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- #21
13,000 Mile Update
An update if i may. The GX has been sounding like an old ford lately - lots of squeaks and groans from the front end. At 1st, i thought the ball joints were toast. But closer inspection showed shards of rubber coming out of the strut mount at the lower control arms (both side). I sprayed some white lithium grease in the area to see if the grease might help quiet things. It didhelp so i was relieved to know ball joints were not the culprit.
It's unrelated, but I had seen on the 80 series forum that iron man and TJM caster correction bushings were not lasting very long compared to OEM Toyota bushings. I then had the hunch that maybe the bushings in my TJM struts are made from the same type of compound. The struts still ride fine so i didn't want to replace them - just the bushings. I was surprised to find toyota sells the bushings individually so i bought two of these bad boys and hoped they'd fit in the TJM struts.
my harbor freight 12 ton press and a 30mm socket made it easy to R&R the bushings. The outside diameter of the OEM bushings measured about same as the TJM bushings. Though slightly oversize by about 0.015". There was no drama when pushing the OEM's in to the strut. You can see the wear on the bottom of the strut where it was grinding against the lower control arm and causing the noises
Out with the old, in with the new!
Final result - GX is sexy again. No more Ford sounds
An update if i may. The GX has been sounding like an old ford lately - lots of squeaks and groans from the front end. At 1st, i thought the ball joints were toast. But closer inspection showed shards of rubber coming out of the strut mount at the lower control arms (both side). I sprayed some white lithium grease in the area to see if the grease might help quiet things. It didhelp so i was relieved to know ball joints were not the culprit.
It's unrelated, but I had seen on the 80 series forum that iron man and TJM caster correction bushings were not lasting very long compared to OEM Toyota bushings. I then had the hunch that maybe the bushings in my TJM struts are made from the same type of compound. The struts still ride fine so i didn't want to replace them - just the bushings. I was surprised to find toyota sells the bushings individually so i bought two of these bad boys and hoped they'd fit in the TJM struts.
my harbor freight 12 ton press and a 30mm socket made it easy to R&R the bushings. The outside diameter of the OEM bushings measured about same as the TJM bushings. Though slightly oversize by about 0.015". There was no drama when pushing the OEM's in to the strut. You can see the wear on the bottom of the strut where it was grinding against the lower control arm and causing the noises
Out with the old, in with the new!
Final result - GX is sexy again. No more Ford sounds