Front Suspension Bushings and CV re-Booting

[nissanh]

Demonstration Purposes only. If you are attempting this, please do it at your own risk.

Front Lower Control Arm
(A) Forward bushing: 48061-35040 - Bush Sub-Assy, LWR
(B) Rearward bushing: 48061-35050 - Bush Sub-Assy, LWR

Front Upper Control Arm
Forward and Rearward bushings: 48632-35080 - Bush, UPR Arm

CV Boot Kit
Boot Kit FR Drive 04438-35062: Plastic boot and white grease tube for outer. You can
use metal cable ties (at NAPA) as CV boot clamps too!

Lower Strut Mount Bushing ONLY for 1st Gen Tacoma TRD Bilstein. Not sure this bushing fits a stock 3rd gen front strut.
90389-A0001 - Bush Dimensions: Outer Diameter= 39.9 +/- 0.1 mm; Inner diameter 14.1mm. I am using 4runner's original lower shock mount bolt so ID shouldn't be an issue

Upper Ball Joint Grease Boot
43324-69085 Cover, UPR Ball Joint

Special thanks to Tim for his great instructional videos.

A press was used to hold the Lower A-arm secure while using the bottle jack. This made sure the A-arm is NOT getting elongated/bent while pressing out bushings. Heating required on certain bushings.

I followed Tim's video on how to remove the Lower Control Arm. Pictures start from there.

To get the CV boots: Remove boot clamps and pull the inner boot towards the wheel hub. Note the orientation of tri-pod joint to the axle shaft. Removed the C-clip that holds the tri-pod joint to the CV axle shaft. Slide the tri-pod joint off the axle followed by the boots.

Use two nails (pointy end cut-off) to tighten the outer clamps. As Tim stated the Chinese CV boot clamps are JUNK! Mine broke in 3rd try!

Note the proper orientation of TAB marking (shown by the screw driver) on last 2 images in this post

 

[nissanh]

Part-2

Upper bushing removal:

I ground off the ears on bushings and mounted a bearing puller tool.

Don't drive the upper control arm bushing all the way into the arm. Leave about 2 mm of a gap on both bushings and place it on the frame and see whether you got the proper gap, press if necessary. I did this measurement twice and got it precisely! Tim points this out in his video.

I recently did the rear suspension also with OEM bushings:

A 24 year old truck now rides exactly as my brand new 2021 Tacoma...
Enjoy the 4Runner!!!