Spicer does make some of Napa's premium chassis components but whatever is in their system for premium 4Runner ball joints are definitely identical to 555 Sankei (atleast at the Napa I went to). I am not sure how the supply chain system works but it appears Moog, Napa, Raybestos, Beck/Arnley...they all likely just rebrand and supply the 555 Sankei part. For the lower ball joints, I haven't actually found any variety in manufacturers other than OEM or Sankei/555. But maybe someone can correct me...

I have the 555 Tacoma LBJ and OTRE. For me, the tie rod hits the sway bar moumt, leading to reduced turning (significant) and a spongy feel at lock because it is flexing the rack (not good). I need to crawl under there and clearance the sway bar mount a bit.

If I remember correctly, the shank of the ball joint is significantly larger, the ball may be as well. If the ball is larger, This would increase the bearing area of the ball and increase strength.

I was just under my truck this weekend and noticed that the boots on the LBJ are very dry and cracked. Both the LBJs and OTREs are very corroded, even though they have less than 10k miles and I'm not in a salt zone (Oregon).

I bought the Raybestos parts (which ended up being the 555 part) with a lifetime warranty that is supposed to include labor. Has anyone attempted go redeem this? I bought them through rockauto and the item number isn't recognized any longer.

For the zillionth time - ALL - "555" is not a part type. It is a metal casting impression. At most it means that they used a Toyota part to cast the replica.

Basically 555 means nothing for you the consumer. You bought a raybestos part .... Aka not Toyota/OEM. 555 is not a parts maker lol. That Chinese part is just like the rest and that's why it broke at 10k miles.

Buy Toyota / OEM Ball Joints! They are different than these knock offs
.

I have had no issue with anything hitting/rubbing/binding. Nor does it steer any different, or steer more or less. All of my front end is Tacoma it all works together fine. I'm also running a bit more lift than most and a larger tire as well. Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not. I was merely showing the differences between the different parts. If people don't want to run them...Don't. All the issues that people have brought up I have experienced none of them.

The balljoint is the same size Tacoma and 4runner. The Tacoma has a larger outer tierod end that must be used with the Tacoma balljoint.

So not to dig up an old thread, but I can't seem to post a new thread, and I've searched & read a bit, but don't see this answered anywhere directly.

Is there any way to identify a ball joint's manufacturer by looking at it? If it is OEM, will it definitely have the 555 cast on it? And where does one look for that casting? If it doesn't have the 555 casting, does that mean it is not OEM??

Matt

Just forget about the "555" altogether. It doesn't mean anything.

There's so much Chinese knock-off stuff on the market right now that the only way to know what you have is to buy it directly from the manufacturer.

Even the eBay and Amazon stuff that's being sold as OEM is suspect in a lot of cases.

I work in automotive manufacturing, and this is a big problem right now.

okay, thanks. I don't see the 555 on them, so I got a little worried. It's a sale on this forum, so I'm hoping it's an honorable sale.

Link? Just buy them from Camelback & be done with it.

Its not really a problem, its just the facts of life. LOL. Long time no post!!!

Low Range is a good source for Sankei stuff. I've used them for UBJ's, inner TRE's, and outer TRE's.

I have over 340K on my 2005 Tundra with factory off road kit and its time for ball joints again.
Its had them changed out twice, once for the recall just under 60k and again around 210k with the Japanese made Raybestos (bearing & casting say Three Five) on them fwiw.
For the difference in cash vs OEM I'm replacing them again with the same Raybestos parts, going over 100k miles is acceptable to me with a little larger than stock Duratracs.

But' fwiw, I'll simply parrot an old friends advice who owns a suspension/driveline shop for several decades who's seen it all. He says most cases of premature suspension failures is due to "half ass lift setups and oversize tires" adding more stress.
People going cheap on lift kits without upgrading the control arms results in direct premature ball joint failure due to the caster alignment. Just because a truck aligns on the rack does not mean it will be without problems down the road. Not blaming just saying it adds to it...
The top UCA on these Toys should be changed if lifting just a few inches especially if hard wheeling is in the future, so anyone who has ball joint failures a lot might check into it.

Lots of choices for Toys. Peace!!
https://www.tundras.com/threads/ever...arms-uca.4497/

Why would lack of UBJ adjustability have any bearing on LBJ life?

As an update since my posting. It's been 5 years/70,000 kms since I replaced my LBJ's with the OEM ones and I have already noticed minor play so I had to replace them again. I still kept my factory original joints with 300,000kms as comparison and strangely, the 70,000km ones felt noticeably looser than the 300,000km ones. 5 yrs ago was also when I out a 3" Old Man Emu lift so I'm wondering if that is the primary cause for the accelerated wear.

One of my trucks is a 1 ton Dodge Ram 4x4 and when I rebuilt the front suspension, the LBJ and UBJ were MOOG. They had the best quality on the market unless you wanted to spend 400 on one articular brand that will go unnamed.
I investigated the LBJ thoroughly due to the 18,000 lb GVW with all my toys and boat in tow.
MOOG was the best choice for that build, I'm surprised to see it being bashed so hard on this forum. That said, I am about to replace upper and lower on my 2001 4R so I'm glad I stumbled across this thread. I'm doing the CV boots also and will probable go with Beck Arnley-any comments on that?