Steering knuckles - buying advice?

Hi folks, my youngest and I are restoring a 2000 Tundra, AC, 4x4, ABS for his first vehicle. The truck has a new frame and is in good shape, apart from the knuckles. The trouble is, around here the junk yard stuff is not much better.

What do you recommend? OE knuckles are an arm and a leg (over $1000 each here in Canada). Megazip and Amayama are not far off this after exchange and shipping.

Dorman looks decent and is far less expensive: $313 CDN, plus delivery:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=13698545&cc=1357927&pt=7496&jsn=970.
I'm not interested in the no-name knuckles on ebay. They look to be of suspect quality.

I've tried the junk yards on car-part.com, but can't seem to get replies or when I ask for details about the condition of what is called a Grade A knuckle, they tell that it is in fact ungraded in poor shape. Do you have a good yard that you deal with that will ship north? Good used OE is my first choice.

Thanks for any thoughts you can offer.

 

You might already know, but 3rd gen 4runner knuckles are interchangable. & you're looking for the small ball joint knuckles.

i'd run dorman, but like you would prefer oem. Napa sells dorman with a limited lifetime warranty for $350. Might have to wait for the 25% off sale that come around every now & then to get oem.

But i dont know about shipping or exchange rates.

what wrong with the old ones that some fresh paint & bearings couldnt fix?

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'll have a look at NAPA.

Corrosion is the issue. I tried chipping and painting, but it is so bad that the mounting points for the brake dust shield are almost completely disintegrated. This causes me to be concerned about the stress points in the knuckle.

 

Sounds like a good time to fly to Arizona or someplace South and pick up a couple at a pick-a-part? salvage yard. Then you can just carry them home in a gym bag as a carry on.

 

Fr33 lance off-road sells a very high quality pair for $750. Don’t know if that’s in the budget but They pretty much specialize in first gens and are a cool small company.

note about the smaller ball joints: From what I hear if you’re buying ball joints as well, which you probably should because it’s a restoration, you CAN buy both the late model bigger ball joint and the matching bigger spindle and they will fit on an older truck to upgrade it.

edit: it’s Fr33lance fab

2nd edit: probably disregard that ball joint info as there are 2 different LCA types. So you’d need an LCA as well and then it is not so cheap.

 

you dont need the LCA?

 

That’s what I would’ve bet my life on 20 minutes ago but after a quick search it does seem like there are different LCA’s for the different years. So I am most likely wrong.

 

Postal strike going on in Canada has made it very difficult to ship USA->CAN right now, sadly, and some carriers won’t allow it. I just found this out today while trying to ship out some vintage bike parts. Had to ship to someone they knew in the USA just over the border so they can drive to get the parts.

 

What part of Canada are you in? If you're on the west side, could you drive to Montana or WA?

Are you off roading the truck or street driving? If it's just street the dorman is probably fine, but I'd add a few layers of paint to them. My cheap ucas and lcas look terrible after one year in a no salt area.

 

I’m in Atlantic Canada, where rust never sleeps! I hear you on paint. I personally use KBS and Wool Wax. That combo seems to work reasonably well.

I found a good set of knuckles not too far away, but the dust shields are rotten.

Does anyone have a set they are willing to sell? Part numbers are 477040-0c011 and 477030-0c011. Dealer says these are NLA.

 

Dust shields are for cowards

 

Your part numbers are wrong? That zero before the hyphen needs to go away. 47704-0c011 and 47703-0c011 are accurate.

Toyota clearly shows they're available still, and fitting for a 2002-2003 year.

https://autoparts.toyota.com/products/product/cover-sub-assy-disc-brake-dust-fr-lh-477040c011

and

https://autoparts.toyota.com/products/product/cover-sub-assy-disc-brake-dust-fr-rh-477030c011
​

Tell your local parts folks to stop smoking crack. Crack is Whack.

 

True, but I’ll make up for it by changing out the bearings myself!

 

That’s my fat fingers. I have the correct part numbers. They show available on line here in Canada, but when I call they tell me NLA. I’ll try your links and see if they process the order, thanks!

 

If not, I dunno if Toyota Parts Deal does biz up in Canuckistan, but if they do, they show them as available for around $85/side if my 20-minute memory is working right. Probably not, but ...

 

I have a pair of 100% rust free OEM dust shields. I forgot to reinstall them when i replaced my wheel bearings, so they’re currently sitting on my shelf. I’m located over in oregon, so who knows how much shipping would cost.