Hey guys,

Got the Toytec Aluma series complete setup on the 4Runner yesterday and as much as I hoped to get it on without replacing a lot of other stuff..it looks like that is gonna be the case.
I had to go ahead and disconnect the tie rod ends (outer) and the ball joints to get it all in there and in doing so the boots didn't get busted, but a lot of greased squeezed out. I feel like in the least I should go ahead and put new OEM OTRE's on there as well as LBJ's.

My question is, should I do the inners, or not? On my last 4Runner I did all of this and for the inners I did some Napa ones and they were of good quality. I don't want to replace them if I don't need to. Everything feels good and smooth. Nothing is super floppy or loose.

In addition, obviously the CV boots prob. aren't going to last long..curious if I should suck it up and just go ahead and replace those too while I've got this all apart.

What would you do? Trying to be the right combination of saving as much money as possible but saving myself from doing all of this tear down multiple times in the future.

Thanks.

Side note. I have had a Toytec Ultimate lift in the past and the install was pretty seamless. When putting on the Alumi series lift the coil spring was contacting the spindle/upper ball joint housing area at full droop. Anyone else ever experienced something like this? I found it very odd and the chunk of paint that was immediately removed off my brand new coil overs was a bit painful to see.

Sometimes bushings are gonna make the biggest difference

Yeah, I can imagine.

I decided to leave off the upper ball joints and the CV axles for now. Doing the LBJs, OTRE's,ITRE's and the steering rack bushings. We will let that ride for now.

Thanks for the input.

Just incase anyone else decides to go with the Aluma series coil overs... You're pretty much going to be required to get aftermarket UCA's. I went ahead and got JBA UCAs so told the problem of the spring contacting the upper portion of the knuckle. Do this all at the same time to save yourself from damaging your brand new spring.

@Vansnxtweek
If you don't know when the LBJ's were last done, I definitely recommend taking care of those, without any hesitation at all. OEM, too.

As far as ITRE's, if there isn't anything wrong with them then I don't really see any need to replace them. Unless of course money is no issue, then why not?

As far as CV's go, I definitely suggest OEM axles. If you have them already, I'd try looking into some sort of reboot kit. When I had my suspension installed 7 years ago, my passenger CV boot ripped, and I just replaced the entire axle with a reman aftermarket one. I could kick myself for that, although it has been good to me (knock on wood) so far. Boot's ripped again, though. I would just try to preserve that OEM axle as much as possible.

This is all based off of my experience over the last couple of years since owning my rig

Thank you for your input Joe! Was starting to feel a little lonely in here hahah.

I have gone ahead and purchased OEM LBJs, new bolts for those, ITREs, OTREs, sway bar bushings, steering rack bushings, and then the UCAs.

Unless I'm forgetting something the only thing that leaves is the CVs and the LCA bushings.

Any opinion on the LCA bushings? If I'm doing all this crap I feel kind of stupid to not do those too. I have just heard about some mediocre reviews of poly bushings in that position. Do you have any opinion?

I'm going to look at the CVs today and see if I can tell they're OEM or not. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't considering how many miles and other parts I have found on the Runner. We will see on those and go from there!

Thanks for you input man.

If you are doing the LCA bushings or replacing the LCA's, it's not a bad idea to have replacement cam adjusters and bolts since you may find that they have seized and need to be cut out.

No worries dude. As far as LCA bushings, I don't really have much to say about those since I haven't ever messed with mine. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to do them. What kind of steering rack bushings did you get, OEM? And again if money is no issue then sure why not do it. Do you have maintenance records for your rig?

Nice to see a Hampton Roads member on the forum. I used to live in VB but I'm in NOVA now

Just FYI: If you are using non-OEM inner and outer Tie rods, save your used OEM parts. My truck is 216K miles and did front end bushings a week ago. All tie-rods (inner and outer) are still strong and generally OEM parts lasts 20-50 times longer than any AM part.

You can install boots on CV without pulling inner joint from the diff or outer from the hub. Just loosen the clamp on the inner joint and take the boot off and then the tripot joint out of the cage. Remove C-clamp and then remove both inner and outer boots. Simple as that.

Thanks man. I was just reading some 8 page long thread on the LCA bushings and saw a ton of people having issues with the adjusters and bolts. Would this be the case if they spin free while still mounted to the truck? I had it all loose to put the coil overs in and all four cams and bolts came loose pretty easily and spun free. Not sure if this is a different thing for when you go to remove them. I also see a lot of people saying its not even worth it so I'm really not sure on this one.

Dang right dude! I saw you were in NOVA, that's awesome. My sister lives up that way.

I got the Energy Suspension rack bushing kit since that's what I used on my previous one and I really noticed a large improvement. Hopefully this one will be as easy to swap it all out. That's what got me thinking about the LCA bushings since you have to take the steering rack loose to do it anyways. IDK undecided on those as of now. No maintenance records on this one but she was never abused. Still got a solid undercoating on the frame and nothing is really too rust or in bad shape. I got lucky on this one. An older lady owned it and just drove it back and forth to the grocery store haha. Worst wear on it is just the hood and roof paint from sitting in the sun.

Thanks for the tip man. I did get OEM LBJs and OTREs. I got Napa suspension ITREs as I've used those before and they are of good quality. If the ones on there now are ridiculously tight maybe I'll leave them but I think they could stand to be replaced. The OEM price tag on those was just insanity. I gotta draw some lines here somewhere. Obviously not on the ball joints though and some other things.

How does it feel after all the bushings?

I didn't realize that on the boots. That's freaking awesome. I'd prefer not to go replacing good CV axles just for the heck of it. I'm trying to translate the "tripot" joint but I can't figure out what ya mean on that haha. I will have to look at that closer if/WHEN these boots bust. No doubt they will.

I haven't personally had problems since I'm not in the rust belt, but If you can loosen them, you should be fine to remove them. I believe the typical problem is the bolt seizing in the adjuster and not being able to turn it at all.