Anyone done this? Do I need to bring the knuckle in to have the joints R&R or can I do it myself?

 

You can free-rent a ball joint press at AutoZone, but be assured that it's still a pretty tough job. After being in there for 15-ish years, they really, really don't want to come out.

 

That's what I'm thinking too.

 

mudmaster, where was the pic in your avatar taken at? Just curious.

If I do mine ever again, I just may consider buying the Toyota UBJs and have a local shop replace them after pulling the knuckle. As Jomoka says, they don't want to come out easily in most cases.

 

That was taken at Evans Creek ORV park in Washington.

 

Left side is put back together, right side is apart and I'll start putting back it together tomorrow. I'm doing the Tundra brake upgrade also. I was able to use a BFH to get the upper BJs out. Right side fought me hard.

 

I just did mine on my 92 4Runner a nice little OTC tool popped them out with very little effort.

Getting them out was about the easiest part of the whole job.

 

Googling for a pic I can see that you got to miss the hardest part with your second gen - since the ball joint uses bolts on the 'big' side. On the 3rd gen, the big side is pressed into a hole in the cast wheel carrier/upright. Getting the tapered ball joint out of the hole is the easy part, pressing the ball joint out of the carrier is a much larger struggle.

 

The 2000 Tacoma is the next to get done

 

Exactly!