Luvmeye22re

So I was changing my oil and looked at the lower balljoints and the drivers side has a nice little 1/4" gap between it and the spindle? and it's very obvious looking at it compared to the other one that the 4 bolts have backed out or were never tightened completely to begin with.

How do I go about tightening these down? I can't reach the outer bolts with a socket with it all put together because the dust shield for the brakes seems to be in the way. Would it help if I compressed the suspension or do I need to take it further apart?

lobukbuild

id take it apart and tighten properly.its only about a half hour job. just split that one joint and get them tight and put it together again. just remember tights is tight, too tight is broken.

Luvmeye22re

hmmm, well the only front suspension I've ever really done work with was a straight axle so I guess my question is:

Do I need to take the castle nut off etc.? All I think I need is access to the 2 outer bolts, the other two I can reach easily. If I had a wobbily socket I think I could get it but I don't

If I could avoid taking off the hub, dust shield etc. that would be great but I guess I could quit being lazy and take it all apart tomorrow. One thing I am missing is a hub nut socket, I ordered one yesterday but won't see it until next week. I hope the balljoint bolts aren't bent from being loose....

lobukbuild

whoa! whoa! whoa!! i miss understood which 2 bolts you ment. so i went out and took a look at one of the trucks with ifs to confirm. 93 extra cab 22re to be exact. 2 bolts closest to the motor are easily tightened. 2 closest to tire are kinda covered by the dust/backing plate tin. seems that you could use a wrench or a socket w/wobble exstension. you could almost get on it staight if you force it a little allowing the tin cover to bend out of the way a little. i wouldnt tear it all apart for that.just bend the cover back when your done so that it dont rub on the rotor. and you could always just go buy a wobble extension at local tool store for cheap money. sorry to of over thought the situation the first time. i origanally thought youd just have to split the ball joint to get at it which would require any other disassembly.

Luvmeye22re

Thank you! That was the rocking answer I was hoping for and I do have a long long wrench that will fit that now that I think about it. I just didn't know if I had to loosen anything else to take the tension off of it to actually tighten it properly. Judging from the looks of it and the surface rust there it looks like it's been that way for a while. I'm going to take a picture tomorrow and post it in this thread because I'm amazed it's held up!

The part that pisses me off the most is I took it for an alignment a few months ago and they told me all the parts were good and that they couldn't get the camber right because the lower adjusters were seized. That said, I looked at them today and you can clearly see they didn't even put a wrench on it....

That would explain the visual lean, poor camber, and horribly wearing tire on the driver's side front.

lobukbuild

jack that corner up and block the opposite side rear tire and all that other safety stuff to releave most any tension. if it doesnt go back in place easily with some persuasion from a hammer then loosen or remove the others and clean the dirt and rust out,at that point check the bolts and thier threads and replace with some grade 8 blots from any hardware store if needed. i would have a hard time trusting that shop again as well. good luck!

Luvmeye22re

I'll post up tomorrow about how it goes. Thanks for your help. I hosed it all down very liberally with PB blaster so I think it should all go together ok. Upon closer inspection the bolts look fine. Those are some beefy bolts.

rworegon

Proper torque and blue lock-tite on the bolts is needed to prevent the bolts from backing out on their own.

Luvmeye22re

Well I got under it and started tightening. I got one of the bolt to start spinning but then I broke the head off

I'm afraid to try the other 3 because I need to at least be able to limp it to the shop.

malteserunner

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, if this were my vehicle, those bolts would be promptly replaced with new, factory Toyota parts. Make sure to get it aligned again. Glad you caught it before a serious failure.

Luvmeye22re

Me too since the alignment shop didn't notice it! I won't be suggesting their shop to anyone!

Luvmeye22re

Well I'm off to guy buy a new balljoint with new hardware. The bolt looks like I could get out with a pipe wrench as it didn't brake flush with the spindle.

Let me get this straight...

Put rear of truck frame on jackstands
Compress A arm with jack
Add 2x4 or similar between upper control arm and bumpstop
lower jack and jack up truck in middle crossmember
Pull cotter pin and castle nut
Pull 4 balljoint bolts (or 3 in my case lol)
Hit with hammer until BJ is free
Pry lower control arm down enough to get new bj in place
Install 4 bolts with Loctite (Blue or Red or?)
Install Castle nut
Install cotter pin

Sound like a plan? I've never done this. I'll be buying jackstands, a BFH, Lower balljoint and a torque wrench. I may even get a bj puller as I know I will use one again in the future.

Thank you so much for the help guys. This IFS stuff is foreign to me and I'm the type of person that has to do something once to have it down. Mechanic work kind of intimidates me when it's something new.

Does anybody know the torque specs off hand?

Luvmeye22re

Well the old ball joint is out and i went to install the new one. Once the bolts get to about where the old ones were they start getting really tough to get in and it starts to strip the threads....

What now? Do I need to go get a tap to clean up the old threads?

rworegon

Clean the threads up with a thread chaser and some penetrating oil. A tap may be too aggressive and take away more of the threads than necessary.

lobukbuild

yes !! or youll strip em. if you do strip em out drill up one size larger and use grade 8 bolts and lock nuts

Luvmeye22re

Alright lol. This has been a heck of a day. I spent enough money on tools and parts where I'd be halfway towards buying a straight axle I really hope I don't have to buy a new spindle/knuckle (still don't know the real name for it)....

It must be beat from having bolts ran halfway through it and being loose for so long. I hope a thread chaser can fix it. Hopefully it just has some rust build up that needs to be chewed up.

Thanks for the replies, the help has been monumental.

MudHippy

Thread chaser? Yeah...good luck even finding one. Probably cost you an arm and a leg even if you can. Most likely to be found in a set of them too(not sold individually).

Tap same thing...if not better. Available at any auto parts or hardware store, and sold individually. Always works for me. Just use an M8 or M10 x 1.25 tap(whichever it is...can't recall offhand). Too aggressive? That's a new one. Strip what? Seriously? You do know that they're precision tools made to cut EXACTLY the size threads required for the bolts to be used in them right? Don't be a scaredy cat.

Side-note: DO NOT buy one of those POS titanium coated taps branded Master Mechanic(Ace/True Value). TOTALLY WORTHLESS ASS WEAK JUNK! Won't survive a single usage on even one of the holes(let alone the rest). EVERCRAFT(NAPA house brand), Vermont American, or HANSON are all top quality taps and dies.

EDIT: Sorry. Could have swore that expletive was kosher. Please don't give me another infraction. Irksome I tell ya. Very irksome. And petty, ridiculous, infantile, and much, much more. But I keep forgetting about all the innocent little children that frequent the site looking for information to fix their future Toyotas(AS IF!!!)

RE-EDIT: Ummm..so I just checked the rules. And YES!!! I can use the word ASS in moderation. So maybe if you don't like that...you can cram it up yours!!!! Thank you and good night!

RE-RE-EDIT: Why do I see *** when I'm logged out only? Huh? You know what? WTF ever. Ban me. Pretty much already given up on this crapfest anyway...

malteserunner

iTrader: (1)

You can rent a thread chase set at a parts store, like O'Reilly, if you don't own them.

Luvmeye22re

I'll see what O'reilly has. It's the closest store to me. It's a smaller store so it's hard to say if they will have it or not and the fact it's Sunday doesn't help. I'm not opposed to using a good tap and I've had bad experiences with cheap ones so I understand the concern there. I won't cheap out. I bought jack stands, a torque wrench, a grease gun, grease, a pitman arm puller, a pickle fork, a sleddgehammer and a ball joint today lol. All of which will come in handy so I don't mind. I called a local big box store to see what they would charge just to install a lower ball joint.... $400 bucks + tax including the part. Firestone, ouch. I couldn't choke it down.

After all this I will be ahead by a bunch of tools, some experience and knowing my truck is safe for quite a bit less.

Luvmeye22re

Well the thread chaser worked great the bolts ran in the threads super nice.

Then, MasterPro ball joint they sold me didn't fit. It seated into the knuckle fine but all the holes were 1/8" off towards the center of the vehicle.

I also can't put the old one back on because it never fit right to begin with. The tapered portion on top of the bj itself is too large in diameter to fit in the seat on the knuckle so whoever put it on just cranked the bolts down and left it that way. I ordered a MOOG joint and I'm hoping that one will fit otherwise I'm at a loss. I took a straightedge to the mating surface and it's perfectly flat and I did a thorough inspection of the knuckle itself and it doesn't appear to be bent in any way shape or form. I'll be picking up that joint in about 3 hours or so when they get it. I pray it fits because as is I couldn't even tow my vehicle to a shop to make them do it nor do I have the money.

Any ideas what might be going on? The guy at the parts store asked me if the somebody had maybe "put a different front end on it" but as far as I thought all the 4wd suspension was the exact same from 86-95 no matter engine or body style when it comes to 4runners/pickups etc. Am I wrong?