Had a ball joint failure tonight. Just got back from getting a ride in a tow truck. Luckily, this was at slow speeds and no body damage.

Anyway, I'll be in thre changing the lowers, and am wondering how I go about testing the uppers. I'd rather not change them cause they seem like a real pain in the butt. Boots are ripped and truck has 167k so I probably will but I was still curious how to test them out.

 

To see if there are play in the ball joints raise the tire and hold it at 12 and 6 o'clock positions and see if there is any movement. It might take two people one to look at the joints and one to grab the tire. If yours failed completely you might have to replace that one before checking for movement on the upper one.
Edit. I'd replace uppers and lowers while I had it tore down and the piece of mind that the old one won't fail at the worst time.

 

I've never heard of uppers failing, but you don't know what stresses were placed on the ubj when the lbj failed. I'd replace it for sure. If you don't want to use the ball joint press it's a good excuse for some camburg's or other aftermarket uca's.

 

Still have to use a press to get the UBJ out and a slug adapter in.

 

When was the last time they were properly inspected?

 

Probably when it rolled off the assembly line.

Anyway, changed the uppers as well.

Lowers were easy. Should have done it a while ago.

Uppers were a pain. Thought I would pass on my experience for those searching later, as I was for hours.

It was easier to take the whole knuckle off and have it on the ground.

Rented ball joint press from oreillys. It as a really nice piece. Drove the old ones out easy. New ones going in......not so much. I fiddled with it for a long time, lots of cuss words, etc.

It wa almost impossible to hold the knuckle while cranking on the press. Impact didn't have the juice.

I ended up bolting the knuckle to the wheel, laying the wheel flat, and that allowed me a LOT more leverage to hold the knuckle.

The key was that I froze the ball joints over night, and right before I tried to press them in the next morning, after I was out of cuss words, heated the knuckle with a small propane torch. They went in like butter. Amazing the difference with them frozen.

Anyway, hope this helps someone down the road.

Off for alignment tomorrow.

 

Toyota has a page in their factory service manual dedicated to measuring wear in LBJs. It's there for a reason.

Plastic cups and shims inside LBJs love propane.

 

No idea what you're talking about

 

Glad you were able to do it yourself.

dntsdad & guys,
I'm curious... did you feel any indication that something was wrong, or did it just fail on you?
I've got 186+K miles on mine. Did the 12 O'Clock & 6 O'Clock position check and saw no play.

Not the LBJ.
O.P. "... heated the knuckle with a small propane torch."

 

I noticed that the wheel was slightly kicked in at the bottom so I jacked it up and tried the 12 and 6 rock and everything was tight. I knew it was the joint.

Like I said, the lowers were super easy. Should have just replaced them. Not that expensive but I does add up with an alignment.

 

Did you go with Toyota Ball joints?