Defective lower ball joint

I bought OEM Toyota lower ball joints last summer. It's seemed like the outer tie rod went in kind of far but the truck doesn't see lots of road miles so I torqued the nuts and drove it. Today I started to replace outer toe rods with OEM Toyota parts. At 67 ft lbs of torque the castle nut is far below the cotter pin. Now I'm wondering of the ball joint tie rod socket was bored too deep. Is there supposed to be a washer on there? And if so, why didn't tie rod come with one? Any thoughts?

 

Is the OTR end OEM? Let’s see another pic not so zoomed in

 

Yes OEM LBJs and OEM OTR.

 

Doesn't matter if the cotter pin is through the openings of the castle nut or not, it'll still do the job the prevent it fully backing off.

Put a washer below if it bothers you.

 

When loosen thr nut the tie rod drops right out of its hole. I thought the taper was supposed to hold it in place. Seems to.me that's an area of slop

 

In that case there's 3 things it could be.

Hole too large. Tie rod too small. Threads bottoming out nut early.

The 3rd can be checked by using a washer &/or visually holding the tie rod up in place. If you can see a section without threads above the knuckle, it's bottoming out early.

 

I don’t recall mine being near 67 ft lbs but I have an 02. I could’ve sworn mine was less than 50 ft lbs. Unless N-m was mistaken for ft lbs?

 

Wasn't there a size change around 2003.. Could you have a early OTR with a later LBJ.

 

I was just going to ask this.

 

This was my 1st thought also. This isn't the first person I've seen on here whose TRE didn't fit in the LPJ arm properly.

Either the LBJ isn't OEM, or @TimH is in a crossover year where either the TRE or the LBJ changed mid-year, and he picked the wrong pair. @TimH can see his manufacture date by referencing the VIN sticker on the driver's door, it's just below the opening for the latch (on the door, not the jamb) typically.

I'm not sure what cab type @TimH is using, his truck info in his profile doesn't say the cab type or if it's 2WD or 4WD, so I can only guess on that. And nobody usually puts manufacture month. But I ran a random V8 2003 AC 2WD with a Feb 2003 manufacture date through the EPC, and came up with this...

It appears the LBJ cutover year is September of 2003, and that LBJ part number (for pre-October 2003) is this. Note the end date of the part, and part number, both underlined. But beyond that, note (also underlined) that Tim could look at the last 7 digits of his VIN to see the numeric sequence, if it's outside (above) the highest of the two numbers, he may've purchased the wrong LBJ for his truck.

Of course, note, if @TimH is running 4WD this info may not apply to his truck. Sucks for anyone trying to help when people don't put 2WD/4WD or the cab type in their truck info ...

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And I did check the OTR/TRE, and it appears it's the same for all 2003 trucks manufactured after October 2002, and last-7 VIN sequence starts with S330785, with no end. These parts apply to 2WD or 4WD trucks.

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They used the Vin to order the TRE

 

Acess Cab
4 wd

LBJ was ordered from a dealer using vin also. Plus, passenger side LBJ seems to be correct. The driver side is the one giving me trouble. It was purchased same time as passenger side.

 

2003 was a weird crossover year. There were two different tie rods available that year that fit differently in the LBJs. My guess is the last time they were changed, one side got one version of the LBJ and tie rod, and the other side got the other version, both sides are still OEM. What you need is the tie rod with the shorter threads.
Recently I was window shopping suspension components and I remembered that Total Chaos specifically said which tie rods had the longer threads and were needed for their kit. Here's the link, because the part numbers they give are the ones you don't want for your truck.
https://www.chaosfab.com/product/2000-2003-Toyota-Tundra-Lower-Uniball-Conversion-OE-Tie-Rod

 

Toyota has been consolidating part numbers as certain parts go into non production. I’d bet that you’re fine to run this, washer if you’re bothered. Or put the old stuff back on and return for new parts that you test at the part counter. .02