well yesterday i was driving down the road and my j-arm broke, leaving me to fend for myself as far as steering is concerned... no damage or anyone hurt.. but thats a different post altogether..

heres my situation..

i do overflow welding for a toyota shop in san jose.. so i called up my 'boss'

to ask if he has done any crossover installs recently. to my surprise, he was in the process of taking off a customers steering.. so i picked up the j-arm for the wonderful price of a miller high life went home and started gettin greasy.. well after it was all together again it just didnt look right..



so after looking for markings on the broken arm and the replacement

the letter "L1" appears on the broken arm and it says "L4" on the other one..



my question is do they make different style/size/angled j-arms? cause everything bolted up perfectly and actually it drives like it used to..

could this be my eye playin tricks on me?


i need some fast help guys

much thanks

 

anyone? bumpitty bump bump

 

You bumped a thread after 10 minutes? LOL. This site doesn't get that much traffic. A picture is worth a thousand words so let's see the goods.

 

the bump was out of panic.. i just needed help cause i love my truck soo much and having her crippled makes me feel incomplete..

the reason i didnt post pictures is because the parts are IDENTICAL and thats whats throwing me off ... snapped a couple shots.. try and make heads or tails of it.. also on the pass side knuckle arm has a "5" on it too..

it drives fine though..

after talking to my buddy whos been a toyota mechanic since before my truck was even an idea.. he says that the markings are just a catalogue of where the parts were casted..

broken!!!

L1

L4

 

glad nobody was hurt and you had a quick fix...

 

thanks OC it could have been a bad situation .. but i still haven't had my question confirmed yet..

 

I have only seen one arm design, might just be different mfg. run markings.

 

My guess is casting mold numbers. Means nothing. If they looked identical & it went togther like it was supposed to, drives fine, then all is good!

I'm curious now...will have to check the 2 J arms I have lying around to see what's cast into them. Will post back tomorrow.

 

Just tore one of those off a stock axle i'm rebuilding. PM me if interested.

 

Whoops nevermind... If you threw the other arm on and it steers fine but the only difference is a silly little casting number, sounds like you solved your problem..

 

i got a 1985 long bed last year of solid axle
and first year of EFI i go wheeling at elby hills. I got the same J arms set up you got
and i snapped mine exactly the same spot u snapped yours!
and went and got a another one went back up there yesterday
and flexed it out and SNAPPED it again. YOU WILL KEEP SNAPPING THEM!!
GET A high cross over steering kit no way around it!!!!! I PROMISE YOUR j ARMS WILL KEEP SNAPPING!