lower ball joint bolts why so many

I just did mine and the ears on the LBJ protectors were stuck to the old bolts and just tore off. The lbj holds the protectors in place even if the bolts don’t engage them, so I just used flange bolts all the way around @59 ft lbs.

 

Even with the 2 attachments points broken off, the Protectors should still do their job protecting the LBJ grease boot. A few dabs of Permatex Ultra Black on the upper side would do just about as good a job securing them as the 2 attachments which look to be just washers bonded into the LBJ Protector boot.

 

FWIW, when I removed mine, all bolts were captive washer, as the parts guy specified. Because the protector ears were torn off, I used flange bolts to install the new LBJs. I don’t know the bolt configuration from the factory, since the LBJs were replaced in 2006 under recall.

Btw, the 15 year old LBJs were very rusty on the outside, but the boots were intact. When I cut the boots away, the ball surface was bright and shiny, with clean caramel-colored grease inside. Movement of the joint felt smooth and stiff with no play, but not nearly as stiff as the brand new oem replacements.

 

That is just about the same thing I saw on the original OEM LBJs on my '97 TACO when I changed them for the first time in 2013. Even after 16 years of severe service, the LBJ boots were still good with no pin holes and both LBJs torque-tested to be serviceable. But the OEM UBJs were toast (below); very lucky they did not fail on me. I changed all the BJs out at the same time in 2013 just to check that box. The OEM LBJs & UBJs cost more but they are well worth the extra cost to me especially given the known problems with the 1st GEN TACO LBJs.

 

I replace mine back in June. New bolts and new boot protectors. I went with the shorter flange bolts up front/inboard, and the longer captive washer black bolts in the back/outboard. Little bit of blue loctite on all four bolts, and all torqued to 59ft lbs. Everything was OEM.

 

How does one test the upper balljoint for play? Just take the wheel off and shake?

 

Nessal,
That works. You can also do it with the wheel on for more leverage with the TACO jacked off the ground or with weight on wheels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DQyrhuRHFc. That is also a good method for checking for bad front wheel bearings. It is exactly how I began to suspect that the shop pressed the front wheel bearings in backwards when they were changed just 3 years back. Both front tires had slop in them but all the BJs checked out to be serviceable. If you start hearing a metallic clicking sound when you hit a pothole, check both the UBJs & LBJs ASAP. The metallic clicking sound I heard was the UBJ ball rattling around in the UBJ socket. In my experience, the UBJ won't last very long at all once the boot cracks. And the UBJ boots don't last near as long as the LBJ boots from what I have seen. That may be why Toyota offers an UBJ boot kit but no boot kit for the LBJ.

 

I was able to identify bad UCA bushings by jacking the front end up with the tires still on - push the top of the tire in/out and if there's play you can see it happening with the UCA. I would imagine you could spot play in the ball joint the same way. In my case I could see the arm moving where the bolt went through it, indicating bad bushings