DIY LCA Bushing Replacement 2005+ Tacoma (4x4)

You guys should just use dish soap to install the new bushings. They were designed to rust in place on purpose.

 

Bushing, agreed, yes. Cam, not so much. Dunno why doording was having that discussion about grease fittings.

 

meh...worst case the rubber is a little off if they turn. heck when I did mine I had no idea they had to be clocked.

 

I wonder what the difference is.

 

Wonder if there is a greasable cam bolt?

 

If you can design one and build it you've just become a billionaire

The EOM cam is almost certainly not strong enough to centered out the length of the shaft, cross-drilled, and grooved. It would have to be a very high grade of steel, and then probably heat treated after machining.

 

that's one bolt I want to be solid.

I'm not a fan of greasable bolts unless you can oversize them.

 

If the material is right, it won't have to be over-sized. I'm going to have a talk to my father about this, he was a machinist for over 30 years working on some high grade shit for the Navy.

 

Someones gotta work at Toyota that can get their hands on both the FJ and Tacoma Bushings to compare them..

It was my idea! If he makes em I'll test a set.

 

My bushings were fine, I ended up having to replace them because everything in the middle rusted together. That's the part that needs to be changed or should have been greased.

 

Because just tapping the LCA wouldn't do anything besides put grease between the metal bushing and the LCA itself. You'd need to tap the LCA, outter bushing ring, through the rubber and then the inner bushing sleeve also to get grease where you really need it which is between the bushing inner sleeve and the cam bolts.

 

As stated, the outer bushing is supposed to seize up. Forcing grease in through the holes in the bottom, or otherwise grease the outer bushing is bad.

That said, the next best way to apply grease to the cam bolt would be for it to be set up in a similar fashion to a greasable shackle. As I stated awhile back it would have to be strong as hell, and is a relatively complex design as opposed to the OEM design, but not so much so that they could be economically produced. The other saving grace of that concept is that if it is built properly, you can regularly grease the cam bolt, forcing out moisture, and prevent seizing.

If you could buy a set of 4 for $50, wouldn't you? I sure would.

 

Meh, just use neverseize when you install the bolts and call it a day. If you remember, take them out and re-dope the bolts before you get it aligned and you should be good to go.

 

Me too. Lemme talk to some machinists and get some professional opinions on feasibility.

 

There's no way you're going to be able to make that one hollow bolt a greasable bolt unless you completely change the type of hardware used. SPC I believe makes a replacement bolt and bushing kit, that bolt you could probably make greasable.

 

I wish I had found an option like that when it came to replace mine. Hopefully mine will last as long as I own the truck. I got 4.5 years out of the first set and the second set was done right so they should last a bit longer (I hope). If you go with poly bushings, make sure you do a review on them, I'm sure others will be interested in how they perform.

 

ahem......VVV..............

yes they are very nice and I have no idea why everyone on here is using the other crap ones you have to re-use the rusted POS liners from. this is a no brain'er. Whiting has been in use in the rest of the world for a long time and they make good shit.

hopefully next time I need bushings Ill just replace the LCA's with TC's or similar

 

I mean feasibility for manufacturing a new greasable cam bolt that is made outta of a higher grade steel (better than grade 8).

 

There very likely will not be a next time for my truck unless I start bringing it off road. My next job for the front end will likely be ball joints or wheel bearings.

 

What I meant though is you aren't going to be able to make a greasable option for the OEM setup, you'll have to go with aftermarket bushings. The OEM setup uses a hollow cam bolt and there's another bolt that slides in the middle of that. You could make the inner bolt hollow and greasable but you wouldn't be able to make the hollow bolt greasable. You'd have to go to an aftermarket bushing kit that uses regular bolts.