1998 suspension rebuild. 4x4 Off-Road access cab, 6ft bed, 3.4L manual

The Marlin Crawler SS brake lines are made by CROWN, the best manufacturer, and they are the least expensive Crown brake line set I could find: Extended Brake Line Kit, 1995-2004 Tacoma | Marlin Crawler, Inc.

 

Thanks, those look good especially for $90!

 

Thx for the link, I am looking all thru their store now also. The problem with the tundra brake upgrade is that it doesn't fit with 15" wheels, which my 98 taco came with. I would have to go 16", thus replace all my wheels and tires... tires are all pretty much new, like 500 miles on them, so want to keep.
Thx for the smart heads-up though on this being the time to consider it!

 

On OEM LBJs, you can save $40 or so with the Toyota 04005-03235 "LBJ Recall Kit" which was a bundle of both the 43340-39585 & 43330-39815 LBJs for the 1st gen Taco: Joint Assembly Lower Ball ***NO PART FITMENT VERIFICATION AVAILABLE EVEN IF VIN IS SUPPLIED*** 04005-03235 | Toyota Parts (ourismantoyotaofrichmond.com). My recall kit did come with castle nuts and cotter keys, but it did not come with any bolts which I did not view as a problem. The latest and greatest OEM LBJ bolts are the 90119-10933 black bolts torqued to 37ft./lbs. (not 59ft./lbs as per some older FSMs): Bolt W Washer 90119-10933 | Toyota Parts (ourismantoyotaofrichmond.com). The black bolts are not furnished with any single LBJ or kit so must be purchased separately. They work whether or not you use the 43346-60011 LBJ Protector Boots: Suspension Ball Joint Dust Cover 43346-60011 | Toyota Parts (ourismantoyotaofrichmond.com).

HD shifter seats are an inexpensive but "must have" upgrade for Taco M/T and Tcase: Heavy Duty Seats | Marlin Crawler, Inc.

McGeorge, now under a new name, has always been a great source for OEM parts at reasonable pricing. Partsouq.com, another great source, saved me $100 when I did my valve cover gasket job. When you need to do a timing belt job, "aircabinman" on ebay or the AISIN kit on RockAuto are high quality parts for the best prices I could find. You have a lot of work to do on your Taco so HTH.

 

Great info, will swap to that LBJ kit! Thx!

 

Those LBJ protector boots, I haven't heard about them, that is somethi.g extra beyond just the normal boot that is wrapped around the ball joint? Not sure if that is something I should get?
Here is my current LBJ:

 

The LBJ Boot Protector was an option that later became standard on the 1st Gen Taco along with the superior OEM Toyota 90119-10933 Black Bolt with Washer. The Protector surrounds the LBJ boot giving an extra layer of protection. I was wheeling 200+ day a year while hunting so retrofitted them to my '97 Taco 4x4.

The longer OEM Toyota 90119-10933 Black bolt with Washer was specifically designed to be used with the LBJ Protector Boot (both seen below). When torqued to 37 ft./lbs, the Black bolt offers a HUGE increase in preload of the LBJ (almost double) over the previously used shorter OEM Toyota Red bolts then Green bolts.

 

Thx, that looks useful. Bumps price back to same, but now I have protectors

 

Need refurbed calipers, help!
Took the rotors to have them turned, never have been. They looked decent, figured I could save $60 from new. Nope, one of them was below min spec to turn. So will be buying new, was surprised only $57 each at Ourisman.

This got me looking at my rusty calipers. Was going to buy a refurb kit for $20 or so, but saw in the Tundra brake upgrade thread you can buy refurbs for $70 each or so. Figured its worth $50 each to not have to grond rust off and repaint etc. But after looking for hours on Amazon and Callahan and All Power, I can't find one that I am 100% sure is the same as my existing. None of them match the numbers on my caliper castings?

Does anyone know where to order a for sure replacement of remanufactured OEM calipers? Looked at Wheeler and Marlin Crawler, but their specs always say thru 1985 and such. Need 98 manual trans v6 4x4 access cab.
Thx!

 

Reman. calipers have come a long way. I have been using Raybestos plated remans. for well over a decade. On my second set now (below) but kept the first set to rebuild as needed for spares since they are still virtually free of corrosion. The zinc coating was designed to mitigate the effects of rain/snow/salt so have been great for keeping corrosion/stuck pucks to a minimum even in the deep mud/high water I routinely wheel thru here in MS. RockAuto offers several different grades of remans at very good prices. If you want to keep the same exact casting number, you are probably going to have to rebuild your original OEM calipers or find someone local to do it for you. In general, the same design calipers were fitted to multiple models over multiple years so casting numbers will vary.

 

Thanks for that reply, good info. I will take a look, nice to have a real person recommendation.
Edit... ok, I found exactly what I needed at Rickauto, they look like a pretty great place to get parts too.

 

In case anyone is looking to pull ball joints from a 1st gen tacoma, let me save you some trouble...
The pittman puller needs to have a jaw opening of 1.25" or more, but less than 2".

The first puller I bought from Oreillys was too small, wouldn't fit around shaft so top kept sliding off bolt. Ended up getting 3 rental tools from Autozone, they didn't have a full kit. Also they were clearancing all specialty tools, so was able to grab a 2 jaw adjustable puller. That one worked on all 3 ball joints.

For the lower 2, the tie rod end and lower ball joint, a 1.25 to 1.5" puller would work the easiest. Here is the Autozone one to rent, #57016:



And here is the adjustable 2 jaw one I bought that does all 3 ball joints, so it is all you need, but it does flop around and needs 3 hands almost to set up:

 

Here is a tool and deal recommendation:
The Dewalt 921 compact impact wrench.
Small, compact, light. I was able to take off eveey single nut and bolt on my 98 tacoma suspension, no bolt had ever been loosened since new. So all brake bolts, the 35mm axle nut, all the castle nuts for ball joints, and all lug nuts.
I watched about 30 videos from Torque Test Channel on Youtube. Basically the 921 was the best compact 5 months ago.
https://youtu.be/yu1VGp-HSZs?si=9j-N1cftUW72CWGm

Anyways, I went to buy this at HD, it was $219 with no battery. So I needed to buy a battery, dude takes me over to the Pre Christmas or pre black friday display they put up this week, where a 2 pack of batteries, bag, and charger were $199... and had a promo, buy the batteries and get a free tool! And the tool they were paired with for the promo was the 921 impact! So basically I got the $219 compact impact for free! And as I said above, it was small and could fit on all my suspension nuts, and did them all. I was pretty impressed!

 

That sounds like a great deal. For those who already have the batteries and charger, that deal can be hacked making it $104+ tax for the impact alone.

I've been in the Milwaukee platform for years now so their M18 mid torque gets the job done for me.

 

Tip I found on removing Tacoma upper ball joint from knuckle. The curve bend of the knuckle doesn't let you line up the c press, so you have to flip it over and press ball into a cup, fine. But you then have to put a cup over the top of ball joint spindle too, so you can press on the rim of ball joint... even with the largest rental C press, you can't fit 2 cups plus knuckle in there.

I've watched 10 videos of guys taking upper ball joints out of a knuckle, but usually Timmy is actually working on a 3rd gen 4runner and uses his 20 ton press. Crhis Fix uses the C clamp style ball joint and bushing press, which is what I can get. However he is working in smaller cars with smaller knuckles. So while it looks super easy and quick on all the videos, it's not.

I ended up just pressing on the ball joint spindle, which looks like it will go cockeyed but actually worked well. Pressed the whole ball joint out easy. I figured worst case it would press spindle out and out of way, leaving joint rim to press out, but whole thing popped out.

Couldn't keep it aligned using ratchet, so used impact wrench. The little 921 struggled, but did the job!



What do you guys use to protect the clean bearing in the knuckle, if you're not changing them out and want to sand and paint knuckle? Bag the end or tape or something? Thx!

 

Well, everyone who recommended it was worth it to just buy new control arms with bushings installed, was totally right.

As several folks mentioned, I decided to save some $$ and just press out control arm bushings and replace. It looks so easy when 20 other guys do it on YouTube... well, they all had different sizes of C press, that none of my locals rent. After 4 hours of struggle and adapters falling and rolling all over, I didn't get a single whole bushing out. I have about 20 adapter sleeves and 50 various sockets, and NONE of them is the right size I need!

So, have decided to change my order and just replace whole arms. Decided preemptively to just swap in prebuilt coilovers too, rather than mess with old coils.

So there is a lesson relearned-- thanks to those of you who recommended the easy swap, it makes me feel a lot better about being defeated by those bushings... )

 

The easiest way to remove old bushings is to melt them out with a torch. Then get a sawzall and cut a slit in the outer race and they pop right out. Press the new one in, I've done this with a vice before and you're done.

 

I think the easiest way to push the bushings out is this:
- Place LCA into a vice
- Use OEM bottle jack (upside down) to push bushing out (downwards) out of the bottom bushing sleeve/eyelet.
*Pro tip: place a bucket full of rags under the arm to catch the bushing, and once there's tension on the bottle jack as it pushes against the bushing, you can torch the eyelet on the control arm that the bushing is inside, and it usually comes out smooth as butter.

 

Ok I can see this one working. If I can find bottle jack, will try.

 

Yeah me too, it's all about available time and I almost didn't make it. For me it was the TRE's, broke two pullers on it, beat on it like Thor for hours, nada. Was beginning to think I had a fail on my hands, hit it with yet another shot of PB blaster, went in and took a nap. Woke up, hit it twice and it fell out.

Then I did the other side LOL