Lower ball joint and suspension questions

I have a 2002 extended cab 4wd manual, 2.7l with 200,600 miles on it, purchased about 4 months ago. I was going the repair receipts and didn't see any indication that the lower ball joints have been replaced. Reading horror stories about catastrophic failure I've decided to replace them with OEM Toyota parts. It also looks like my passenger cv axle has a torn boot so it's getting replaced as well.

My question is, what other parts should I be replacing while I'm in there? Outer tire rod ends, inner tire rod ends? Any other suggestions? I don't see any torn boots or grease leaking from everywhere and the truck drives straight.

Thanks!

 

You can check for play in the tie rods by wiggling the tire back and forth when it's off the ground. It won't cause any catastrophic failure when they wear out, but it will tighten up the steering and save some tire wear by replacing them.
Bushings would be another thing to look at while you're in there. Steering rack, sway bar, and upper and lower control arms all have bushings that will probably be about shot with 200k miles on them.
Also, I would recommend keeping your old CV instead of turning it in for the core charge. New boot and grease and it should be as good as new, and you can't buy aftermarket CV's that are even close to the same quality.

 

^^^^ Good advice. I'm going to be doing this as well. I need to tighten up the steering. Low Range Off-road has good deals on outer tie rods. Does anyone have experience with these? I will only go oem with the lbj's, but for tie rods they seem to have good reviews on the site and their stuff is about 1/2 price of oem. If replacing inner tie rods and steering rack bushings, for ~$400 or less you can get a remanufactured steering rack that should have in we tie rods if what I've seen for other car manufacturers carries over for these trucks.

 

Great info and thanks. I'll look into a bushing kit and get after it.

 

I am doing my bushings in the lower control arms at the moment as well as the steering rack bushings. Just finished new bilstein 5100's with new stock 595 rate TRD Coil springs and upper/lower ball joints. I've done pretty much the entire thing in the last month if you have questions...

 

I looked through the vehicles service history and the lower ball joints were replaced at 76,000 miles in 2007 under the service campaign. Ordered the parts for those and now I'm looking at energy suspensions bushing kits. I'm going to go with the upper and lower control arms, rack and sway bar. Whose kit did you end up using for the bushings?

 

I went with the energy suspension upper and lower kit, as well as the rack and pinion kit. I will be finishing up the upper and lower bushings this week. FYI oxy/acetylene makes short work of the old rubber bushings. I also removed my sway bar.