Fightman's Front End OVERHAUL!

[fightman80]

Well, did a couple of things to the 4Runner this month! I was only planning on doing my inner tie rod, and the lower ball joints, but ended up doing the entire front end!

The project started on April 4th, 2012 and ended May 2nd!

April 4th work:

Pic of the parts I picked up:

I paid $115.00 for the inner tie rod and $93.00 for the outer TRE, but didn't plan on using the outer unless I really needed to replace it. Both were good quality aftermarket replacements.

Pics of the day's debacles:

We got it done.... messed up the boot on the outer tie rod end. I tried to hammer on the knuckle (as instructed by 2 other guys), but didn't work for me. I then tried the pickle forks the part store lent me, which messed up the boot on the outer TRE. That didn't work either, so I finally just put the castle nut on the bolt again, and just tapped it down. Then I had trouble separating the inner and outer tie rods from eachother, so I opted to just remove the entire assembly as one unit. I couldn't get any leverage on the inner tie rod, and ended up giving up! A quick text to LDForget, and he ended up coming over to save my tail again.

Together, we figured out that if we used a short pipe on the end of pipe wrench, we could get enough leverage on the inner tie rod to turn it. It finally worked, and we were good to go.

Pic of the old inner Tie Rod:

We had tried to clean up the old boot on the outer tie rod, and Permatex'd it to see if it could be salvaged. Unfortunately, it was still oozing out grease. I tried to call 3 different part stores to buy just the boot, they didn't have em. So, I ended up using the Outer Tie Rod I ordered, and the job cost me another $93.00.

Pic of the two installed:

Aside from the cost of the two parts, I payed $10.00 for a second Crescent Wrench, in an effort to detach the inner tie Rod from the Outer TRE. I also tossed Lee $20.00 for driving out here and saving my a$$. He's always willing to help, but living a half hour drive away, is a major pain, so paying him this, was the least I could do!

April 15th work:

I got my stabilizer bushings for the rear of the truck... so got those put on! Well half of them anyway... lol!

First I removed the old ones:

Note the little bushings... those are from the front... I swapped those out today too.

This is a shot of the main bushings installed:

Now like I mentionned above, I changed out the link bushings that day, but not before I bent the passenger side bushing trying to install the new polys!

I had tried to thread on the top nut, but apparently the nut and stud was completely rotted and simply stripped when messed with it.

My buddy (who happens to be an awesome welder), tried to save me a couple of bucks, and heated up the link to get it back in shape, and then cut and welded a new stud on the top.

It seems pretty strong... but will probably break sooner than later. I'm gonna ride it out, and once it breaks, I'll swap it out.

As for the rear link bushings, I'm gonna wait til next month, and then order some longer front links from a 95 4Runner 4X4. Once I get those in, I'll install the new poly bushings with those too.

April 20th, got some new parts!

Well, I got my parts in from Toyota of Dallas! Even with the shipping costs, and customs fees... Upper and lower ball joints for both the passenger and driver side cost me $311.47!

Now, most of you are probably thinking, that's not that great of a deal.... but let me explain! When I got home, I called the local Laking Toyota and asked them how much for all with taxes..... are you ready????? Drum roll.....................

$593.92!​

That's $282.45 more than I paid!!!

From now on, I'm ordering from Toyota of Dallas! Screw Laking Toyota!

 

[fightman80]

April 25th, we did the work!

Alright, so I did a crap load of errands today, including getting my new bolts for the lower Ball Joints. When I got to the store to get some Locktite, I ended up getting a message from LD Forget (Lee), saying that he was up to helping me get the ball joints done today! I paid for the locktite, didn't bother buying any tools, as he told me he had the pickle fork, and a ball joint press.

We both headed to my place, and met there around 4:00pm. Once in the shop, we jacked the truck up, put it on a jackstand, and took the driver side wheel off.

Once that was done, we began to work on removing the castle nut from the new tie rod we installed a couple of weeks ago.

We then removed the castle nut from the lower ball joint, and the 4 other bolts as well.

We then installed the new ball joint:

Take a look at the lower driver side tie rod... it's pretty crusty! Good thing we replaced that!

We then re-installed the tie rod, and moved up to the upper ball joint.


The upper ball joint was fastened with a castle nut as well. That one was relatively easy to do, and if I remember correctly, Lee used his ball joint press to push it down. Once it was down, it looked like this:

It too was pretty crusty looking... in fact... it was completely toast! We had issues using the ball joint press in that tight spot, so we decided to use a little carnage to get the upper ball joint to cooperate with us!

Using a grinder, we cut off the stud from the ball of the joint:

With that done, we used a short socket on the top to give us the proper surface to work with:

Here's a shot of Lee using the ball joint press to take off the upper ball joint:

We then removed and replaced the upper ball joint with a new one:

When pressing the new upper ball joint, we managed to bend and break the hard brake line that goes from the caliper to the flex line. So after some brake line work, we got that side buttoned up and moved on to the passenger side!

It was running late, and was approximately 9pm when we got to the passenger side lower ball joint. We did the same for the passenger side, however, we had some issues getting the old tie rod off. We tried whacking the ball joint knuckle, the arm of the tie rod, and finally put the castle nut on the tie rod, and pounded on it, till the tie rod fell out. Unfortunately, Lee has the power of 10 men, and managed to blend both the castle nut and the tie rod stud together! This made removing the castle nut from the stud, extremely difficult!! HA HA! I used a dremmel with cut off disk to carefully cut away the damaged portion of the castle nut, this allowed me to back off the nut, and get the tie rod to come out of the ball joint knuckle!

Here's a pic of the chopped up castle nut!

We then installed the new passenger side lower ball joint, and called it a day.

Here's a comparison pic of the old lower ball joint and the new one:

April 27th work:

Alright, so, the 4Runner was put on hold for a day, as I had a family emergency to take care of. However, the following day, both my buddy Mike (same guy that built the spreading tool for the Timing belt pulley), and I tackled the upper ball joint.

The first thing I did, was install the castle nut on the passenger outer tie rod end. (which... needs to be replaced, but is still driveable) We then removed the UBJ castle nut by cutting the tail off the cotter pin and carefully tapping a socket over it. Once the socket was on there good and tight, the Impact Gun did the magic, and zipped that sucker off!

The next step, we used a pry bar and inserted it between 2 rows of coils on the strut, and under the upper control arm, and hammered on the the control arm with a ball pin hammer. The ball joint then popped out of the upper control arm.

The next step, was a little scary! lol! Mike tells me to hold the long knuckle and pull it out from the inner fender area, so he can whack it with the hammer! It took a few whacks, but no press was necessary for the upper ball joint to come out.

Here's a shot of the ball joint after it was out:

Afterwards, we moved the brake line from the knuckle, by removing all the fastening clips that kept it in place. (10mm socket is needed for this)

We then used Lee's ball joint press, in the manner Lee described in the post above, but used a thicker piece of stainless steel I had lying around to use under the ball joint so it would press in straight:

And a pic of the upper installed:

May 2nd, work:

Upon looking at the passenger outer tie rod the other day, we noticed it has some play in it, so I was gonna order another one from Toyota of Dallas, but this time it ended up being cheaper to just buy it here! The Dallas Dealer would have charged me around $75.00 shipped plust the customs fee, and I would have had to wait 2 weeks to get it. (something about a minimum shipping fee). I got mine from the dealer locally for $73.01 and got it in 2 days!

Alright, so I had some time to kill, before going to pick up the wife's "Pimpala" (aka, piece of crap Chevy Impala), from the windshield shop. As a result, I brought the truck inside the garage, and got to work!

First thing I did was jack up the passenger side, placed a jack stand under the lower control arm and removed the tire.

Next I made sure the wheel was turned so that if I was sitting in the truck... I'd be making a left turn. This exposes the tie rod/lower ball joint, which enables you to remove the cotter pin and place an impact on the castle nut to remove it. I then re-threaded the castle nut so that the top "castle" slots are facing down, and so that the nut was flush with the top of the stud. I couple of whacks and the tie rod dropped down. and took off my tie rod end.

Next I removed the clamps that keep the Tie Rod boot on, and slipped the boot down to the end of the tie rod. Once the boot is off, you see where the inner and outer tie rod are threaded into each other. I chose not to try separating them while they were installed in the truck, and decided to take them out as a unit. The inner tie rod is threaded into the steering rack. In order to remove it, you have to unfold the round washer that is folded over the inner tie rod, and keeps it in place.

Once I unfolded the washer using a hammer and large flat screwdriver, I used the same pipe wrench with a piece of pipe on the end that we used for the 1st tie rod.

Here's a shot of the wrench on the inner tie rod as I'm removing it from the rack:

I then brought the entire assembly to my bench vice, clamped it into place and used the pipe wrench and pipe to un-thread them apart:

Next, I had to removed the adjustment nut from the old tie rod end. I was having issues, so once again I placed the end of the tie rod with the nut on it, in the vice and used the pipe wrench on the top portion to un-thread them:

I then installed the new outer tie rod on the inner tie rod, and installed it using the reverse instructions I mentioned above.

Here's a shot of the assembly in the truck (new hose clamp and all):

Inner hose clamp in place:

Outer tie rod installed:

So far, I'm in it for $632.47! That's counting the bushings for the stabilizer bar. My next step is the alignment, and is scheduled for tomorrow! (May 3rd)

 

[1985taylor1925]

Good stuff fightman. To me replacing warn out parts with new oem stuff is even more exciting than doing mods, cause you know its gonna improve ride quality for a long time. Definately let us know the ride difference once you get the alignment!

 

[tylerbaird]

Nice work man. I'm thinking about doing the LBJ's and OTR's this summer, so this thread will be very helpful to me in the near future!

 

[Hepar]

Ooooooohhhhh. Look at all that shiny, new and rust-free stuff!

 

[fightman80]

Well, the shop says they can't do the alignment, because the lip on my rims is too thick, and they can't fit the adapter on my wheel! Looks like I'm gonna have to put my 265's on the stock wheels on, just to go for the alignment!

 

[LittleCaesar]

Well, that just bites the big one doesn't it. Is this your first time using this shop?

BTW, in one of the pics I actually see a ball peen hammer hanging up on the wall. Get it dirty.

 

[fightman80]

Well, that just bites the big one doesn't it. Is this your first time using this shop?

BTW, in one of the pics I actually see a ball peen hammer hanging up on the wall. Get it dirty.

It is the first time I use that,shop... and only the second time I go for an alignment. They did tell me, that it LOOKS ok to drive for now. I don't drive it everyday, and actually have full use of the wife's P.O.S Impala, so I'll get the rack bushings in, and then get it done with the stock wheels and 265's on.

As for the hammer, I have my old ball pin, and that shiny new one on the wall! Hahaha!,

 

[BrianSD_42]

Hey Fightman, glad to see it all worked out!

 

[shadow247]

Good work. I did Inner/Outer TRE's and LBJ's when I lifted the truck, as I'm pretty sure they were originals with 341k miles on them. I went with ACdelco parts and ended up spending about 180 bucks for the parts. Next up for me is new CV axles. I was doing the alignment last weekend and noticed a bunch of grease coming from the passenger side axle. I can get new axles from O-Reilly for 59 bucks each with my wholesale discount, so I think that is the way I will go.