4runnermt

Hey guys, I had my 4runner in for an alignment about a month and a half ago, and they said they couldn't set the camber/toe angles due to a bad idler arm. What are the symptoms of a bad idler arm? The only wierd thing my rig does is sometimes makes a scraping sound in the suspension with the wheel turned all the way while going over bumpy terrain at low speeds. I plan on replacing the bushings on the idler arm anyway. BTW, it's a '94 4runner plain jane stock ifs.

rpeAMP

When I had a bad idler arm, they couldn't get my truck to align (they could never get the steering wheel to dead center, it was either to the right or left when wheels angled dead ahead). Also, the truck pulled heavily when in 4WD, however this may be due to the mis-alignment, not the idler arm itself.

As soon as I had it fixed, they were able to align the truck and it drove "staighter", quit pulling in 4WD, and I didn't have to worry about the ghetto-look of my steering wheel not being centered!

The scraping sound is more than likely your steering stops rubbing metal-to-metal against the frame; not necessarily a horrible thing, but just annoying. Check some of the FAQs around here; I believe there's a more detailed and technical description found there.

AKennedy87

yea the bushings are like 5 bucks on rockauto.com i think, thats where i bought em. If you get the whole arm from a napa or autozone they usually have a lifetime warantee, and they do wear easy over time if you do a decient amount of wheeling so this may be worth it, they are like $50

Symptoms are a decient amount of freeplay when a wheel is jacked up I think.

Here is a link to show you how to rebuild, its pretty easy just make sure you have a tie rod puller or pickle fork.

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/idler/

mach4

Lift the truck up and put it on stands.

Then do the wiggle/jerk/push/pull thing on the wheel closer to the idler arm so you can see any play.

On my T, it was obvious the bushing was bad and in addition, I could see a lot of play in the joint between the idler arm and relay rod. Replaced the whole idler arm and the stealer was able to align it when the relay rod was replaced.

Good luck getting to the bottom of your problem.

aviator

I've got the same problem with my idler arm gonna try to re-build 'er myself over the weekend if I can get the parts in time. will let all know how it goes...

so far as the steering stops go you can reduce that problem by putting a little knob of chassis grease on each side of the thing (4 each left/right) it quiets everything right down and usually lasts (i find) about 3-4 mos. Hope this helps Aviator Cheers

Toyofast

We normaly stock the bushings and seal to rebuild the idler arm here at my dealership. We did sell the last set today though.

Toyota Part numbers-
90386-19005 Bushings x2 $1.58 each
90304-31012 Dust Seal x1 $5.51

Toyota is closed Friday thru Monday BTW.

tc

Isn't there a needle bearing to replace the bushing now?

UKMyers

Your thinking of spindle bushings... Rebuild it, get a brace and be done with it.

jrfast

The dealer is not unreasonable for the bushings aslo. Its a cheap fix and works great afterward. I will post a link of an article that shows how to do this step by step.

UKMyers

That article is floating around in a few places. I think it took me longer to unbolt and bolt the idler arm to the frame than it did to actually replace the guys. Super easy to do...hardest part is probably getting the steering rod off of it..