Ball joints brutally beating my behind

My Sankei 555 LBJs were seized up and notchy after a few years, maybe due to lack of grease. I cut the boot off today and this is how they looked after wiping off the grease. Looks like the deep groove may be to move grease inside the joint, but if you look close there's a wear mark along the bottom right of the ball.

 

I mistakenly thought that regular servicing of the Zerks/grease fittings on the aftermarket 555 Sankei JAPAN LBJs would allow them to take more of my off-roading use/abuse on my '97 V6 Taco 4X4. NOT! The greaseable 555 LBJs only lasted half as long as the non-greaseable original OEM LBJs even when regreasing the 555s once a month. And even when they were new, the 555s were never as smooth to operate as the OEMs which became much more pronounced as time wore on. The 555 JAPAN LBJ boots were also not nearly as durable as OEM LBJ boots. Some advanced posters have even dissected both OEM & 555 JAPAN LBJs. The differences in design/machine work showed why the OEM LBJs are superior. My Taco is now 3 years in on a set of replacement OEM LBJs fastened with OEM Black bolts torqued to 37ft./lbs. If I had known that regular servicing with fresh premium grease would not allow the 555 Sankei JAPAN LBJs to outlast the virtually maintenance-free OEM LBJs, I would not have installed the 555s. Another valuable lesson learned via the Taco School of Hard Knocks.

Original 2013 post on greaseable 555 Sankei JAPAN LBJs: Greasable '97 Tacoma 4WD Ball Joints? - YotaTech Forums

 

FWIW - Torque Test did a test of thread-locker, and determined that fresh red loctite (turns out the expiration date really matters for that one) has the same preload as a dry bolt. Still probably wouldn't bother with it in this application, but if you're going to use a thread-locker I'd say that's the one to use.

 

When I installed them back in NOV 2022, I opted to go dry and skipped the loctite. I figured, no mention of it in the FSM and for this I was definitely sticking with the FSM. No issues and routine checks since install have found no play. I hit the bolt heads with a paint pen for an additional visual sanity check but still check them on a regular basis with the pry bar.

Back when I was in the middle of the 2-4 conversion, I nearly pulled the trigger on those TC LBJs. As soon as I saw they had changed nothing in the way of bolts and how they were installed, I decided to skip them. Wasn't about to pay out all that cash for the same fail point. Bolts are still the weakness here. The toyota design/placement sucks and goes against logic. TC might look purty with that uniball but those bolts and the way it mounts is still the same. No thx, will save my cash and stick with OEM.

If using the dust shield, 90119-10933 @ 37 ft lbs. If not using the dust shield, ARP bolts @ 59 ft lbs. No loctite. Check for play every oil change (or on a schedule of your own design) and you'll be fine.

 

i sure hope the local Yota dealershop installed the OEM supplied LHS LBJ proper when they replaced that roached wheel bearing and hub the taco had about 16 months ago and 32k miles onit now

 

I hardly ever read about members performing the FSM UBJ/LBJ rotational torque inspection (below). My original non-greaseable OEM LBJs lasted 16 years/80K miles of my off-roading use/abuse and still passed this FSM inspection. But I replaced them at that time for preventative MTX. The greaseable 555 JAPAN LBJs I installed were tested as per this FSM inspection multiple times while conducting my failed experiment with greaseable LBJs over 8 years/40K miles that included approx. 800 days of off-roading. The greaseable 555 LBJs no longer rotated smoothly at that time so were replaced with another set of OEMs. If you have to disassemble your steering knuckle to replace FWBs or other MTX, the FSM LBJ/UBJ inspection procedure takes just a few minutes to perform & is a very good indicator of your BJ internal health.

'97 Taco FSM p1116: