Center Arm Rebuild - HELP! (1 Viewer)

[78crzr]

Working on rebuilding the center arm in my '78 FJ40. Have disassembled the old, greased, and reassembled the new internals and tightened as instructed. It feels as if the grooved part that connects to the bottom of the center arm(Pitman Arm?) and that connects to the tie rod ends doesn't move as freely as before. Will the center arm be more difficult to turn as a result of replacing the internals? I greased the heck out of everything inside so I don't think that is an issue. I tightened the top cover until tight, and then backed off a 1/4 turn before tightening the top bolt as instructed by the Body & Chassis manual. However, it appears that the top cover doesn't screw in quite as far as the old one. The top of the old one seemed to be flush with the housing. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[Gus]

I recently tried to rebuild the center arm on my 40 using an aftermarket rebuild kit, I used both the toyota and haynes manuals and the results were horrible (nothing worked the way it was supposed to). I tried dissasembling it and rembuilding it two more times with the same crappy results. I then rebuilt it again using OEM toyota parts with excellent results. If you're using an aftermarket rebuild kit take a sledge hammer to it, stick woth OEM parts for this.

 

[78crzr]

Thanks Gus. Bought the rebuild kit from SOR. In looking at the parts before installing, they mirrored the OEM, but I suspect you may be right as they don't seem to be performing the same. Who did you get your rebuild kits from? :dunno:

 

[thorvald]

think i got mine from Man a fre and worked out good. did you try turning the brass piece to get it to go down further?
id give sor a call and if you cant get it to work with their help send it back.

 

[Gus]

78crzr, I bought my OEM toyota center arm parts through my local dealership (Alderman's Toyota, Vermont), pricier but worth it. The rebuild kit that I had such bad luck with was the aftermarket one from CCOT(this is the only bad luck I've had with CCOT products, typically they're great to deal with) :G