Hey guys, new member here. I thought i would chime in on the install.
I installed both upper and lower ball joints on my 01 runner about two months ago.
However, I had a recent failure of one of the lower ball joints, i believe due to my incorrect installation. Luckily i was in a parking lot when it happened and was not on the road.
When installing the castle nut on the ball joint make sure to tighten the bolt as far up as possible. I had only tightened the castle nut enough to make the hole for the cotter pin align with grooves in the nut.
The OP seems to have done it correctly from his pictures. In OP's last the nut seems to be much higher than the pin which i believe is the proper way to do it.
<a href="http://s1174.photobucket.com/albums/r616/Beach4runnerNC/?action=view¤t=LBJ.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r616/Beach4runnerNC/LBJ.jpg" border="0" alt="Lower Ball Joint Nut Position"></a>
I will be reinstalling a new joint tomorrow, as some of the threads may have been stripped on the failed joint when it came off. I will try to update once it is complete.
If anyone can chime in and confirm my thinking that would be great.