2006 Tacoma PreRunner 2nd Gen Lower Ball Joint Replacement

The pic of the Moog BJ on the OP is how it came out of the box and how I installed it.

 

Ok good to know. I guess ill go back in there tmrw and take off the large boot. I appreciate the response! Did you kit come with large boots or no? May have to bring it up with the shop just to see if they used their own boots or not.

 

That’s how it came out of the box...

 

Post a pic of this outter boot you're talking about

 

I just got it sorted out today, turns out when the shop ordered in the ball joints they got one of the newer design and one that is the older design. So one looks like a traditions lower ball joint, and the other has this updated integral boot design. I would take a picture but i just cut off the larger dust boot on the new design ball joint. So the shop must have put their own boot on the new design, they had put a boot similar to the one in the picture on the older design on to the ball joint with the new design.

 

Ahhh...

 

Oooooo aaahhhhhh looks cool

 

Just did this today on my '07 4x4 with about 115k miles. Took all day! Most of that time was spent getting the steering stop off and the old BJ pressed out. We have a lot of salt on our roads in the winter and everything was just so rusted together. I did get the 23 piece kit that others have mentioned- Advance Auto had it. But I had to make a second trip into town to rent a puller from Autozone to get the steering stop off:



Once I got all the old parts off, reassembly only took an hour or so.

 

So...
I recently saw/watched a video on removing the steering stop. Have not tried the technique yet...
What he did was remove the pin/nut from the ball joint stem before removing the stop from the spindle and then used the jack to push up on the LCA to dislodge the ball joint stem from the stop and then remove the stop from the spindle...
Looked as though that might be an easier way.
I will definitely give that a go on my next Ball Joint replacement as I did struggle a little to get that steering stop off with the hammer.

 

Easier way to remove the stop is to take a 2lb hammer or more and give it one nice whack. It'll pop right off. I did buy a ball joint separator and it wouldn't fit so at least i tried the right way.......then I just looked at it and figured it would pop right off with one good hit. Done.....super easy.

 

Also I'm in the process of doing this project while I wait for my Icons to show up after being rebuilt for the second time within 1 yr. I have learned that taking the lower control arm to a shop and spending $30 to press out the old and press in the new is money well spent. I have done it the old way with the press and destroyed 2 from Auto Zone and took me a while to get the old one off and the new one installed. Lesson learned from doing the first time.

 

Yeah...I hit it with a 2 lb hammer about 100 times. And then I moved up to the full on sledgehammer. Didn't work. We have a lot of salt on our roads up here. That thing was not coming off without a puller.

 

Damn, I live in South Texas so yeah lucky for us we don't have to deal with Salt and we have very mild winters. I can see how this would be a problem.

 

Nice job!
i just got the new moogs how much the boots inflate when you pump greases in it i just dont whant to blow it up lol

 

Until a little comes out the bottom, or visually/hands on. The boot will be fairly firm when you pinch it if it's full.

 

Thanks!

 

I replaced mine jan of 2017 @ 177,500 miles. Im now at 197,420... almost exactly 20,000 miles and just over a year. Both moog BJ’s bought from an authorized dealer, properly installed and greased at every oil change, have failed.
The driver side boot (new boot design) tore within a month of the install. I dont offroad often or on any extremely technical trails (although I’d like to). Im extremely disappointed, after the trouble of replacing them, for them to fail so quickly is shit.

 

Seems to me that there are no aftermarket parts that can compare to the factory assemblies. I am considering replacing my LCAs with Toyota parts next time around, maybe we can get 100k out of the ball joints that are factory mated to the LCAs and sealed?

Otherwise I figure I am changing lower ball joints every year or two, and I'll make sure I stockpile a few bought at the best rate I can get. I figure the job isn't that bad once you've been through it the first time. Rockauto can get the parts to me for less than $50 per.

 

When you removed it, what size receiver did you use?? I’m currently struggling with auto zones kit & none of them seem to be a good fit! Either too large or too small

 

I don’t recall the exact size... it was large enough to allow the BJ to pass through and out of the bottom. I believe I used 2 pieces, one was the multi size base tool & one the pass through cylinders. It doesn’t have to be perfect just large enough for the BJ to fit into it...