Ouch my lower ball joint while drivin, need advice

Hacksaw method. With the arm off the truck, I put the blade through each bushing and reattached it to the saw, then started cutting. Stop as much as you need to so you don’t go too far and start cutting the metal of the arm, past the bushing sleeve you want to remove. It might not have been first gen but I saw someone messed up their LCAs using the bottle jack approach. Bent them up.

 

UPDATE: So I ended up putting a ratchet strap and I put the jack under the lower control arm and drove it to the front of my house, took like an hour. Next I will replace the lower ball joint tomorrow or atleast i’ll try to lol.

 

Let us know what you find!

 

I don’t know guys it looks like this is going to be pretty easy from what I can see it looks like it’s just two bolts and two of the castle nuts that I have to remove and after that I’m not too sure if this upper ball joint right here will just slide out or actually will it was just light out yeah I mean I meant the lower ball joint a little ball socket I think I should just come off and I should be able to put the new one back in I should be ready to go I don’t know what are you guys think

 

Woah dude that was a hell of a run on sentence. I’m not quite sure what you’re asking, can you try to explain again?

Looks easy though, absolutely no rust so you shouldn’t have issues with stuck or broken bolts.

 

Either that or he *didn't* replace them and charged you for it.

I've seen that done.

 

Sorry I’m using the mic text or the audiotex whatever it’s called because my hands are a little bit greasy

 

I can’t seem to get the lower ball joint for the little ball is that where it has a screw at the bottom I keep hitting it with a hammer and it looks like it’s coming out a little bit but it looks like it’s stuck now I don’t know if I need to Pittman accessory tool or whatever it’s called but I keep hitting in it it it doesn’t want to budge

 

Yeah the stud has a taper that seats into the lower control arm. You’ll need a pitman arm puller to get that out since the ball joint already separated. Auto parts stores will rent you a set of them usually. At least I think that’s what you’re talking about, post a pic

 

Heat up the LCA where the stud goes in.

Another thing I’ve done is align with heat is out pressure on the castle nut side with a floor Jack and hit the LCA with a hammer.


Or a pitman arm thing

 

so i got the old one out and the new in but this last place where the castle nut goes where the tie rod ball joints at when i try to put the castle nut in it just keeps spinning and its not getting torqued down….. what gives????

 

So the tie rod just spins when you try and tighten the castle nut?

if you’ve got big enough vice grips apply pressure like this

 

Hit it with a 1/4" impact. As soon as it starts to catch put the torque wrench on it.

 

It’s gotta A little tighter in the taper. Tap on the top of it, it will seat tighter. Place a piece of wood on top of the tie rod, then tap with a hammer.

 

OK so I’ll try to hit it with the hammer on top and I’ll try to put some pressure on the top but every time I try to tighten the bolt you can see the threads spin with the bolt

 

I have the money and no one but me touches my truck. It's laughable to think that changing a LBJ properly requires anything more then basic mechanical aptitude, some basic tools, and a torque wrench. Add in youtube and I'd trust my neighbors 15 year old kid to do it. lol

 

OK so it worked I tighten the top and the bottom with a monkey wrench and at the same time I tighten the bolt and the threads stayed still and I was able to tighten it but now I need to find the torque specs for the bolts

 

Clean the tie rod threads with a wire brush or thread chaser if you have one. Clean the inside on the nut. Hit it with a 1/4" impact. The impact spins it fast enough that it will tighten right up.

 

make sure the threads are clean on both the taper and the castle nut, might be catching on something

 

I’ll try to find it but I know it will take me a while but does anybody know the torque specs for a 2.4 Toyota Tacoma five lug it’s a 2001