Everything You Always Wanted About Lower Ball Joint Bolts

I did have some breakage recently too, thanks for the tag Anthony.

Installed with new lbj in late April and I haven’t broken anything till now so I am 99% sure I never removed them. Black washer bolts torqued to 40ft-lbs, no loctite or anti-seize.

sheared all 4 bolts, twisted the spindle some. I’m pretty confident mine did not fail in tension rather just sheared.

a guy on Facebook is pretty adamant that I had a bolt or two that was coming loose, but I really just don’t see that being likely. These had ~3k on them probably, 5-6 weekends of wheeling, and they failed on the first (remotely hard) trail I did that day.

@SpikerEng do you want to look at these! I can round up what I have and send off the lbj and cut the spindle off and send it since it’s trash anyways. May take a bit for me to ship though.

I did extract some bolts though before giving up on it, also don’t have 3 of the broken heads they were lost in the dirt.






And a video, there are two more as well but pretty much the same. failure was probably just asking too much of the bolts and not enough driver skill. I think I caught the edge of a root and it turned the wheel hard driver till it hit steering stops then sheared the bolts.

still bummed it broke, wasn’t going all that fast and there is so little root there to catch a tire. Also the recovery off the trail sucked, but still drove it home.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QHfvS5kWlEk?si=lO4eZpwRPq8k83ql

 

@JTFisherman looking at the impressions the bolts made in the lower ball joint holes in that last picture it does look like they sheared. Also, I didnt realize the factory ball joint doesn’t sit flush with the spindle looking at the rust. Am I seeing that right?

 

*red dirt* but yes haha. The little things for bolts are standoffs so just those 4 spots touch the spindle. Probably for any manufacturing defects so it has a better change of really mating up?

And these are not toyota oem LBJs but same design, just cheap aftermarket brand. Still outlasted the bolts haha

 

red dirt, my bad haha I have some OEM and they are the same. TC ones are flush. Apparently flush isn’t good enough to save the bolts though haha gotta be a solution to this. Bigger bolts seems like the next easy logical step.

 

@livel0veryde has 7/16? bolts in his

apparently like 04-06 maybe? Tundra has a larger spread and m12 bolts.

need different lbj, outer tie rod, and spindle though

 

Curiosity question. The probolt website also carries aluminum bolts. What application would ever use these?

https://www.probolt-usa.com/aluminum/?page=3

 

Man, that’s a killer. I was seriously considering making the upgrade to the total chaos uniball just for peace of mind on this, but if they’re still shearing bolts then what does it matter.

My biggest worry is that I’m usually so far out in the wilderness, and almost always alone. This LBJ deal is the one thing I’m not confident I could trail fix my way out of. It would be a catastrophic failure for me.

 

The 1st gen LBJ issue is 2 fold. The balljoint itself separating, and the 4 bolts shearing. You'll have to solve both to truly fix the issue.

 

They're all over German cars. Plenty of applications just probably not very many for these kind of trucks.

As for the actual LBJ problem... I've been using the black bolts successfully. But I think next time I change out ball joints which is coming up I'm going to go for ARP studs so I can sink them all in full depth before any torque is ever applied to them with a nut

 

Bolts failing are more common then the cup and ball pulling apart. It's why I never bothered with a uni-ball conversion.

As far as field repairing the LBJ/Spindle after the bolts have sheared. Weld it. Works every time. lol

 

I've got ideas and parts on order. To see if I can come up with something different.

 

Not downplaying the failure and I don't even own a first gen but is this failure a very rare thing? I mostly follow the 2nd gen topics but those only use 2 larger bolts and haven't seen any mention of failure.

 

The lbj cradle is a redesign which puts the lower ball joint in compression, not tension. You’ll usually bend a spindle before a failure at any part of the ball joint in 2nd gens.

 

I am aware of the redesign and glad for it. In my case I was just referring to the failure of the LBJ bolts and not the LBJ itself.

 

Right but they’re in the same situation as the the ball joint itself. Putting the bolts in tension as well as experiencing shear will produce different results as two big bolts in the configuration they’re in on 2nd gens.

 

Back to my original question... How common is this failure of the LBJ bolts on the 1st gen? (not how or why but how often)

 

Often enough that if you google "tacoma lbj" you will see images of failures right away.

Screenshot 2024-10-08 at 10.56.18 AM by MJH Creations, on Flickr

But I think that is a loaded and statistically difficult to answer question without pooling a ton of data that no one will do. Realistically bolts only fail on a street driven vehicle after using the wrong torque on the wrong bolt. Most of the time when I hear the bolts fail on a street truck it's shortly after a replacement.

 

Looking at the images most if not all are of the actual LBJ failing. I gather that in the case of street driving Tacoma's this bolt failure is exceedingly rare.

And not to say the design it shouldn't be able to handle it but its looks like enthusiastic off roading is the common thread.

Is there any way to adapt the 2nd gen design to the 1st gen or is aftermarket the only solution.

 

Not really, you'd have a lot of reworking to do because of different spindle heights and steering geometry... be easier to graft in the whole front section of frame from a second gen really.

 

I think a big contributor for failure is also the transfer of steering force.

First gens have the steering arm on the lbj, second gens have the steering arm on the spindle. When the steering rack is maxed out on a first gen, all additional force from the wheel is transferred through the bolts to the lbj where the steering stops and steering arm is. On a second gen in the same case, the force is divided to the steering arm on the spindle and through the bolts where the steering stops are.

When people drive outside the limits of their vehicles, something will break. I enjoy driving hard more than I hate breaking stuff so I’m going to keep breaking stuff. That doesn’t mean I won’t try to find a solution or post about failures to engaging others