Ball Joints

theizzardking said:
the set is all or nothing, you either have to buy the tacoma outer tie rods ends and tacoma ball joints, or if you just want to buy ball joints for a bit cheaper you have to stick with the stock 4runner ones, the hole at the end of the outter tie rod is a bit bigger to allow the larger bolt on the taco ball joint to sip through.....

and if the tre is flopping around that means you need to replace the inner tie rod end and not nessarily the outter, the outter tie rod ends joint is what connects to the ball joint, to check the outter tre simply grabe the bolt at the end of it and wiggle it around and see if you feel any play, if there's noticeable play replace..i don;t think i could have made that more confusing if i tried....
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No, actually I was juggling helping my wife with preparing Thanksgiving dinner, along with watching my kid and posting here....and soon as you said "You have to do the whole set" I smacked my forehead. I remember reading that before.

In that case, I'll simply buy some OEM parts and then go to the local hobby shop and replace them (and get assistance if needed).

While I do plan on doing some 4-wheeling, I don't plan on doing SERIOUS off-roading; so more than likely, replacing them with OEM LBJs (my 4R has 130K on it) will more than suffice.

Then after Christmas, I'll do the 231mm Tundra brake upgrade. :)
 
Kung said:
No, actually I was juggling helping my wife with preparing Thanksgiving dinner, along with watching my kid and posting here....and soon as you said "You have to do the whole set" I smacked my forehead. I remember reading that before.

In that case, I'll simply buy some OEM parts and then go to the local hobby shop and replace them (and get assistance if needed).

While I do plan on doing some 4-wheeling, I don't plan on doing SERIOUS off-roading; so more than likely, replacing them with OEM LBJs (my 4R has 130K on it) will more than suffice.

Then after Christmas, I'll do the 231mm Tundra brake upgrade. :)
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haha yeah no worries, i thought you knew better as you've helped a few people out on here before, i just reiterated it just incase =-)

yeah i agree, the hard core guys should be all over this, but with that said those very same hardcore guys haven't had an issue with the stock ones yet wheeling like they do all the way up until this thread was created, so the way i look at it if i get another 100k from stock set it won't be that big of a deal to do it again and go with the beefier parts, i mean really, the stocks ones have been fine for everyone for the last 15 years....sure bigger is better but the stock ones get the job done as well....
 
Kung, are you lifted? I just replaced mine two weeks ago with the Taco parts. I'm not lifted ('99 tall springs) but the price difference was so minimal I just went for it. I didn't take side by side pics but comparing them while working it I'm glad I went for the Taco parts. It's worth the piece of mind.

For you guys that want to go with the Taco upgrade, keep the hammers, pullers and everything away. Zack and I unbolted the LBJ's and then unspun the OTRE's without separating them from the LBJ's, took them out as one unit.
 
PitbullRescuer said:
Kung, are you lifted? I just replaced mine two weeks ago with the Taco parts. I'm not lifted ('99 tall springs) but the price difference was so minimal I just went for it. I didn't take side by side pics but comparing them while working it I'm glad I went for the Taco parts. It's worth the piece of mind.

For you guys that want to go with the Taco upgrade, keep the hammers, pullers and everything away. Zack and I unbolted the LBJ's and then unspun the OTRE's without separating them from the LBJ's, took them out as one unit.
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yeah but 30-60 dollars is still alot of money if your just scraping by, i would have gone for it myself but had to splash out for a bunch of other needed parts, my balljoints were so far past toast it wasn't funny and i was leaving the country for the next month and a half, so the wife needed a good truck to get her around in the snow while i was gone, and her little xj just isn't as safe as the 4runner, yeah, i would have gone for it as well if i could of, and i would suggest to do nothing but the taco mod if it can be helped, i just had no other choice at the time and like i said above the stock ones worked just fine for the last 13 years so i'm not worried at all, just a little bummed i couldn't do the upgrade right now....boo! lol

seriously though when i get home im going to take my stock one and do a complete tear down and inspection as to the condition. just to see , i have a feeling i could have had a really bad accident at any moment soon....lol
 
Izzard, not saying going stock replacement is bad at all. Especially if they were in as bad of shape as you said, much better safe than sorry. The Taco parts were probably overkill for mine anyway but for the marginal difference in price I went for it. My truck had 188K on the originals, I'm sure stock replacements would outlive the truck at this point anyway.

Glad the wifey will be safe while you're away. I'm curious, where are you headed that you'll be out if the country that long?
 
PitbullRescuer said:
Kung, are you lifted?
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LOL - right now, my only 'mod' is my head unit. Will it be lifted? You bet; but being as this was purchased half for reliability and half for its off road capability, I'll be doing the 'smaller' mods first (LBJ replacement, Tundra brake upgrade, etc.) and probably wait till spring/summer for a lift kit. Even when I do, it won't be crazy - maybe a 3" suspension lift and slightly bigger tires.

For you guys that want to go with the Taco upgrade, keep the hammers, pullers and everything away. Zack and I unbolted the LBJ's and then unspun the OTRE's without separating them from the LBJ's, took them out as one unit.
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It's that easy - unbolt the LBJs and then spin them and the OTRE's to remove, and reverse the process with new OTRE's and LBJ's? If it is, then heck yeah I'll upgrade. Sure it may be overkill for what is right now a pavement princess (lol) but by the same token, if I can get it done with not much more effort, then I will definitely do so. I've been blessed with a decent job, and my wife works as well (plus we both LOVE what we do), so I figure if I can afford the 'beefier' stuff, I'll go ahead and do it if it's pretty much as easy as you say. :)

The limiting factor for me is time, right now. I need to knock about 2 minutes off my APFT run time in the next 3 weeks; and between that, my job, finishing up my MIS (Management Information Systems) degree, and stuff, I'm a little leery of tackling any 'large' job until after Christmas - unless I know it's not going to require a lot of time.
 
It's that easy for removal. To assemble the new parts you just bolt up the LBJ, spin he OTRE's in and then bolt them together. Reassembly is easy, it's seperating them that's a b*tch. But if you're replacing both there is no need to separate them, just take them out as one unit.
 
I just want to add.

Even though there is no felt play in the Outer tie rod end. If it moves freely - Its worn out.

There should be some friction moving the end around.
 
PitbullRescuer said:
Izzard, not saying going stock replacement is bad at all. Especially if they were in as bad of shape as you said, much better safe than sorry. The Taco parts were probably overkill for mine anyway but for the marginal difference in price I went for it. My truck had 188K on the originals, I'm sure stock replacements would outlive the truck at this point anyway.

Glad the wifey will be safe while you're away. I'm curious, where are you headed that you'll be out if the country that long?
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I Like how you said what I was thinking with way less words, haha , and anyways if you got $60 who wouldn't go with overkill??

I'm in the uk designing and assembling the pylon removal tool for airbuses new a350 wing , that and trying to go skiing in the swiss alps, you can obviously see why I didn't have the extra $60, lol that place is expensive, theres a place where you can ski between 5 villages linked by chair lift , a life goal if you will ...that said only reason I get to go to rad places and do rad things is because our armed forces go to crappy places and do crappy things , thanks to those who do serve!
 
PitbullRescuer said:
It's that easy for removal. To assemble the new parts you just bolt up the LBJ, spin he OTRE's in and then bolt them together. Reassembly is easy, it's seperating them that's a b*tch. But if you're replacing both there is no need to separate them, just take them out as one unit.
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Too cool. Well, that takes care of that then. :) Just so happens that the auto hobby shop on FLW is across from my Army Reserve unit...and I drill with about 3 guys who are auto mechanics who would LOVE to help me out on this. :D
 
theizzardking said:
I Like how you said what I was thinking with way less words, haha , and anyways if you got $60 who wouldn't go with overkill??

I'm in the uk designing and assembling the pylon removal tool for airbuses new a350 wing , that and trying to go skiing in the swiss alps, you can obviously see why I didn't have the extra $60, lol that place is expensive, theres a place where you can ski between 5 villages linked by chair lift , a life goal if you will ...that said only reason I get to go to rad places and do rad things is because our armed forces go to crappy places and do crappy things , thanks to those who do serve!
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And here I was feeling bad for you because I thought you were a college student just scraping by or something. Now I have zero sympathy for you. :naughty:
 
One last question - I assume that I should be safe buying the 'same' parts for a 2000 4WD Tacoma, being as my 4Runner's also a 2000? (LBJs and OTRE's) Prices on OEM stuff online run about $200 or so for the whole set; haven't priced locally for other sources yet; but safety and reliability are always of primary concern for me, so I'll pay more for OEM if it's better.
 
BTW, is there an average life expectancy of the Inner & Outer TREs? Didn't know if most guys just replace them when they've worn out or do some go by mileage of the vehicle and just replace them at that point...what is the more common trend?

I have not check mine, but with a 125K on the originals, thought it'd be a a good idea to replace everything all at once if I'm going to do the LBJs too in the coming months...
 
I had an inner that was causing some steering shake around 130-140k. After that I replaced the rest along with my suspension revamp at the 180k mile mark.


The things to consider are:

How much can you afford to replace at one time?

How long do you plan to keep the truck?

Remember every time you replace a part with a new one (suspension wise) an alignment should be done. (sometimes its not as critical but should be done)

How much did your tires cost? worn suspension pieces will cause the tires to wear faster.
 
Stick Figure said:
I had an inner that was causing some steering shake around 130-140k. After that I replaced the rest along with my suspension revamp at the 180k mile mark.


The things to consider are:

How much can you afford to replace at one time?

How long do you plan to keep the truck?

Remember every time you replace a part with a new one (suspension wise) an alignment should be done. (sometimes its not as critical but should be done)

How much did your tires cost? worn suspension pieces will cause the tires to wear faster.
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That's why I'm getting it done. I'm not exactly filthy rich, but we do okay, and it's hard to put a price on safety. But we DO plan on holding onto this thing until it dies, and the tires are already rather worn; so if something's wrong, better to find out on these tires than the next pair (considering the tires on there are 'meh' tires).
 
Having done all this, all OEM stuff isn't too bad on the wallet, except for the inner tie rods, which go for about $125 with an online discount. You can find the Sakei (sp) ITRs for $80 each on Amazon. It requires a 42mm and 30mm wrench.
 
Stick Figure said:
The things to consider are:

How much can you afford to replace at one time?

How long do you plan to keep the truck?

Remember every time you replace a part with a new one (suspension wise) an alignment should be done. (sometimes its not as critical but should be done)

How much did your tires cost? worn suspension pieces will cause the tires to wear faster.
Click to expand...


I could do the entire upgrade all at once. Last set of Nittos lasted 70K miles and my suspension "feels" nice and tight...but that doesn't always mean I'm in the clear. Installed a sonoran steel lift kit back when the truck had roughly 45K miles on the OD.

Actually just purchased a set of new Yoko Geolanders and mounted them a few wks ago. I figure I may just go ahead and do the inner/outer TREs when I do the LBJ...planning to do all this when my truck's at 140K on the OD.

BTW, what toy dealers are you guys ordering your parts online from?
 
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