need to replace lower ball joints on the front end of my Runner but I was told I will need to grind the rivets off. If this true, what do I do about putting new rivets in? I have been advised that I could just buy some sized to fit nuts and bolts and it would work just the same... any ideas??

 

The second gens use nuts and bolts so I dont see why they wouldnt work on the 3rd gen. Just make sure you get some lock washers or something to keep the nuts from loosening up and you should be good. If you buy replacement ball joints they might even come with nuts and bolts to use.

 

yeah thats what i thought but i had already purchased them and they did not come with anything... thanks though

 

no need to grind any rivets, the 4 on the lower are are not for the ball joint at all. The lower ball joint is held to the knuckle with four 14mm bolts. They on the bottom and go up. look next to the heat shield for the disk brakes. Its a really easy job, and takes about an hour.

DO NOT GRIND THOSE RIVITS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE LOWER ARM!!!

 

Not sure what they were telling you about grinding rivets and all that, but j-money$$$ is right, it's just 4 bolts.

 

Speaking of the four bolts on the lower ball joints. Be sure to put a dab of BLUE loctite on them. The factory does this when the vehicle is originally assembled and its a good idea to do the same when replacing them.


FOG

 

+1. Just did all of this a few weeks ago.


Andreas

 

thanks aowRS... i appreciate the heads up. i hope to get to it next weekend...pretty busy this one.

 

14mm socket, and a cheap 20 dollar puller 4 1/2. watch out cause when they pop, They POP! if your not carefull you'll look like this.

 

I listened to the advice of a fellow on here about replacing those four bolts with grade 8 stuff with lock washers. A couple months later while running chains in the snow the whole damn wheel came off! Tore up the fender, driveshaft, upper-lower ball joints, bent the control arm, and a bunch of other wonderful stuff. Upon inspection three of the bolts broke off and the other had loosened all the way out of the balljoint assembly due to the vibration of the chains and heavy use. But before switching them I had no problems in the same circumstances. DO NOT REPLACE THOSE BOLTS WITH ANYTHING BUT THE OEM STUFF! Those people at toyota aren't retarded as you think.

 

Hmm, I used the grade 8 bolts that were supplied with my new ball joints. I don't see why they wouldn't work. You sure he torqued them correctly? Scary stuff.

 

Yeah but that's only half the story. Since I didn't have the facilities to paint up a fender, and it had to be towed, I had a shop do all the work. They replaced the control arm including both balljoints with a used assembly. This was all about 15 months ago.

I was out hunting four days ago and while going about 5mph the rig suddenly dropped a foot on the front right, the same side that was replaced. What happened was the lower ball joint came out, then ripped out the upper. The tire, rotor, rack and pinion, control arm etc wound up under the frame jammed into the rear axle.

The lower balljoint was worn down and rusted, but didn't make any noise or any other obvious warning. I just went through a thorough inspection and there was no mention of it, so it went to crap since September. The coil spring is pushing on the lower sway arm putting pressure directly onto the balljoint. Seems like a bad way to design it to me. When that balljoint goes out you are SOL, I'm just lucky I was not going 70 down the highway. I am seriously thinking of selling it and buying a land cruiser 70. This IFS shiot sucks, can't keep it aligned either.

I am just getting all the parts together today and will have time tomorrow to go fix it as it's still in the woods in two foot of snow. Other than that I am having a wonderful time here.

Oh yeah, I did torque those bolts right. When I told the body shop owner about it, he called me a retard for trying to outsmart an engineer. It was hard to disagree with him. Just wish he would have replaced the lower ball joint on that used unit.

 

dang.... you have had some bad luck!

 

The shop owner is the true "retard" for putting used ball joints on your junk. He could have easily killed you. I mean come on, who does that? There are a few parts on your truck you just don't replace with used and ball joints are at the very top of the list!