It happened to me and it can happen to you.... Another NOT oem part failure with pictures

dry ball joint and popping out of the socket in 10-15k miles good?

 

Anybody have the bolt part numbers on hand?

 

notice how there is fresh grease at the bottom? I wonder just how effective a grease zerk would be if the grease does not distribute across the entire ball surface. Methinks the zerk might create a false sense of comfort. "oh I can grease it, it'll be fine", when in reality you're barely greasing the thing when you do grease it. And when you do, it looks like it just pushes all that grimey gunk up to the top of the ball and increases the friction and wear. I'm gonna say a sealed unit is probably better and toyota knows what they're doing. I mean, my factory u joints are all greasable but these are not. There must have been a reason for that.

 

No amount of grease will substitute for the quality of mating surfaces. If the machining is not as precise as OEM you can pump as much grease as you can, and the ball will still not work properly and wear prematurely. Guess what, my factory LBJ did not come with grease fitting, it came lubricated with quality rubber boot that did not crack or rotten in 23 years. When I replaced them 23 years later (after 320k miles) balls were still running smooth and full of lube inside.

I still prefer 23 years longevity over "lifetime warranty" that has to be used every year or so.

 

Someone (not me as it’s -30 right now) needs to post a video of the correct way to check lower ball joint wear and make it a sticky. If nothing else, for safety sake.

 

This video on OEM vs 555 vs Moog vs Raybestos LBJs is agonizingly long and poorly filmed but seriously worth the watch...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUNRhgO_QNc

 

Finally..... someone with a brain.... I joke I joke, but that is correct

 

Here's a good video on how to check them. Tire needs to be in the air.

https://youtu.be/tqw85L_sMgE

Ignore the annoying midwestern woman.

 

Can't believe I watched that whole thing. Dude should have turned on the macro setting or not held the camera so damn close.

 

No, that’s not good at all. I honestly don’t know. You guys maybe right about staying only oem with certain parts. I don’t know the exact key elements in manufacturing a ball joint. I just look at things differently than most people. My earlier post pointed out the fact that the design of our lbj’s are opposite of most other manufacturers choice of design. It’s always pulling against itself, instead of pushing itself together. I’m trying to think about something simple as an example. Which do more people have problems with?... their shoes falling off their feet or their pants falling down? Your feet push into your shoes, like most manufacturers design a ball joint to wear. On the other hand, Toyota decided to wear pants instead of shoes. Then they decided to put a bunch of shit in their pants pockets without regard to wearing a belt or suspenders. Sooner than later, gravity is going to win the battle and pull Toyota’s damn pants down. All I’m for sure of, is that damn gravity is a bitch! Haha.

 

Yes, it is agonizingly long, but the first few mins of the video explains in good detail about how the design is upside down compared to most designs.

 

Nice that’s exactly what we needed! Good find.

 

I never thanked you for pointing that out... I just assumed... I went and checked the part
numbers and saw that you are right.

I've since then noticed that one of the O'reilly CV joint boots has split, and all the grease has
spewed out...

Today I was down at Southeast Overland getting the ball rolling on some work.

OEM cv joints and lower ball joints, KING 2.5's and Total Chaos upper control arms.

Deaver j59 leaf springs and KINGS on the back.

The web page sez the Deavers will give a 1.5 inch lift, and kings are adjustable lift. I think
the lift on my truck is 3 inches now... anywho... I think a little less lift will make the cv-joint angle less
and help keep the new OEM cv-joint boots from splitting...

-Mike

 

My parts came in and I took my truck to the shop where I'm getting the work done this morning... I went back after lunch to
take some pictures of it all taken apart.

The lower ball joints were bad, it's got new OEM ones now. The lady holding the old one in this picture
showed me how it was leaking and she could easily wobble the shaft around with one finger...



Here's one of the new shocks and upper control arms... you can see the new OEM cv-joint hiding in there too...
It came from Toyota in a Toyota box and is obviously a Toyota part, but is remanufactured... I guess that's fine
and normal?



The same shop installed a new OEM steering rack and tie rods back around August, it doesn't look new now,
I guess it will all look like that soon ... I got a can of the Total Chaos recommended CRC Dry PTFE Lube,
I'll have to keep the uniballs clean and lubed anyhow...

-Mike

 

90080-10066

 

As far as I'm aware, the "check" for ball joint wear needs some special tool to check for slop. And the amount of slop that determines if it's out of spec is almost imperceptibly small, to the point it isn't really "measurable" without this special tool.

So, if you can feel any amount of slop, they are way out of spec.