lower ball joints

[nanoboy]

Hello,

I have a 2000, 4.7, 4x4 with 265,000 and it is time to change the lower ball joints. I have never tackled anything like this before, but I am fairly handy. I have read the previous posts about this and I am trying to decide if I can do it myself or I need to hire it out. Has any rookie ever tackled this before? Any adcice?

Thanks,
Jon

[wunderwhatnow]

I might be doing the same soon I got some clunking going on and I figure easiest way. To fix it is replace everything . Toyota keeps telling me everything is fine but trust me the clunk is not fine. I've changed my timing belt already so I wont let the suspension work scare me off. It's the money for parts that's hard to come up with

[jack mccarthy]

It's a relatively easy job if you have the right tools. Advanced Auto has a 5 piece front end kit that has the proper tools to pop out both the tie rod and ball joint that you can borrow for $100 (fully refundable).

If you had the prior ball joint recall performed you may run into issues like myself of them overtorquing the ball joint nut and the use of oversize cotter pins.

Since your replacing them, the cotter pins can be cut flush with the threads if you can't remove them and the use of an impact wrench may or may not be necessary. I've used an impact to remove the 4 bolts from the knuckle/spindle only because too much locktite was used and I couldn't wrestle it off by hand. I ended up tearing both ball joint protector shrouds. I'd be careful not to damage the left one as there is no replacement part at the moment (Toyota lists the same part # for both and they are NOT identical). It might be best if you apply some heat or rust penetrant from the top side to help break the loctite bond and take them off with a small 15" breaker bar/socket wrench if necessary. Since your both from the south, rust shouldn't be an issue.

[wunderwhatnow]

Nope no rust here. ;-) just gotta get a new jack my two ton looks ready to snap the wheels off.

[tundrunk]

If you don't have any rust, it isn't that hard, just time consuming. There are a lot of short cuts that I took when doing it, but I would avoid them if I were you.
Loosen lug nuts, lift front end on stands, remove tires. Remove brake calipers and rotors, put them aside. Remove coilover assembly to get rid of the tension(this can be skipped if you have extra hands around but can get dangerous). From here you just have to pull the outer tie rod end off, pop the lower ball joint out of the spindle, then remove the 4 bolts. Install is the opposite of removal, use penetrating lube and locktite, good luck.

[CoachRon]

Pretty easy to do. Once you have the front end on jack stands and the front tires off, I would jack up the LCA (just an inch or so) to take the strain off of the four bolts on the LBJ/spindle (can unbolt the shock for extra safety). Unbolt the four bolts (evenly), move the spindle/brakes to the side (helps to have a small jack stand to set the bottom of the spindle on), remove TRE from the LBJ, and remove the LBJ from the LCA. Putting it back together is just the reverse procedure.
Same thing tundrunk said, but just a different order. You can remove the TRE first, can take the brake calipers off if you want, doesn't really matter as long as you don't put stress on your brake lines, and don't put stress on those four bolts (They will strip!).
It's helpful if you rent a ball joint press. If you don't have any rust and you're taking your time, you're looking at probably 2-3 hours.
Check RockAuto.com for Moog ball joints. They're priced cheap and are built really well.

[wunderwhatnow]

Thanks for all the advice will let everyone know how it went when it finally gets done