Is there a mid-travel uni-ball lower control arm for the 1st gen?

Seeing all the ball joint failures posted has me wanting to eliminate the chance of this happening all together. I was looking around with no luck for aftermarket LCA's for a mid-travel set up to replace the stock lowers and ball joints. Does anyone make a aftermarket stock size lower arm for the 1st gen? If not, wouldn't it be something people would want?

Thanks.

 

https://www.solomotorsports.com/all-products/toyota/upgrades-parts/toyota-fully-fabricated-spindles/

Solo offers a lower uniball conversion as an option with their spindles... pretty sure it utilizes your stock LCA and you just replace the ball joint with the Uniball

 

Not really, no. Even the long travel guys (total chaos at least) are using stock type lower ball joints.

Just get new lower ball joints. The issue was that toyota supplied some sub-par BJ's on some trucks. I got MOOG and they've been working perfectly for 6 years, no issues.

The lower arms are not the limiting factor on these trucks (unless you're talking LONG travel), the uppers are.

 

Thanks, I am checking out their site now!

 

I thought long-travel utilizes aftermarket lower arms with uni-balls.

Also, it is my understanding the the lower ball joints are a weak point on the truck because of design flaw that was addressed in the 2nd gen. That they are constantly being forced apart due to design.

As for the upper arms, I already have uni-ball arms. Looking to beef the lowers.

 

Total Chaos uses factory style ball joints:
http://www.chaosfab.com/PDF/install/96000K.pdf

The consensus that I've read is that for mid-travel setups, you don't need uniball lowers or aftermarket lower A arms. The price for those Solo lowers (~ a grand + spindles) is not worth it, IMO, unless you're going long travel and plan to race the Baja 1000, or just have money coming out your ears.

Like I said, the problem with the lower balljoints is from the original factory supplied BJ's being (apparently) too weak given the design. The only issues I've seen people have are with factory (and typically very old) ball joints. The factory OEM replacement ones have since been redesigned and are fine as far as I've seen, as are aftermarket brands. Some people poo poo the MOOG ones, but I'm certainly not the only one who has them and likes them.

You could replace the lower BJs once a year for 10 years before you approach the cost of those Solo lowers, and that's JUST the uniballs, not including the spindles that are required as well.

 

I have moog as well right now. No complaints with them. It was actually all the debate between OEM and moog that got me thinking of putting a better design in all together... Eliminating the weak design from Toyota.

I see what you are saying about the cost, especially having to run the spindles too.. Very expensive for a 'what if'... Although, a failure and the wheel folding out into the wheel well and causing body damage and or injury seems worse.

Thanks.

 

Yeah, I'd like to go full uniball/heim joints all around just because from an engineering standpoint, it's a "better" design, but the cost/benefit just isn't there, for me at least.

If you're worried about injury, just think about the fact that you are MUCH more likely to be injured in some other fashion, like getting rear ended, T-boned, etc... than having a ball joint fail.

 

To be honest, I am actually more worried about being stuck on a trail changing the LBJ in the mud at night or something along those lines.

I mean if they can fail completely pulling into a driveway at 10mph, then offroading must really put a hurt on them.

 

I wouldn't be, unless you wheel alone with no way to communicate an emergency (Spot, sat phone, smoke signals, etc...).

I've dumped my old 4Runner up to the windshield in a "puddle" (lol), had to leave it for a few days until I could get a tow rig to get it out. The tow still didn't cost what a set of those spindles cost, and I have a cool story to tell too!

I'm of the mindset that I see enough guys running stock (style) ball joints, especially on their LT setups, that I'm not really worried about it. If, sometime down the road I get stranded because I break one, that's basically a day or two's worth of inconvenience (and now you have a cool story, lol), then I go out and upgrade what broke. Otherwise, there's the distinct possibility that I never break a ball joint (*most* people don't), so that grand+ could easily have been spent on more important things, like beer.

And even then, going with the uniballs (like those posted earlier) means you're not just replacing a single part that happens to be stronger. Mods like that tend to snowball where you end up with wheels, tires, IFS axles, fenders, etc...

 

Those failures are generally from wear parts wearing out to the point of failure. 9/10 times that can be prevented with 1) replacing the OEM BJ's, and 2) routine maintenance catching small problems before they become large ones.

 

Yeah, way too expensive imo. For the price of spindles and uni-ball lowers I could get a pretty sweet dirt bike, and a cooler full of beer...

Thanks.

 

I like your thinking!

 

Read this thread:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/stock-width-replacment-lca.392612/

It's not really feasible.

 

Thanks for posting this. Interesting read, especially with all the school yard bickering back and forth...

 

It's an internet forum, it's what we do best!

 

Overall, it was an issue of poor design that Toyota made right with the 2nd gens. On top of that though, there was a bad batch of LBJ's that came out in a certain production year or two of the 1st gens that made them even more prone to failure; something about the ball joint being scratched or something on the assembly line that made it more likely to fail prematurely. It triggered a recall for those particular 1st gens.

But yes, in general the LBJs are a smear on the great reputation of the first gen Tacoma. That and our rust prone frames...

 

SAS.

 

I agree.

I don't think I will go that route with my truck though. Not yet anyways...

 

Pretty sure eveyone with either sas or lt has at one point said "I'm not going to go that route"