3rd Gen Ball Joint Bolts a thing?!?!

I'm in the process of repairing some damage to my pass LCA brackets, and taking the opportunity to do a bunch of other crap while I'm down there. (For the curious, I'll list at the end).

Anywho, I managed to misplace one of the lower ball joint bolts (but later found it). In the meantime, after a failed attempt to source a new one at the local O'Reilly's, I discovered that an M16-1.5 flange bolt is VERY diffucult to find, let alone one 45mm long.

During my search, I came across this thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-wanted-about-lower-ball-joint-bolts.772506/
That had me read the whole evaluation they did @SpikerEng See here. I also traveled down the rabbit hole of ball joint bolt failures on 1st Gen Tacos and 4Runners.

I haven't found much in the 3rd Gen threads about lower ball joint bolt failures. I'm guessing the M16 bolts Toyota put in the 3rd Gens (as opposed to the M10s) may have been in response to this issue, considering they have 2.5x the cross-sectional surface area of the M10s.

THAT ALL BEING SAID - why the hell is it so HARD to find a flange bolt in M16-1.5 x 45mm?!?!







I'm putting in the @Marlin Crawler LCA Frame Brace, White Line LCA Bushings, and Dirt King UCAs.

On a side note - has been a great tool for straightening the bent lower control arm mounts.

 

Is ordering them an option?
https://www.yotashop.com/ball-joint...-oem-front-lower-ball-joint-bolt-90105-a0010/

 

For m16, 2.0mm is the standard pitch so that's about all you find in the regular chain hardware or auto parts store. Try looking at independent hardware or auto parts stores. Still finding the right combination of pitch, head type and length will be hard to find anywhere other than toyota or any other car manufacturer.

 

Only a lunatic would do that!

srsly OP, just getting OEM fasteners is often easy and economical if it specialty. Sometimes I try McMaster Carr too.

 

Most hardware stores are geared toward contracting and homebuilding, so they stock coarse thread hardware. M16-2.0 is coarse thread. M16-1.5 is fine thread.

Specialty metric hardware stores have them, but they cost more than the OEM bolt at the dealer. For example: https://belmetric.com/m16x1-5-fine-...9-special-oem-zinc-flake/?sku=BF16X1.5X45PGEM

 

Yes, thanks, my computer also comes with the googles, in which I am proficient. In fact, I completed the transaction for 4 new bolts from that very site about 30 seconds before finding the offending, mischievous bolt hiding in plain sight in my shop. That having been preceded by at least 2 hours of searching, giving up, and driving around to find a replacement.

The important part here is: are these M16 bolts as vulnerable to failure as the M10s on the 1st Gen and associated 4Runners? The weird part I discovered is that an M16-1.5x45mm flange bolt (even any length M16 fine thread) is seemingly only available from Toyota. Conversely, why did Toyota choose to fix the problem with the 1st Gen/4Runner bolt failures with such an obscure bolt? Hell, even Fastenal only had M16-1.5x50mm - and several other fastener wholesalers, if they even carry M16s, only offer it in coarse 2.0 pitch.

After thinking through it while writing this, I'm going to answer my own question. The M16-1.5x45mm bolt was chosen by engineers doing FEA, to identify the minimum size bolt suitable for the stress analysis - with no thought to the availability of said bolt. A recurring problem I've had as a fabricator (with a mechanical engineering degree) that repeatedly reinforces the shit welders talk about engineers.

 

The other question I really needed to highlight here is:

Do the 3rd green Tacomas have issues breaking lower ball joint bolts?

 

No, the 2nd and 3rd gen use a completely different (opposite) design than the 1st gen. Nothing really broke in the first gen, they just separated when the poly liner wore out and the ball stud got into the housing. The 2nd and 3rd gen ball joints carry the load in a different direction so that the ball stud is pushed into the housing instead of trying to pull it out of the housing.

 

Thats the way to do it.

But yes Belmetric can get you pretty close as well

 

Ball joint BOLTS...not ball joints.