I'm a new owner of one with over 150k miles. Best way to describe mine was clunky. I could see the bushings were worn out. I pick it up tomorrow morning from the shop.

I need the same thing.... Anyone have an idea?

I can ask the mechanic tomorrow what the part number is. He had to cut mine off and order new ones; hence the delay.

Thanks.

I burned up $40 of Milwaukee Torch blades only getting through 2 of the bolts before realizing that I needed higher tpi. I used 24 tpi harbor freight hack saw blades at a slow speed in the sawzall, walked right through the bolts.

145k miles, its been lifted since 40k miles so I am sure a lot more wear on the ball joints. Right now I get a nice clunk when I hit a bump, and after tearing it apart looks like the ball joints are shot.

Interesting... RockAuto did the same thing to me with the Moog cam bolt set. I had to go OEM for those since I couldn't push the project to the next weekend and by the time they informed me of their error no one else could get me the Moog part in time.

They also shipped me two driver's side Moog LCAs, one of which was in a passenger side box. Since the box was mislabeled I don't fault them too much for it except that they would not help out at all with shipping the right part, not even the standard shipping which was running 9 calendar days IIRC. I didn't want to say anything at the time since they are a forum sponsor and a lot of people seem to have good experiences with them, but maybe it's worth looking elsewhere for these parts.

Moral of the story... don't cut anything off of your truck until you are 101% sure you have the parts you need to get it working again.

If any one is looking to get toyota parts for their 4runner check out Camel Back Toyota, they have an online site, and all the parts you need for your vehicle.

Im currently weighing my options between Moog, and the Toyota LCA and they seem to be cheaper than moog at Camel Back Toyota Parts.

Here is a link for the LCA's: https://parts.camelbacktoyota.com/pa...w=11&maxRow=10

Hope this was useful to some one.

I realize this thread is getting old, but I just did both ball joints in an afternoon. Did them on our 04 V8 4Runner with 165,000 on it. My old Honda Accords all had press fit ball joints and we did them all the time when I was in high school. Seems like the ball joint presses rarely worked for removing them. I remember the trick was always finding something to back-up the control arm and then just pounding the ball joints out with a hammer. You have to do it in such a way that the arm is really solidly braced so that you don't do damage to the control arm. It always worked then, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Ironically, I used a junkyard coil spacer from Toytec lifts that I had laying around from a different project. It was the perfect fit to slip over the ball joint base and allow the ball joint to fall into it, but small enough to fit on the bottom of the control arm and not slip off the end. Using a floor jack, I held the Toytec spacer up under the ball joint and hammered the ball joints out. Used a 3 lb hammer, and it took like 6 swings. Hard swings, yes, but no torch, no cutting, no drilling. I didn't even pull the control arm and do it on the bench. I left it on the vehicle. I removed the lower ball joint, tie rod, and axle nut, but left upper ball joint connected. Then, to make room for caveman-swinging my big hammer, I pulled the CV out of the spindle, bungee'd the spindle and brakes to the side, along with the CV axle once removed from the hub. It took me a few hours to figure the first one out, but after figuring out the setup, the second one took me less than an hour from jacking it up to setting it back on the floor! Now everyone I know wants me to do their 4th gen lowers.

It looks really ghetto, and it kinda is...


Ball joint press and additional 4x4 ball joint cups from O'Reillys worked like butter to press the new ones in.

It comes down to it's much easier to replace the LCA that includes a new ball joint then to try and replace the ball joint. I was going to try that, had the tool set from Autozone and decided " what a major pain", no way was it going to happen on vehicle, so if you have to pull the LCA anyway and then you'll find the adjust bolts rusted in place, you need new LCA anyway, so just do it.

I've read posts about those who have successfully replaced the ball joint, I don't know how, they are stronger than I am!

Very possible on the cam bolts, etc. I had a special circumstance where it seems the previous owner slid into a curb (I'm in Colorado) with the wheels fully locked to the side. This accident actually bent the cam bolt and broke off one of the alignment tabs. I had a specialty Toyota shop cut the tabs off, line things back up, and weld in new cam gussets from Total Chaos.

59860 - Total Chaos Lower Control Arm Cam Tab Gussets

Since one of the bolts was bent, I had the shop do new lower bushings in the lower control arms, as well as new SPC cams since they had the arms off anyways. Since the bushings and cam bolts are relatively new, and in great shape still, I didn't want to do new control arms and loose the bushings I paid to have installed in the lowers. That's why I personally went through the trouble of figuring out how to replace the ball joints. But you make a good point and it's definitely an option to just go and replace the whole arm if your bushings/cams are shot.

is there a chance someone to send me a full list of parts I need to get my ball joints replaced? I found out yesterday my driver's side is toast. I'm having a buddy do it and want to make sure everything is smooth sailing since auto parts have to be ordered where I'm at in the states.

Thank you

Thanks for sharing. I need to do the same thing in the next couple of weeks. I did not see the photo you posted of how you had it setup to hammer out the ball joints - could you please upload a pic if you have one? Also, when you were pounding them out with a hammer did you need to use a bolt or some other device to drive them out or just hit directly on the back of the ball joint? Any insight you can provide is greatly appreciated.

I did this on my 07 FJC which has the same setup and it was much harder than I expected to get the old ball joint out. I used the C clamp tool rented from autozone. I used my impact gun to get started but a big cheater bar (Floor jack handle) finally got it out. If you can load up the ball joint with the C clamp and strike the lower control arm by the LBJ with a steel hammer, the shock will usually break it free.

Not that OP, but I did the ball joints when I rebuild my LCAs. The LCAs were out of the 4runner, but it would definitely be easier with them inside still. I have pics in my thread here ball joints are covered in step 4 and step 9: Whiteline Lower Control Arm Bushing Tutorial (120+ Pictures)

Word on the street is the 23 piece advanced auto kit is the way to go, so I used that with a breaker bar, heat, and hammer to get them out. Not too difficult and mine were heckin crusty.

teaser pics: