Press out OEM lower ball joint

So I replaced my lbj on this Taco, and have this hunk of perfectly fine metal with just a busted boot on the bj. I haven't cleaned it up real well to check, but anyone ever press out the bj and put a new one in? Seems like a waste of metal for just the bj. And if you did press the old one out, what new one did you put back in?

 

It's possible to press apart but pointless as there are no replaceable internal parts.

OEM lower and upper.




The "Sankei 555" LBJ sold as "premium grade" by Moog, Raybestos, NAPA and others. Metal on metal "half ball" construction, requiring lubrication.



Superior OEM LBJ made by 555 for Toyota OEM applications. Not sold aftermarket. Mirror polished full ball in a PTFE type liner. Among other features.

 

yep, all you can do is replace the assembly as a whole

what I love about these trucks is the ball joints are bolted in and not pressed in like on some vehicles

gotta love how home mechanic friendly working on these trucks is

 

Good stuff Dirty Pool. My thinking is to buy just a bj, not the entire bracket, as opposed to servicing the bj itself. That metal bracket costs $, so it seems to me that if one could press the bad bj out, and put in a good bj, that would save a few bucks. That metal bracket I am about to take to a recycle scrap yard looks to be in fine shape; I hate throwing away material that appears to be in fine shape. Of course, one would need to find a bj to press back in, and that does not seem to be sold (unless you use a "wrong" one).

Keakar I agree with you that this is a nice design. My daughter's '97 CR-V has press-able bjs, so it was more work to change them (I had NAPA press them out for $8 per). But, less waste as all I threw away was the old bj.

 

Keep it as a trail spare, for you or some unfortunate other.

Man, I'm a posting fool today!

 

Lol, I thought about that. All that I think is wrong with this OEM is the boot popped. I stopped driving it immediately so there are almost no miles that were put on it as the grease was being slung out. A shame to not be able to reboot it. The truck has only 128k on it, and I believe these are the original bjs. That grease looked like Vasoline

 

best price for OEM toyota parts = camel back toyota parts. Taking the BJ apart seems like it would be a lot of trouble to go through for minimal savings even if they sold all the parts for it..

 

its a shame you cant just buy another boot for it? I know they sell the shit outta aftermarket replacement tie rod boots

 

Would just be two more steps - press out, press in. Easy when you have a shop do it I dislike tossing out this hunk of solid, most likely well crafted, strong hunk of metal. Then again, it does make it easier to change to not require pressing out/in. I make frequent trips to the dump, and always feel 1st world guilty at all the crap I, along with everyone else, am tossing out. I've been piling up these kinds of things to take to a local scrap yard to at least have some illusion that it might be recycled!

 

I haven't seen any bj boots for these. I bet the inner of the bj is in pristine shape - just a busted boot. I may have this pressed out just so I can investigate that, and compare to dirty pool's pic.