I took my 94 4runner in today to get aligned because it had been pulling a little and a "hard" spot had been developing in the stering. The shop I took it to told me that the pittman, idler arm, and tie rod end on the left needed to be replaced. Does this sound reasonable and if so how difficult is something like this to do. Thanks for the info guys

 

They're probably right. Do you have wider or aftermarket wheels and/or tires? That can cause those components to wear out over time. You can get away with leaving it alone until it gets really noticeably bad, but that's up to you.

As for how hard it is to change them out, the idler arm isn't hard at all if you have a puller (you can get them pretty cheap), but I can't comment on the pitman arm or the rod end. You could probably do it all if you got a Haynes manual and set aside a day for it.

 

I highly doubt your PITMAN arm is bad. I mean, it's a thick peice of steel, so unless it's bent up don't replace it. Idler arm might just need the bushings replaced.

 

I'm not too sure about Toyota pitman arms, but mine went bad on my Ram. The steering got pretty loose before I finally had it replaced.

You can rebuild the idler arm. That's what I did and it only costs like $12. Here is the write-up on it. I used it and didn't have any problems.

Good Luck

 

I am running stock size tires and wheels but i did crank the torsion bars up about 6 months ago. I kinda had the same thought about the pittman arm. I doesnt look bent or anything. thanks for the replies and keep the advice coming.

 

It's not the pitman arm that actually bends. It's the teeth on it that wear down.

 

a toy pitman has a ball and socket swivel on the end that will go bad just as tie rod end (tre) would. they are the same thing really. but they dont go bad that often. i would rebuild the idler for the few dollars that costs then drive it. your tre might well be bad. none of it is too hard. your idler will go bad regularly if you have too much lift cranked on your t-bars. keep it to an inch or so, its a sliding scale kinda thing-more crank more wear.

 

This link may be of use to you:

Idler Arm Maintenance

 

1. Idler arm isn't that bad even without a puller (I swapped mine in about 2hrs without the use of a puller)

2. Pittman arm I cant comment on.

3. Tie rod ends -

I just got done swapping one and TRYING to swap the other, again without a puller. The tie rod end was holding up the entire weight of the truck and still wasn't coming loose with the use of a prybar and hammer. So if you do swap these things, go get a 4+ ton gear puller and a 12' long, 70lb breaker bar. And maybe about 20lbs of C4 if you get too pissed........

Know anywhere where I can get 20lbs of C4 to take care of my 4Runner's problems? This thing is pissing me off.....

 

For myself, if I have any play outside the manufacturers specs., I R&R. Also if one tie rod is bad I would replace both. On stubborn joints like the tie rods for instance, I use an air hammer with pickle fork while at the same time smacking the nuckle with a hammer. If you're tring to save the boot, a puller is best.

 

I just replaced my inner tie rods, upper and lower balljoints this last weekend. it was pretty easy but I had to use my shop press to press the old upper balljoint out and press the new one into the knuckle. that was the toughest part. You would need to buy both sizes of the pitman arm pullers at autozone, the small size to pop the outter tie rod end out of the lower balljoint flange and the bigger one to pop the lower balljoint out of the lower control arm. funny thing was that it didn't take too much for me to pop the tie rod out and separate the inner from the outter, the trick there was to break them loose and then pop the outter out of the lower balljoint flange. I have pics if you want me to post them, they are only of the finished product though. I'll post them here in a minute. EDIT: I also had to fab a special jig for the press for the upper balljoint.

EDIT:
Inner Tie Rod, sorry it's in the new boot already:

Lower Balljoint:

Upper Balljoint:

 

I didn't have that much trouble. when I used a pickle fork I never had to smack the knuckle, I smack the end of the fork. I replaced both sides but I used the original outer tie rods because they were in good shape. Don't forget to get an alignment afterwards either.

 

If I was in Gainesville I come over and help you, or do the work for you, me and my box of C4 .

The only thing I got pissed at was that I almost pressed the upper balljoint in upside down, that wouldn't have been good.

 

i ordered the bushings to rebuild my idler arm, only to find out the ball joint part of the idler was bad. so i replaced the whole idler.

i used a pickle fork to pop it off and the tie-rods, too. i used a 5-piece short pickle fork kit for ball joints and tie rods with a small 2-lb sledge. popped off in 2 hits. the day before i tried with a long pickle fork and a claw hammer and wailed on it all day long - so if you get the right tools, it takes very little time to do.

 

I had to use a pickle fork for the passenger side upper balljoint to separate it from the control arm. I just used a ballpien hammer and a $2 fork from Harbor Freight. It ripped the dust boot of course but I was replacing them so I was fine with that. The drivers side popped off pretty easy with a two jaw puller, I think a three jaw would have been better beause the 2-jaw kept kinking over, but it worked and I broke it on the passenger side which is why I resorted to the pickle fork. Thank god I had the Harbor Freight 12 ton press though!

 

well, im about to blow up this 3ton gear puller I have on this damn tie rod end.....

Going out to add another 1/2 turn of tension and WD40....

steve

EDIT - the gear puller blew up and launced my 1/2" drive ratchet about 8 feet. Thankfully I'm ok, but I was kinda expecting that to happen.

Thankfully that gearpuller has a lifetime warrenty! (now to trade it in for the 5 ton version for an extra 11 bux) and then to bring in the pickle fork and 20lb sledge on the truck lift....

LOL

 

I just added a page to my website describing the jigs I crafted to do my balljoints so check it out if you want. click it below in my sig or hit the WWW button below.