Missing a bolt on lower ball joint!
 

With all this talk of lower ball joints lately, I decided to go check mine tonight and found something I wasn't expecting.... I'm missing one of the four bolts on my drivers side lower ball joint... My only guess is shoty work by a mechanic from the previous owner?! My question to you guys is, where do I get a bolt to replace the missing one? Dealer? Will the parts department know what bolt I need?

They should, but just in case, here are the numbers based on build date (check you door jam plate):
90105‑10406: 95 - 8/2000
90105‑10505: 9/2000-2/2001

2001
90105‑10406

For 2002:
90105‑10505: GOLD
90119‑10933: GREEN (I think you need 2 of each of these)

You don't have your rig in your sig, so I don't know what year it is. It should be one of those numbers though.

wow you got lucky there go to the dealer and get all 4 bolts replaced, they are cheap i think 1.07 each? because you dont know how long its been like that and 3 bolts holding the weight of the truck puts a lot of stress on them, i would replace the 4 more safe than sorry

I think I paid .80 cents each it was less than a dollar. I replaced all eight on mine.

Dealer had to order them. I picked up next day. But if you have a fastener shop around you can have them match one as well. I did this for another bolt that I needed the same day.

Good thing you checked them! I would buy 4 new bolts like t4r4life said. Also torque them down to 59 ft. lbs. and USE BLUE LOCTITE!. You might want to replace the 4 bolts on the other side too just to be safe, but at least take them out, put Loctite on them and retorque them to spec. Chances are the tech didn't use Loctite or torque them properly the last time, so the other side probably isn't correct either.

Also, I wouldn't drive it like that, even to get the parts. It's not safe so get a ride.

valid point guys... ordered 4 this morning. will be fixing this on saturday as well as replacing my cv axles for the first time... wish me luck

Yeah, I second this, replace at least all 4 on that side.

I wouldn't go to a fastener shop for these (unless it is just to tide you over until the dealer can get the bolt in). The Toyota ones are available and cheap, so it is better to use what they designed. You may be fine with other bolts, but there is more than meets the eye to fastener selection, and there may be considerations that Toyota made in selecting the bolt that we don't realize.

Alot of guys will tell you that you can get a better bolt from fastenal or the like, and that it is silly to strictly adhere to OEM for this stuff, but I have had to talk very minor details with bolt/nut manufacturers regarding applications I have worked on, and material properties, elongation, preload, there are lots of considerations that they may have made in choosing that bolt that you don't want to change. Or they may have just had it on the shelf and grabbed it (I highly doubt that for such an important part). You'd be amazed the nitty gritty detail that OEM's sometimes go to with sub-suppliers.

Anyway, all that said, order the right bolts from the dealer, and definitely replace all 4 on that side at least.

I can second that, i had the 2 inner bolts snapped because the 2 outer bolts worked there way out. It happended while i was in the parking lot. But for several days now i havent been able to get the 2 snapped bolts out. I added a couple pictures from the accident. Im just glad it didnt happen while i was cruzing on the freeway all day

Was underneath adding sway bar links and noticed on my driver side I am too missing 1 bolt out of 4 for the LBJ! Yikes.

Whats the simplest way going about putting new bolts in? If I replace all 4 with blue loctite, can I go one bolt at a time or do I need to drop the entire thing?

You can do one bolt at a time.

Blue Loctite torqued to 50NM.

Thank you

Unless part of that missing bolt is still in there, as in it snapped off. Check first before you start as you might have to take that balljoint off to get a stud out. Lets hope that is not the case.

Just replaced mine and have one of the four bolts snapped off in the spindle on the drivers side. Tried torching to get it out. Any suggestions for getting this snapped bolt out? Currently riding around with only 3 bolts on drivers side.