Lower Ball Joint Advice

Good Morning,

I took my truck in for inspection the other day an the tech who had it on the lift came an got me and wanted me to see the play in the front lower ball joints. So, he got under the wheel with it up in the air and pushed upward and there was a notable amount of upward movement or play on the lower ball joint with an associated clunk. I am assuming this shouldn’t be the case correct? He did not fail me for inspection citing that Toyota doesn’t list a spec for play, but recommended I replace as soon as possible I am pretty sure these are the original’s an the truck is at 180K.. So, does anyone have the torque specs, I plan to replace the whole control arm. I won’t be doing OEM just because the trucks age/ mileage to me isn’t worth putting OEM for the added cost. I assume this job isn’t to hard.

 

The only hiccup I would look up is the issue with cam bolts seizing to the LCA bushing that may require you to cut the bolts to expedite the job. Otherwise it’s pretty straightforward provided there is no rust, and you make sure you mark alignment positions of the cams before removal to get you back in the ballpark.

 

The torque specs are shown in the link below
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-torque-spec-guide.318116/

 

Thanks guys!

 

I just did this job yesterday. If you have to cut your LCAs off, grab the Diablo blade from Home Depot. I bought the Lenox blades from Lowes and went through a blade and a half on my first cut that also took about an hour. With the Diablo blade, it took about a minute and I was able to use the same Diablo blade for the other seven cuts. Keep in mind that you will need to buy new cam bolts if you do have to cut yours off...so I would recommend that you have them before you start the job just in case you either break them with a breaker bar or have to cut them. It would be super shitty to not be able to drive because you are waiting for new cam bolts in the mail.

 

Yes I did order new Cam bolts just in case. I don't doubt mine may be seized.. Was this a sawzall blade you speak of? I unfortunately don't have one.. But I do have an angle grinder, with some cut off wheels.. I guess worst case i buy myself a sawzall as I've always felt i should have one..

Do you remove the 2 bolts from the bottom of the knuckle or just the castle nut from the LCA and pop the ball joint up off? Guess ill probably know when i get in there.. just thought it was odd it has both.

 

I was not able to get at it with my angle grinder so I used the sawzall. You do have to remove the two bolts on the lower ball joint attachment. From what I understand that is an improvement from the Gen 1 design where the ball joints would fail and then fall down pretty much ending your day while you were driving.

What I did is took off the castle nut while still attached to the lower ball joint attachment and then removed the bolts for the lower ball joint attachment from the bottom of the knuckle. Then when it was removed (LCA and lower ball joint attachment), I propped up the ball joint on some wood and hammered off the lower ball joint attachment.

 

Got this done this weekend, everything went pretty well. Typical stuck bolts everywhere, had to use the cheater bar several times, as my impact just wasn't cutting it. Also absolutely needed the sawzall and used your advice with the Diablo blade. I had to cut 3 out of the 4 bolts an did so with 1 blade. Thanks for the insight on that. Ride is much better now. I couldn't believe had bad 1 of the ball joints was in particular, it was like a limp noodle floating around in there... This job would probably be an hour at most with fresh un-rusted bolts but ended up taking me most of the day between having to break everything loose and go buy a sawzall ect..

 

Overall your are lucky, it could have failed at high speed.