Something a local mechanic said...."pressing out the ball joints."

You may be able to run a die over those threads and clean them up fairly easily. Don't know the thread though.

 

Oh? It figures!

Was going to let the shop do that one. All I had in mind to do myself was the LBJs and (um, now) the outer tie rods.

 

Got the passenger side LBJ off! Much easier than the other side, things weren't on so tight.

No damage to threads this time but the tie rod's boot is pretty ragged.

Will put the new LBJ's on when the new (OEM) tie rod get here from Ourisman Toyota of Richmond, VA.

 

Ourisman sent out an email today about 20% off sale

 

Thanks man, I saw a discount on their website too.

Might go on and order the rest of the parts I need tonight.

Hope to get her ready to run by winter.

 

Update, have two "decent weather" days left this week. Time to put the tie rods and LBJ's on!

Question: these off round numbers...."61 Foot Pounds" for LBJ screws.....is 60 Foot Pounds good enough?

Should I buy a Digital torque wrench from Harbor Freight?

 

What bolts did you get? Torque should be either 59 ft-lbs or 37 ft-lbs with black bolts.

 

Don't have the parts number in hand but came from Ourisman Toyota of Richmond when I bought the new LBJ's. OEM Toyota for sure.

Getting slightly different torque numbers from different members of this site.

 

2006 OEM bolts should be 59 ft-lbs. There are some typos in the FSM

 

59 vs 60 vs 61 shouldn't make much of a difference. There will be a far greater difference between a shitty torque wrench and a decent one. I don't know anyone who uses a digital wrench, though I'm sure there are plenty out there. I high quality 'click' style wrench will do it, and seems to be what most use. But there's no reason to be fudging things here. It's really no harder to set a torque wrench to 61 than 60. Why try to round? Best assume Toyota didn't round for a reason. They chose the torque based on it being the proper torque. I see no benefit, time savings, or any less frustration in rounding off torque specs vs just using the recommended spec.

 

Thanks guys.

Two last questions:

1). Red or blue loctite on the 4 bolts?

2). Which side is which? I had to remove the old LBJ's some weeks ago and couldn't put the new ones on till today. I notice there isn't much difference between the two although I am sure there are! (Packages are not marked as to which side).

Which ball joint goes on which side?

 

Check your bolts some have loctite from factory. Black one don’t.
Use blue and only a bit on the end threads. Red requires a torch to remove

 

And be careful when you undo the castle nut and separate the spindle from LCA. There is a lot of spring pressure and you don’t want to get hurt. Be sure to support it with a jack.

 

Never mind....looked back at parts numbers on Ourisman website and assuming "left" means "driver side" I should be OK. Double checked with video linked by a member on page 1 of this thread so I think I have the correct sides.

Just bought some blue loctite. About to give it a go!

 

Problem: one bolt is not going all the way in. It's torqued to 61 Ft Lbs but not all the way in.

 

That gap is exactly the length of a washer. Without knowing the length of the shank on the bolt, I can't tell you if it's the right bolt. It's entirely possible the dealership gave you the wrong bolt. In which case, stopgap, I'd reinstall the old bolts temporarily just to motor thru the job.

What part number did you order for bolt?
What part number for LBJ?

Bolt looks to be the right color, I can't recall if my LBJ had that recess though.

 

No time to wait for a reply---just tightened with a cheater bar until that bolt was flush.

Sorry not to wait for you Shifty....dark comes fast here and plus I'm in a valley...truck parked outside. Will ask the shop about it when I get her rollbacked in.

 

DRIVER'S SIDE LBJ IS ON!

Could not loosen lock nut on tie rod but did center the steering wheel.

Tomorrow going for passenger side.

 

It was probably rust on the last few internal threads causing that bolt to bind up prematurely. I had the same issue when replacing my front brake calipers. Run a thread tap through it first or a wire brush to clear out the rust.

This little kit works perfectly:

 

Instead of a tap which removes material to cut threads, use a thread chaser which just cleans out existing threads.


Edit: you can make a thread chaser out of a bolt if need be. Just cut a line straight up & down a bolt with the correct thread size/pitch (across the threads) with a dremel.

 

JOB IS DONE.

THE GOOD:

Both lower ball joints are in along with driver's outer tie rod. Steering wheel centered. Front wheels (finally) back on. TRUCK IS NO LONGER UP ON BLOCKS.

THE BAD:

Passenger side tie rod lock nut would not come loose. I don't think dad was torching it long enough (he later agreed). Further, when putting the castle nut back on, the threaded shaft freewheeled. So we put on a few washers, put in a cotter pin, and I'll let the shop worry about it.

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. I learned a lot.......like to not use hand tools again, but to buy compact power torque drivers and to build a garage with a lift! Next time I'll let the shop handle this.

 

Tie rod shaft spins, yes. Doesn't take much pressure to get it to stop spinning. I put a jack under it to compress it just enough to stop it from spinning, then it's pretty easy to get the nut to snug down.

PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench for days leading up to any job is always a good idea, even in fairly rust-free areas.

Nice work.

 

Oh? So I can still get a nut on that tie rod?

I have several days before I call for the rollback to haul her to the shop, I'll see if I can try the jack idea, thanks.

 

Only way I've ever been able to get the castle nut on the tie rod is by putting a bottle jack under it and jacking, a bit at a time, until it stops spinning when you try to get the nut on.

 

Well no harm has been done. Once the rain and snow(!) storm is over I'll jack the truck up again and try that.

Thanks guys!

I called the stealership I plan to take it to and they were down with the big list of repairs I read off. Also OK with them using my OEM parts and it being rollbacked in and pushed into the shop.

So...hopefully next week I can get the repairs done and start driving this thing! Once it's on the road I'll put my GMC into the shop to repair the deer hit damage.

 

Just finishing off this thread:

The truck sat in the above condition all winter. A bunch of light, fluffy snow blew into the cab since I left the front windows down a bit to allow some airflow through (but still under the vent shades). I was able to remove most of that but some ice formed on the driver's side door, naturally where the window control buttons are! I broke what I could off but when the rest melted, it didn't seem to hurt anything.

The battery was dead and it was simply too windy to try and charge the battery, so the wife and I stuffed some towels into the space the partially-down windows created but a later wet snow showed that to be a bad idea. We then removed those towels and covered the cab with a tarp that we tied down in what turned out to be a near-perfect way.

Come April of 2025, the battery was charged and the truck towed out of the yard and onto the driveway. A rollback then hauled it to a shop where all but the parking brake was fixed.....but also a new steering rack, calipers, rotors, CV axle, etc. were also done. The bill was very high but the truck runs just fine, only that we must block the wheels when on a hill of any size, especially if towing a trailer, which is nearly every time we drive her. I started a "build thread" to better cover her restoration.

 

As someone who just did both upper and lower ball joints 2 days ago and replaced with OEM Toyota parts in rust free Southern California, this is my experience:

Lowers: Easy peasy if you have the proper tool. (No, hammering the knuckle probably wont work to loosen it like you see in the youtube vids. It didn't for me even with zero rust and overnight penetration oil soaking into it.). You'll need an ADJUSTABLE ARM ball joint/tie rod end/pitman arm removal tool. The only two in existence that I'm aware of are the OTC 7503 (Also comes in a "heavy duty" version with the model number OTC 7503HD), or the one that comes in the Harbor Freight Maddox front end service tool set. Neither of these are available to rent as part of a kit from Autozone/Oreily Auto parts. You'll have to buy them (or buy them and return them when done using if you have the nerve and are on a budget).

A regular ball joint tool wont fit the steering knuckle. The ones I mentioned work great. If your existing ball joint has the rubber dust boot surrounding it, it will still work, you just have to press the jaws up until they hook onto the steering knuckle. It will bend the dust boot a bit but it will be fine, it's just rubber.

Leave the castle nut loosely threaded on and uggadug it with an impact, or use a ratchet until it pops free. Also, make sure you are torquing the 4 mounting bolts to the proper spec when reinstalling the new one depending on what type of bolts your specific year uses. (More info on this on the sticky on this forum).



Uppers: PAIN IN THE FUCKING ASS if you don't have at least a Harbor freight 12 ton shop press and a bunch of scrap steel plates and ball joint press fittings laying around to ghetto rig it into the press. I watched all the videos on youtube where people were able to just simply hammer them out while the steering knuckle was still connected to the lower ball joint but that didn't work. (You'll have to remove the steering knuckle.)

Again, even with zero rust on my vehicle and penetrating oil, no amount of hammering (even with my purse) would work to loosen them even 1mm. A miracle happened when I was in my driveway trying to figure this out, my neighbor came out to ask what I was doing and let me borrow his 12 ton HF shop press to do the job. I had to remove the steering knuckle but it wasn't that hard.

Edit: Forgot to mention, you'll most likely need to cut the stud off the upper ball joint with an angle grinder before attempting to press it out. The stud will flop around and wont sit straight while pressing it out. This is pretty easy though and it only takes 10-15 seconds to cut it off with a $10 HF angle grinder and a new cutoff wheel. Shoots a ton of sparks though so make sure nothing flammable is nearby.

THEN, there's the snap rings on the upper ball joints, even using heavy duty USA made Snap On snap ring pliers, you'll have a hell of a time removing the original ones and installing the new ones because there's no recessed hole for the jaws on the snap ring pliers to fit into and simply lift them up and out. It's a time consuming process of spreading them apart, having it slip, wedging a screwdriver underneath and trying to slowly but surely wedge them out. And doing a similar process to install the new ones.

Finally, if you are using Toyota OEM upper ball joints, they DO come with 2 different types of grease which is strange. They are basically squeeze packets. The blue grease gets squeezed into the rubber boot on the bottom, and the white grease gets squeezed into the top of the boot. To lock the boot in place, there's a circular metal ring included which you'd think is spring loaded and you just spread it apart and wedge it around the base of the boot, but the instructions say to completely bend it out until it's straight and wrap the wire around the base of the ball joint and twist it with pliers and cut the excess off with wire cutters. Very strange but that's what I did.

I ended up twisting the included wire in the Toyota kit a bit too much and it snapped but luckily I had some thicker baling wire in my garage to use which worked better. (This was a Japan Made kit by the way.)