Ball joint troubles

Hi everyone. Long time lurker, new member here. I've been thru hell and back with my front end on my 04 limited. Upper ball joint sheared off (moog), broke knuckle. Got new genuine toyota knuckle with upper pre-installed, and new genuine lbj's too. Well come to find out, the old knuckle had 14mm bolts holding the lbj to the knuckle and the new one takes larger 17mm bolts. Had trouble finding the bolts, but finally did. Went to reassemble everything after a pita wheel bearing installation....lbj post is too thick. Won't fit into the hole. The dealership ordered my parts via VIN#....what gives? Why is the old stuff 14mm and a smaller lbj? Can I just drill out the hole to make it fit? My truck has been down for 2 weeks this is literally killing me. I'm out of groceries, haven't been to work, nothin! (I live alone in rural Ohio)

 

What part numbers did you order ?

 

The taper the ball joint post presses into on the lower control arm is a different size between the two knuckle/ ball joint designs. I wouldn't attempt drilling that out unless you're a knowledgeable machinist.

The four bolts are spaced out in a different pattern on the ball joint as well. If you drill the holes to accept the bolts with the 17mm head, the ball joint still won't bolt right up to the knuckle.

Probably easiest to find a used 00-03 knuckle from a junkyard and use that. You can switch to the bigger ball joints and knuckles on both sides, but you'll also need new lower control arms and I believe tie rod ends as well.

 

Idk what part numbers. Dealership ordered based on my vin#. The lbj bolts up to the new knuckle just fine. It's just all clearly different than what was on there and I'm not sure why or what I need to do to resolve this.

 

This doesn’t sound right, what are the specs on your truck. Are you 2wd?

All 4x4 1st gens used the same Lower Control Arms, I’m not sure about the 2wd.

 

Pictures of some of the parts and what you're dealing with would help

Wouldn't be so sure about that. Big ball joint and little ball joint LCAs have different part numbers. Aftermarket arms and LT arms depend on the LBJ you have.

 

I remember shifty(?) posting something about how the 04 is an oddball. Like how there is no 04 FSM and most 04 stuff is closer related to 03 than 05(?).

edit: https://www.tundras.com/threads/valve-cover-bolt-torque.120114/#post-3082070

 

There is a 2004 FSM available through Techstream, I have a PDF copy. There just isn't one that's widely available for free like the 03 and 05 manuals. The '04 FSM lists torque specs for both the 14mm and 17mm, but has a typo on the 17mm torque spec.

I think the '04 model years produced prior to September 2003 have little ball joints, and those after do not. I can't recall ever seeing a DC with little ball joints, but doesn't mean they aren't out there.

Here's some snippets from the recalls --

Little ball joints:



Little ball joint VINs:



Big ball joint recall info:

 

My 04 AC built on 10/17/03 goes with the O5-06 trucks, steering and suspension-wise. LBJs (incl. 17 mm bolt and 48 ft/lb torque values), OTRs, steering gear (R&P) are same part numbers with the later years. These are parts I have recently ordered.

I think Shifty was referencing the engine (non VVTi) as being more similar.

By the way, anyone on here have a PDF copy of the FSM. I saw where a member offered in '22 to run a copy for others if provided a thumb drive and PM'd but never heard back. So there must be a PDF version somewhere.

For anyone interested, I could really use an electronic copy if they would be so kind.

 

des2mtn is correct in that the early 2004 tundras were a mixed bag of either 14mm or 17mm with 09/30/03 production date as reference cut-off. The SSC instructions for 04 were simple because Toyota could not separate out by VIN. Either the LBJ bolts were 14mm or 17mm upon visual inspection and were replaced under the SSC 50 (14mm) or SSC70B (17 mm recall campaigns, respectively. The spindles were also obviously different between the two.

Subsequently, TMC acquired the VIN LBJ info by replacement campaign code data submitted by the dealerships during recall. Who knows if the data is incorporated into the new TMC online autoparts database because the new system is a crapshoot for 04 parts identification.

 

So do I need to order a new LCA to remedy my issue? And will any of these new parts I'm installing (bigger ball joint) cause any issues since the other side is still the smaller lbj setup?

 

My thoughts are....the simplest fix is to take the LBJ back to the dealership and get the smaller LBJ that came with the vehicle. If they ordered the wrong part, then some of the onus is on them to make it right. Otherwise, it seems that there is a lot of effort and more parts to install to accommodate the larger LBJ on both sides. With these LBJs and their design, I would not consider mismatching a small LBJ with the larger 17 mm LBJ. There are threads on here that discuss the requirements for converting to the larger LBJ but I have not followed them closely. Others here, may have.