-----Lower Ball Joint- Uniball Conversion-----

[vesteroid]

One thing I can assure you is the fact that if one fails they will sue everyone who has anything to do with this.

I saw a case where a child was electrocuted from touching a baseball park light pole. They sued the people who made the lights, the people who made the pole, the people who made the wire, the people who made the electrical box, the people who installed it all.

And they won.

They are cast parts. You can tell by the texture left from the sand mold and the lines where the two halve go together.

If there was a failure and a lawsuit after the fact, it won't matter if the person who installs the parts is aware that they're custom made. The entire liability will be on the person who manufactured and sold the parts. It might not be the owner of the 4Runner who's injured or killed, so it makes no difference if he assumes the risk.

Here's the bottom line:
If you're going to sell parts like this, you HAVE to do your due diligence. That means that at the very least you need to have a P.E. (professional engineer licensed by the state) run a failure analysis on them and sign off that they'll handle the loads.

Beyond that you also need some documented quality control procedures to make sure they're being made consistently. Anything less than that and you're running the risk of being sued out of existence if one fails.

 

[Dezerts10]

Here is the custom tube works piece

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[rickashay]

One thing I can assure you is the fact that if one fails they will sue everyone who has anything to do with this.

I saw a case where a child was electrocuted from touching a baseball park light pole. They sued the people who made the lights, the people who made the pole, the people who made the wire, the people who made the electrical box, the people who installed it all.

And they won.

Man, keep the negative vibes out of this uni ball conversion awesomeness.

 

[Dezerts10]

Man, keep the negative vibes out of this uni ball conversion awesomeness.

I did not get anywhere with custom tube works but I did hit up my long time friend mike Clark who has run esbfabrication for many years and anyone in the Toyota off road racing / prerunner scene in Southern California knows who he is and his reputation.

I will be trying to get down to him to explain what I want to do with my lower ball joints and the steering knuckle hopefully soon and will keep this thread in mind if something comes of it but mike is doing uniball
Conversions for the larger Toyota lbj already and said this lbj should be much different.

Gregg



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[Beejis60]

[MENTION=8473]Custom[/MENTION]tubeworks on Instagram makes uniball LBJ for these 4runners ! Check em out.

Here is the custom tube works piece https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190225/7a5ca439a29a092a3fbec8ee832fe29f.jpg[IMG]
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190225/a3f9b28d7b9160588e7ef4b4563c379c.jpg[IMG]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

I asked him on IG and maybe it's a dumb question, but why not just relocate the LBJ uniball to the LCA like the 2nd gen? I understand it would require a lot of fab work but he already has aftermarket beefy LCAs for the 2nd gen with a uniball, so it he's not inexperienced in reverse engineering an LCA. I think it is a better solution to just do that than screw around with buying and cutting/welding cheap cast parts. I know it sounds crude, but I would probably just bolt 1/2" to 3/4" plate to the knuckle, and run a 1" uniball through the LCA with misalignment spacers, sort of like this:

[img]http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/9/0/3/8/8/8/webimg/295284158_o.jpg

 

[kolelt]

Here is the custom tube works piece

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What are people thoughts on this design?

 

[Beejis60]

What are people thoughts on this design?

I obviously do not like it, but I am a noob to everyone here so my word likely means nothing. Conversely, it is probably a nice piece to have if it fails on the trail/rock/mud course since it's modular. You can just take it off and replace/service the uniball on the bed of your truck or inside the cab instead of lying on the ground if you relocated it to the LCA like I suggest.

 

[jbtvt]

One thing I can assure you is the fact that if one fails they will sue everyone who has anything to do with this.

They are cast parts. You can tell by the texture left from the sand mold and the lines where the two halve go together.

Hoping it's cast steel and not cast iron at least, definitely taking some heat in the weld process from the color change. I wouldn't not go OEM for this part, given the results from failure with the suspension being loaded away from the control arm as it is. Maybe 4th gen+. But I pretty much stick to the roads these days anyway.

I asked him on IG and maybe it's a dumb question, but why not just relocate the LBJ uniball to the LCA like the 2nd gen?

Interesting IG s/n choice. Wouldn't it be more sanitary to do the 6969 before the...you know? Other than that, I agree it seems like a better setup for any rigs that'll see much pavement, probably a matter of cost.

 

[Beejis60]

Interesting IG s/n choice. Wouldn't it be more sanitary to do the 6969 before the...you know?

If you have to ask, you can't afford it pal

Other than that, I agree it seems like a better setup for any rigs that'll see much pavement, probably a matter of cost.

I will try to see if he can use his 2nd gen LCA or any of the other people who make 2nd gen LCA to essentially use that as the 1st gen LCA, except locate the shock mount in the correct place.

Not sure if 1st gen LCA has the same dimensions as the 2nd gen because if that's the case, I would just buy the 2nd gen LCAs from whoever makes an aftermarket LCA with uniball LBJ, relocate the shock mounts to the correct spot, use something like the picture I posted with 1" plate bolted to the knuckle and recess it just enough to allow either a bolt head + washer or bolt end + jet nut to not rub the CV. Obviously one would need to weld on an arm to the side to allow for a uniball steering like the LBJ/heim unit from Solo Motorsports. Sounds like an arduous task but that's the only thing I can think of to make it work on 1st gens. Unfortunately, 2nd gen knuckles won't really work on the 1st gen, or I'd just grab some junkyard 2nd gen front suspension bits and update the front of my 1st gen.

 

[REX_T4R]

In for the group buy. lol

 

[CaboRunner]

Hoping it's cast steel and not cast iron at least, definitely taking some heat in the weld process from the color change. I wouldn't not go OEM for this part, given the results from failure with the suspension being loaded away from the control arm as it is. Maybe 4th gen+. But I pretty much stick to the roads these days anyway.

These are OEM LBJ plates that he modifies to accept a uni ball. Nothing over complicated or stupid expensive. He isn’t tying to reinvent the wheel, he is simply giving you an option to remove the ball joint and have a uni ball. Seems like a great idea to me. There is nothing wrong with stock LCAs, I wouldn’t want to pay $1k just to have a uni ball LCA when I can bolt it right on to the stock arm for much cheaper.

 

[jbtvt]

These are OEM LBJ plates that he modifies to accept a uni ball. Nothing over complicated or stupid expensive. He isn’t tying to reinvent the wheel, he is simply giving you an option to remove the ball joint and have a uni ball. Seems like a great idea to me. There is nothing wrong with stock LCAs, I wouldn’t want to pay $1k just to have a uni ball LCA when I can bolt it right on to the stock arm for much cheaper.

Just joined the list of people with failed lower ball joint bolts.. - Page 3 - TTORA Forum

There is something wrong with them, that's why Toyota and Lexus both completely changed the loading design in the 4th gen 4Runners etc to eliminate the likelihood of the above happening when they fail. Although now that I look at it more closely the last image I commented on had the same loading pattern anyway.

I'm not against people having the option, I said it wasn't for me, or 99.9% of other drivers who don't drive in extreme conditions and don't want to service their suspension components on a daily basis.

 

[CaboRunner]

Just joined the list of people with failed lower ball joint bolts.. - Page 3 - TTORA Forum

There is something wrong with them, that's why Toyota and Lexus both completely changed the loading design in the 4th gen 4Runners etc to eliminate the likelihood of the above happening when they fail. Although now that I look at it more closely the last image I commented on had the same loading pattern anyway.

I'm not against people having the option, I said it wasn't for me, or 99.9% of other drivers who don't drive in extreme conditions and don't want to service their suspension components on a daily basis.

LCA and LBJs are 2 different things. Nobody has LCA failures. Statistically speaking, very few people have LBJ failures. I was simply stating that this guy is making a pretty good looking product for a decent price, no need to redesign the whole control arm.

 

[jbtvt]

Wait, an LCA isn't an LBJ? Well sheeeit, learn something erry day... Yea I got that. People only have catastrophic LBJ failures because of the LCA geometry. And I was just saying that the only way I'd go non-OEM for an LBJ is if it loading design of the 4th gen+. If you feel differently, that's great, buy one. So now that we've come full circle Imma head out and pull some heads off, K?

 

[Beejis60]

LCA and LBJs are 2 different things. Nobody has LCA failures. Statistically speaking, very few people have LBJ failures. I was simply stating that this guy is making a pretty good looking product for a decent price, no need to redesign the whole control arm.

Relocated LBJ is a better design than cutting and welding crappy cast parts.

 

[ruben.vtec]

Any updates on the conversion?


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