MWBOB

Hi Guys,
I'm scootin' out to the parts house to pick up upper and lower ball joints for my 88 2WD work truck. I'm picking up a separator and or a puller as needed.
Any tips or advice to offer? I'm not a mechanic, but have done my own work for years. You guys gave me some good tips a couple of weeks ago when I changed out the relay rod. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

MWBOB

I've hit a snag. I have the chassis up on stands and a floor jack supporting the lower arm. The problem is that as I unbolt the upper ball joint, the chassis actually raises off the stands. I guess this makes sense as the torsion bar has to be strong enough to hold the truck up, but once the bolts are completely removed, the truck will lift to the point where I won't be able to install the ball joint's bolts. I will have to compress the arms together somehow or let off on the torsion bar tension. I suspect that resetting the tension on the torsion bar might be something that has to be done with the truck raised up on a lift.
Any ideas?

MWBOB

Okay, I figured out how to deal with the torsion bar. Got the upper arm detached and to my surprise, both ball joints seem fine. Smooth, no play that I can feel and lubricated. I put everything back together. I'll get it to a shop tomorrow to get some professional advice. The outside edge of both front tires are grinding off at an alarming rate.

Western Canuk

I thought my ball joints were gone a few years ago and it turned out my pitman arm/idler arm need to be replaced. Same symptoms though.

MWBOB

Western Canuk-
Thanks for the tip. I'll check that.

MWBOB

Well, I changed out the idler arm. It didn't seem to be in bad shape. I could only force a tiny bit of movement, maybe 1/64th inch or so. At this point I think that I should get it aligned. I can actually see the outward tilt of the wheels when viewed from the front. It doesn't seem possible that this much alignment change could come from so small amount of wear in the front end parts.
I've also noticed that the steering wheel position is off somewhat. Replacing the idler arm helped this some, but it's still off. It seems like changing out the transfer rod and idler arm wouldn't change the alignment as neither have any adjustability.
Any thoughts? - thanks

MWBOB

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I took the truck to a local shop that specializes in Toyotas and has a very good reputation. They said that all of the ball joints were in good shape, but that the idler arm needed to be replaced. They said that the pitman arm was okay.

MWBOB

Okay, front end has been aligned and have new skins on all four wheels. Steering wheel is perfectly centered and she steers straight and true. Time will tell!