Lower balls lol

I know what you mean. But the new bolts in the bags do not have loctite on them.
But we do have loctite at work . Red -blue-green-purple . Abunch of different types.
I'll grab the blue. I'd like to get them on next weekend if it's not raining.

 

What about the upper ball joints in the A-arms? Is that a fairly easy job as well?

 

Probably easier to just replace the whole arm, I don't think the joints themselves are replaceable separately but I could be wrong. Stock UCAs are pretty cheap

 

Yes but check the length/style of the OE bolts vs the ones in your kit. Toyota used a longer bolt on joints with the cover.

With a ball joint press and the correct adapter it's a 1/2 hour job. Wrong tools, lack of experience and folks struggle.

 

The OP listed out his tools, and an oxy torch wasn't on that list. Seems like a pitman arm puller makes more sense to me... and cheaper.

Most tools (except an oxy torch, lol) can be rented for free at most auto parts stores (O'Reily, Kragen, etc...).

I bought 2 pitman arm pullers and used this as a guide for removing/replacing the ball joints:
http://www.bajataco.com/tech/control_arms_01.html

 

YES!

The last BJs I got had all bolts the same length, and I stripped out the threads in my spindle torquing them down. I was lucking and was able to clean the threads with a tap and installed longer bolts and was ok.

 

The lowers I think I'll be ok with everything I have. I'll grab a pitman arm puller,if I don't use it I'll still keep it.

The only thing that (might) be a prob is getting the ball joints on the upper a arms out of the spindle.

I do have a spacer lift on the Fox's I'm going to explore after market upper a arms ....... I don't like the angle mine are at. I got it this way.

 

I used a 3 arm puller like in the link I posted. However, I take some bailing wire and wrap it around the arms down by the a-arm. Then twist the ends togeter so they are tight. It helps keep the arms from slipping off under pressure.

Works pretty well. However the method the link uses for removing the ball joint from the spindle didn’t really work for me. Best to just rent a ball joint tool (the type that looks like a C clamp) for that, imo...

If you are replacing the UCAs, you can be a little more heavy handed with the BJs. One of my BJs was seized to the uca, so I just cut the bj right below the UCA, then pressed it out of the spindle with the tool.

 

Do you know if the Tacoma Prerunner and the 4wd have the same part number for the lower ball joints? I have a 2000 prerunner now and had several 4wd Tacomas and they look the same to me.

 

Cool story bro

 

IMO, a better story than telling a guy to buy an oxy torch when he doesn't really need to, bro.

 

I love cool stories lol

A pitman arm puller is cheap, and im sure i'll use it on other cars.

 

An oxy torch is cool and all, but I used a dragon to torch my lowers when taking off the old ones, if you can find one it's worth the effort...they are extremely rare though. They can get fussy and take several years to learn obedience and loyalty. I had to chain mine up in a basement for a few years before it learned to behave.

 

May I borrow the dragon if the pitman arm puller wont work?

 

Like who the F has an oxy acetelyne setup sitting in their garage. Wouldnt this person already have thought of 10 different ways to do any 1 task if he has all this shit laying around. If you do have a setup as stated above, how do we become friends

 

I have an oxy/acetele torch, but have never used it for the ball joints on my taco “use a hammer/puller”. I did use it for the control arm bushings though, made it a breeze.

 

Cool story, Im still using Eon-blue Dragon, if he will let me