Ball joint broke on the highway....help....

Yeah, I see that it is. New shocks in my future. Right now just want to get it home.

 

Cheaper than the tow truck was....

 

So, while I'm waiting for parts........any idea WHY toyota made so many trucks over several models like this? What was the perceived advantage of upside down ball joints?

 

Interesting. That's what I have on my '00.

I'm glad you have an order placed and will get back on the road soon enough

 

I don't think anyone on here can give an exact answer on why Toyota did what they did, but they did fix this in the next generation models for affected vehicles where the LBJ is under compression. This was the first and only generation where the LBJs are under tension, prior to that the trucks had a torsion bar setup where the LBJ is under compression.

It was likely cheaper for them to continue using the inferior under tension design and eat recall costs until the the next generation came out, rather than spend a bunch of money to change to a compression design on a generation that will be phased out in a couple of years anyways.

 

I'm just wondering why Japanese engineer, normally brilliant folks, thought they would design a suspension joint that was always trying to tear itself apart under normal conditions, rather than trying to push itself together. I can't imagine it was arbitrary...there must have been some advantage in theory.

 

Just out of curiosity, were any of the 4 bolts loose when you removed the LBJ?

 

They're still bitter about ww2.

 

My 98 Tacoma broke down on me exactly once, and the tow bill was $600. After that I got AAA. I haven't personally needed it since, but I saved my friend probably $600-1,000 when I was with him out on the Blackfoot and he hit a tree and busted his radiator. At $100/year, well worth it for me.

 

The driver I rode with went to school for engineering and worked in the mining industry for a few years, then decided he could make more and enjoy life more as a tow truck driver.

 

They've made a few dumb mistakes over the years. The rust. Different places, but rust has been a Toyota truck problem since the 70s. Then the years of first gen Tacoma and Tundra frame rust. Same generation with the LBJ issue. Who knows.

 

No. All were pretty tight and hard to bust loose.

 

So examining the broken surface closely....and looking up the failure modes of bolts in an old metallurgy book, it appears what happened to me was classic metal fatigue. The bolt surface shows the classic 'beach' marks of it.

A crack started in the past, long enough ago for the cracked surface to oxidize, and then much more recently the crack started to spread rapidly through the bolt until it had cut through about 7/8ths of the bolt thickness, before tearing away completely at the end from simple stress.

 

Did I miss pics of that? I think the only thing this site’s missing on LBJ failures at this point is like an expert metallurgist’s microscopic tests on failure.

 

its an odd choice. but it seems they just wanted to keep the design similar to the old 86+ IFS pickups. but those were torsen spring on the upper control arm so the load was different.


that being said. i rarely see oem ball joints fail unless they're north of 200k. every single "early" failure i've seen has been a moog or mevoteck or that TUF brand (or w/e they sell thats olive drab with a green boot). the move i'd make if i had a pre-revision tundra is find an 05-06 set of knuckles and lower control arms and upgrade to the beefier joint they used.

 

Just as a FYI, I had my factory OEM LBJ fail at 17.5 yrs and 133k miles after the Recall LBJ service was done. The truck lived in upstate NY and now NJ and went through many freeze thaw cycles which likely contributed to the "lower" mileage failure. Definitely stick with often stated advice on this forum of replace every 10yrs or 100k miles.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/lbj-failure-public-service-announcement.154342/#post-3839645

 

I went 305k on my originals at 23 years old (don't try this at home)

 

When I move to TX next year....can I join the ///Texas Best Gen Crue/// ???? Or is there some sort of initiation I won't like?

 

There is a series of quests you must complete.

 

And be able to tolerate two non-Texans that don't have first gens but are somehow honorary members (in Texas only)

 

It's always been crazy to me that Toyota designed a lbj that hangs the weight of the truck from the ball, rather than rests the weight on a ball.

First gen tacomas are the same way. I did mine as preventative maintenance. They always fail on a turn. Something about the turn walking the ball out of the worn socket.

Can you imagine if trailer hitches hung from the ball rather than rested on the ball? The highways would be a blood bath.

 

It's actually now the Because Texas, F*ck You, Club. We just never changed the name. ...Big Surprise!

 

A little texan hospitality goes a long way.

 

Because they ran the same thing on the 4Runner and Tacoma and were not having problems.
Those vehicles weighed half as much though.
Toyota has a tendency to "over build" many parts and like the ball joints, bearings, U-joints ect ect, they are typically over built by a factor of 1.5 to 2. Meaning they will handle double the power or wear than what is needed for the vehicle. This is good for us and creates reliability but Toyota also uses those "over built" parts across many different models. When they designed and built this system in the Tacoma and 4Runner they didnt have problems so they reused these parts and design on the Tundra. Heck it was over built enough that it worked............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... until it didnt.

 

Its a good way to make people keep up with maintenence. Put it off too long or get parts from west taiwan, and you’re gonna have a bad day.

 

That is such a mind bending thought. Wow, yeah, that would be crazy.

 

Talking about overbuilding.

Although the Mevotech failed and and has given me a really bad time.

It actually was still holding the weight of the truck up to about the last 1/8th inch of metal. It was cracked 1/3rd of the way through, for long enough for the crack to oxidize, could have been months or years like that.

And say what you will, but the ball never pulled out of the socket.....

 

My s10 blazer had lbj’s right way up. Broke the nut. Happened on a bridge expansion joint.