Lower Ball Joint - Is It Really This Straightforward?

Did mine two weeks ago on a rust free Southern CA truck.

No amount of hammering/whacking loosened it. Perhaps if I had it up on a lift and had an air hammer directly on the stud from underneath it would. I had to use the adjustable swing arm pitman arm tool which is part of the Harbor Freight Maddox front end service kit. The OTC 7503 tool works also if you have the money to invest.

I'm convinced that the TRQ videos on youtube break them free beforehand for demonstration purposes so the job looks easier and you are more confident to just order parts from them. That way they are actually able to whack it free with a hammer in the video.

I couldn't find any one piece non-adjustable pitman arm removal tools to fit it so that's why I had to go with the swing arm type. Those aren't available as part of any Oreily/Autozone rental tool kit either so you have to buy them.

And as mentioned in the sticky, it's best to replace the bolts with new toyota ones when you do this job. There are multiple bolt types depending on your model year/production period. The only bolts that don't have a 59 ft lb torque spec are the toyota "black bolts" which mine were. Those are 39 ft lbs. More info about that on the sticky.

If your lower ball joints have the dust boot, you can most likely re-use it. I sprayed a bunch of silicone spray on a rag and wiped mine down before putting it on.

When tightening the castle nut, go 3-5 foot lbs lower than the torque spec at first in case you have to tighten it even tighter for the cotter pin hole to line up which you most likely will.

 

I think you also sometimes need to use the right curse words with enough venom behind them.

 

I bought a 3 size set from Harbor Freight and they are pretty flimsy too. After 2nd use on a ball joint noticed it twisting, jaws and center screw weren't on the same plane anymore. I do not recommend. Maybe I'll pick one of these napa ones up.

 

That is the inexpensive tool I used. Fortunately non of the parts were seized and this tool easily popped off the tie rod and ball joint.

Sometimes you run into some crap when working on vehicles, but you did not give up. You are all good now.

 

Napa has a lifetime warranty and I've used this one three separate times on LBJs so far with no issues

 

They don't. If you can hit it from two sides simultaneously, it works much better.

 

I guess I'm just one of the unlucky ones, but my driver-side LBJ just did NOT want to come out. My truck has spent it's life in California, so I can't blame it on the rustbelt, (though CalTrans in Tahoe does salt the roads).
Used a SnapOn puller, penetrating oil, MAP gas torch, Pickle Fork, dueling large hammers simultaneously on both sides, an excessive amount of cussing, It finally popped out but it was literally several hours of frustration.
On the flip side, (or passenger side), a couple of smacks with the hammer and it popped right out.

I guess you just never know until you dive in, but my experience certainly was not as easy as others on this forum.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBXU2t4hodo​

 

I’m a worst case scenario kind of guy. What happens if I get into this project and nothing I try gets that thing to break loose. Seems unlikely given everyone seems to have gotten it, eventually. But what’s the realistic next step, removing lower control arm and other suspension parts and then popping it down on a press or just replacing everything? Has anybody had to go to this length?

 

I thought about it going in... if I wasn't able to break it loose I was going to put everything back together with the old LBJ and limp it to a shop. For me the worst part about it would be admitting the defeat.

 

I was lucky, I guess. Mine broke free without issue. I regularly try to save money, but...with a lot of these kind of tools, the difference between cheap crap and high quality is...not enough to justify going cheap. I just looked and the Duralast front end kit is $100. OTC is $160. Not like we're talking $100 for cheap, $400 for quality.

I guess I can see people thinking they'll only do the job once and not wanting to spend more than the minimum. But I bought my OTC front end kit in 2015 (just checked, for $100 back then), and I used it twice on my Tacoma LBJs, twice on my Tundra LBJs (once to replace them, once to do suspension work), twice on the UBJs (same thing...once to replace them, another time for suspension work) and many more times on tie rods and other front end parts. So far. I'll use it plenty more times. If you do your own work and own older vehicles, a decent front end kit is very cheap for how often you'll use it. I've seen no visible bending, warping or cracking on any of the pullers.