Brakes pulling to both sides

[T4R2014]

Virginia huh? Best of luck pressing out those bushings. Ain't worth the time IMO, the rust ruins them. Might even bend the arms trying to press out the old POS bushing. I'd order new control arms. Even order a POS Dorman arm and press out their crappy bushings and put the Whitelines in.

 

[phattyduck]

Went to my Toyota dealer today to see what it would cost for 4 new cam adjusters and it would be just over $200!

If you can handle the truck being down for a little while, you will only have to replace them if they are actually frozen in place. You'll probably be fine on any oil-soaked ones... Oh, and fix those oil leaks so you don't ruin the bushings again (though, that's not an issue if you go with poly bushings).

-Charlie

 

[128keaton]

If you can handle the truck being down for a little while, you will only have to replace them if they are actually frozen in place. You'll probably be fine on any oil-soaked ones... Oh, and fix those oil leaks so you don't ruin the bushings again (though, that's not an issue if you go with poly bushings).

-Charlie

Mine had no leaks and were just torn/worn out.

OP--you can press out the old ones using a similar method to Timmy the Toolman's UCA videos. Or--build a tool that is small enough to go thru the LCA bushing's hole and flares out to press out the opposite bushing.

 

[sam.basye]

Yep, the good ole Communismwealth of Virginia..

I’m gonna attempt to press them out myself with a bottle jack and heat like Timmy’s video except I want to see it shoot out across the basement so I won’t be holding a bucket up. Haha Hopefully they aren’t a permanent fixture of the control arms at this point. Guess I’ll start spraying all the bolts till then.

Just ordered some SPC cams just in case and end link bushings to replace the worn out ones.

Hopefully I’ll get it all the parts in and squared away by Wednesday to go out of town..

 

[sam.basye]

Got the new upper control arms put in today and man does it feel great!

Took 3.5 hours to do the drivers side learning how to do it and riding the longboard back to advance and get a different useless puller that didn’t work either. Ended up having to cut off the joints still all connected with a grinder/sawsall. Took 1.5 for the passengers side.

It solved the post lift steering weirdness and the annoying steering wheel vibration I thought was a wheel balancing issue I’ve dealt with for the past 4 years of ownership. Nice and shake free!

Excited to remove the lowers tomorrow and reinstall Tuesday when the bushings show up.

 

[DaMonkey]

nice that you are feeling excited to keep going on lowers after the upper battle. good work.

will your whole front end be new? Your are doing all ball joints?

what upper arms did you go with?

 

[sam.basye]

Going to keep the oem lowers, but install new Whitelines in them. The LBJ’s I replaced about a year and a half ago with oem. Got new end link bushings that’ll be here today. Whitelines will get here tomorrow.
Since owning it for the past 4 years, I will have replaced everything suspension wise. Almost at 300k on it.

Got a sweet deal on a set of Freedom Off-road uppers. They look really good and the welds look tight for ‘knock offs’. So far I’m happy with them. Hopefully the bushings and ball joints last. I was originally gonna get SPC for the adjustability, but decided $420 and the headache of determining where to set them and especially after thinking of telling the shop to align it and to adjust them would be a nightmare. Lol
Came across these on eBay and liked that they use a ball joint over a uniball for ease of maintenance and it won’t squeak. Should last longer too.
Plus I figured that the adjustability wasn’t really necessary considering they have the additional caster built in and the big names like Camburg, Icon, and TC are all set in a fixed position so if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.
Some Chinese kid came through and did a pretty good job on these! Haha

 

[DaMonkey]

those uppers look great. i like that fixed position way better than adjustable. i would rather see them have a tapered seat in the arm to accept OEM style upper ball joint instead of built into upper flipped. it looks like a bigger ball, which is good. interesting the pivot point of UBJ has been raised, effectively making the spindle a couple inches taller because the ball is in the arm instead of the spindle? maybe that was intentional and there are some benefits to that, but it does change the geometry slightly. they look well built and i'd bet they are going to work great for you. i am not familiar with any user reports on them, keep us updated.

are you going to do the whiteline swap? i'd be interested to see how that goes for you if you feel like documenting the process.

 

[sam.basye]

I wonder if I will get a little more down travel with the new upper arms/ball joint?

The ball joint cups are huge. It’s also gusseted behind the ball joint cup in addition to the hinge points

Well.. all was going well until I got them both off and made the determination that there’s no chance the sleeves are gonna press out. 20 years or life in SC, NC, and VA killed them. Too much rust. Had to cut both front cams out, back two were fine. Took forever, especially when I rounded the frozen center steering rack nut, but barely squeezed the bolts out. Ended up successfully removing everything except the sleeves, so going to buy new lower arms and press the Whitelines in when I get back next week. The wife wanted to take her car to the beach anyways, so the 4Runner will sit on stands till then.
I did go to advance and return the old end links and an inner tie rod for free replacement under warranty, so that was a plus. Keep your receipts!

Check em out!

Sawasall through old bushing

I did finish my locking rotopax mount today though.

 

[DaMonkey]

I wonder if I will get a little more down travel with the new upper arms/ball joint?
...

I'm not certain where the front end travel is limited, but I'm pretty sure it's not in the upper arms. I don't think you'd gain any travel.

Increasing spindle height changes front roll center and will stiffen up the front end in turns. That can be good, but just feel it out and see what you think. Did you have a 2" lift? If your new sway links are stock length and your sway bar turns up because of the lift, that effectively stiffens the front also. If you feel like it's too stiff in turns, try longer sway links to flatten your sway bar out again. That might help. rear links from 2nd gen are longer and will fit your fronts to flatten the bar out again.

Too bad your lowers won't rebuild and you have to wait, but sounds like not a bad deal going to the beach.

 

[sam.basye]

That extra little length has to go somewhere right? Lol I’m interested to measure hub to fender height after I get it all back together. My expert baseless logic thinks it’ll give me an extra .25” lift. Haha
I currently measure at 23” hub to limited flare.

Yeah, I installed the 4Runner bilstein 5100’s front and rear with OME 890’s in back and reused the ‘99 talls on the second perch from the top up front. Netted a 2.5” lift all around and went with a 265/75/16 from a 265/70/16 which added .5” of tire height, so more or less ended up with a 3” lift. Enough for the wife to make snide remarks getting in and out. Lol

When I drove it yesterday evening after finishing the uppers, I noticed there was significantly less wiggle when ‘swerving’. It felt much tighter, but I like it. I’d consider longer links, but I like how it handles and don’t see a big reason to at the moment. I experienced what it could be like for a while after thinking it has a ton of body roll and determined one of the sway bar brackets had broken last year. It started clanking when flexing and took me forever to determine the bushing was half gone. I finally thought to get out and rock it as hard as possible by pushing on the fender and jump down under the truck to figure it out. Lol

Took these after the lift with stock length links. Flexes pretty good!

Sadly that’s the most off-roading it’s seen... lol

I could tell the wife wanted to take the “nice” car this time. I refer to the 4Runner as the “cool” car. Don’t want to feel left out. Haha

 

[phattyduck]

I'm not certain where the front end travel is limited, but I'm pretty sure it's not in the upper arms. I don't think you'd gain any travel.

Once the shocks are removed, stock down travel is limited by the upper arms (ball joint angle), which is why people replace them so often. Oh, and you get a bit more tire clearance with aftermarket upper arms...

-Charlie

 

[sam.basye]

Here’s a question. Do I use the rubber bushings with the new sway bar end links or use the replacement poly bushings I ordered instead?
The last rubber set were toast after a year and a half. How long do polyurethane bushings last and will poly end link bushings end up squeaking if not lubricated?
They are AST polyurethane bushings and appear to had a slightly bigger diameter than the rubber ones. Every other bushing on it is rubber.

 

[sam.basye]

Got back last night and was able to press out the new bushings on the new lowers. Took a while, but finally figured it out..

For those interested in using the factory bottle jack to remove old bushings, I have a couple crucial tips I would have liked to have known prior to tackling the project.

1. Heat, you need a lot of it. Initially I wasn’t applying enough. I used a propane torch and plan on spending at least 5 min heating the bushing prior to exerting more force. Once the rubber pops out from the sleeve it should be enough. I never got any sort of ‘pop’ or any sleeve movement from heating or initial jacking. Just started sliding out with additional force after heating.
These bushings also appear to have had some sort of rubber melted to the outside of the sleeves which didn’t help removal.

2. Identify your factory bottle jack. I happen to have three. The factory one I stripped being lazy on previous projects assisted with a impact driver. Lol I have another matching one I pulled from the yard and a third one I also pulled, but is slightly different. It has a bigger neck/shaft and the hat on top is bigger/doesn’t retract inside the tube.

Both are 3rd gen bottle jacks, but I believe the silver label was replaced by the yellow label for 98-02. The 96-97 silver label is beefier with a bigger shaft/hat, but is rated slightly less than the yellow label. 1500kg vs 1600kg (3,530lbs). The yellow label also lifts a hair higher when fully extended by 1/8”, but appears less stable. 17 3/4” vs 17 7/8”.

The bushings I pressed out had an inner washer that fit inside the outer sleeve so I ended up pushing it all way through without the sleeve moving using the first jack. The third jack is what screwed me. I didn’t realize the head was slightly too big and after pushing the sleeve out a 1/4” it stopped and started bending the arm. After realizing this and trying to find something the right diameter, I settled on the inner sleeve I initially pushed out from the first bushing. It was a hair big, but the washer deformed to the right size pressing it through getting the sleeve out. Once I figured this out it was smooth sailing.

The arms are currently drying from paint. Should have them pressed in tomorrow.
Freezing the Whiteline bushings does nothing, fyi. They don’t slide in any further. The inner sleeves slide in with very little effort.


Should I apply the supplied SPC lube to the arrows between the bolt and plastic sleeve, plastic sleeve and metal sleeve, in addition the outer sleeve/bushing?

Ready to get rolling again!

 

[128keaton]

I'm not certain where the front end travel is limited, but I'm pretty sure it's not in the upper arms. I don't think you'd gain any travel.

Increasing spindle height changes front roll center and will stiffen up the front end in turns. That can be good, but just feel it out and see what you think. Did you have a 2" lift? If your new sway links are stock length and your sway bar turns up because of the lift, that effectively stiffens the front also. If you feel like it's too stiff in turns, try longer sway links to flatten your sway bar out again. That might help. rear links from 2nd gen are longer and will fit your fronts to flatten the bar out again.

Too bad your lowers won't rebuild and you have to wait, but sounds like not a bad deal going to the beach.

Your remark on the 2nd gen links is interesting. I never considered that.

 

[sam.basye]

Got bored and decided to press the Whiteline bushings in tonight after the arms were mostly dry. All was going well up till I ran out of muscle, which isn’t much, and pulled out the galvanized pipe...

Got out the ball joint press C clamp kit I rented from Advance, kit 72, and pressed them all in easy with a 24” breaker bar.

Used the vise to remove the bump stops from old arms. Clamped them and spun the arm. (Prior to breaking it...)


All that’s left is to install them! Hopefully it doesn’t rain much tomorrow.

 

[sam.basye]

Done!

Finished up installing the new arms and putting it all back together.

Had a stroke of genius before starting to cuss trying to get the nut on the new poly bushings of the sway bar end links. Jack under the LBJ to level out the sway bar..

Torquing the cam adjusters was rough, but got it all set pretty close to centered on all 4.
Took it for a test drive and it drives great! Feels tight and doesn’t wander when braking.

Getting it aligned tomorrow morning.

 

[sam.basye]

Alignment is somewhat done..

Shop manager: You put all new parts in there didn’t you. Looks good!

I went up to the counter after they had about finished to make sure they adjusted the cams. He said the tech was going to just leave it and only set the toe since it was close, but he told him to do caster and camber shortly after he started earlier and to do it the right way.

After all the new parts/bushings, looks like I gained about .5” lift hub to fender up front.

Went in Saturday and got it aligned and noticed it trying to drive itself above 65mph and still pulling to the right when hard braking.
Brought it back today and they found the rack bushings to be worn allowing a decent amount of play when turning the wheel.

Ordered new rack bushings that’ll be here Friday, yippee... I hope the center nut comes off!

 

[gamefreakgc]

Alignment is somewhat done..

Shop manager: You put all new parts in there didn’t you. Looks good!

I went up to the counter after they had about finished to make sure they adjusted the cams. He said the tech was going to just leave it and only set the toe since it was close, but he told him to do caster and camber shortly after he started earlier and to do it the right way.

After all the new parts/bushings, looks like I gained about .5” lift hub to fender up front.

Went in Saturday and got it aligned and noticed it trying to drive itself above 65mph and still pulling to the right when hard braking.
Brought it back today and they found the rack bushings to be worn allowing a decent amount of play when turning the wheel.

Ordered new rack bushings that’ll be here Friday, yippee... I hope the center nut comes off!

Rack bushings are a real chore, there's one large bolt that can be torqued down extremely hard. Make sure you have a really, really big breaker bar or air tools.

 

[sam.basye]

Rack bushings are a real chore, there's one large bolt that can be torqued down extremely hard. Make sure you have a really, really big breaker bar or air tools.

I attempted to remove the rack to get the cam bolts out, but was unsuccessful getting that center nut off. I got the rest off no problem though. I started rounding it off so I quit. I was using a big impact driver and a 12pt socket. I found my 6pt socket after the fact.. hopefully that will do the trick Friday or Saturday when the bushings come in.

I watched the rack move probably 1/2” to either side when the tech was showing me.