mwarner

I just took my just purchased '91 4x4 Toy Xtra Cab in for routine servicing. The tech called to say that my front lower ball joints and idler arm look bad and need to be replaced. He then asked if I was sitting down before he'd give me the estimate to replace them. Yikes! $850 for parts and labor. This seems pretty excessive, right? Or not?

If I wanted to save some money and do this job myself, how hard is it pull off for someone moderately adept with a wrench?

Is the factory service manual a worthwhile investment? Or does someone have it online somewhere?

The parts seem expensive, too. Is there a good source for inexpensive, high-quality parts?

Sorry for the newbie questions... and thanks in advance,
Mark

914runner

Hey there! Where are you located? How many miles are on your truck, is it a V6 or 4 cyl.? Depending on the miles, yes your idler arm is probably shot, not sure about the BJ's (Ball Joints)

The idler arm is easy, 3 bolts and using a pickle fork to pop off the TRE (Tie Rod End). I have not done the BJ's but plan on doing it soon.

I get pretty much all of my parts from NAPA. I got my idler arm from them for around $100, it was the NAPA Chassis and has a lifetime warrenty.

There are some write-ups in the "Tech Section" that should tell you how to remove the iler arm in a step-by-step procedure.

mwarner

Thanks for the reply. I'm in Tucson, AZ. I just bought the truck. It has 150k miles on the odometer. Other than the aforementioned BJs and idler assy, it seems to be in really good shape. It has a 3.0V6 engine and 5spd. I noticed you did a 3.4L swap. I'm nowhere ready to do anything that ambitious, but in a year or two who knows. I'm curious how worthwhile the swap was to make? Was the performance increase significant enough to warrant the expense and trouble? Just curious.

Anyway, back the ball joints and idler arms...
-Mark

keisur

It's easy if you have a cheap press:

Here's my write up on how to do it:

http://webpages.charter.net/keisur1/upperbjrnr.htm

I replaced just the bearing in the idler assembly, Toyota wants to sell the whole dang thing for like 50bucks, I pulled the bearing and took it to O'reilly's and bought the bearing for 10 bucks and push it into the assemblty and stuck the idler back on. I;ll try to find the pics I took of the bearing and then number of the bearing too.

ChickenLover

The ball joints are pretty easy. I just did mine a few months ago. $850 is insane! It only took me about an hour to do both of mine. Go get a puller from harbor freight. I got one of thier larger ones, I think it's package says it's for a pitman arm, but it fit my bj's perfectly. It was about 10 bucks. I tried to get them off with a pickle fork first to no avail. I actually broke the p-fork. I put the puller on it and started cranking away, I cranked it so hard I was sure it would break, but it didn't and off they came. There will be 4 bolts holding it onto the lower control arm, soak them with pb-blaster before trying to break them loose. The b-joint will probably have to be pried off of the control arm. Mine did, but it was no big deal. The idler is easy as well. I used a smaller puller from harbor freight for tie rod ends. I got my idler at Kragen for about 90 bucks with a lifetime warranty.

This is a fairly easy project and I would certainly try it yourself before paying some schmuck nearly a grand to do it.

ChickenLover

Oh yeah, I order most of my OEM parts from here . They have pretty good prices. When I did my ball joints I was forced to use one from toyota and one I picked up at Kragen. The toyota bj was of much better quality.

keisur

oops, I thought you were talking about the idler pulley.