeks ago and can appreciate the effort.