Moog greasable ball joint install, and brake calipers, pictures

[scottm]

Probably a three-banana job, based on having to make my own adapters for the press, to make this work.

Joints for my '03 V6 4R: Moog K500017 and K500018

Rented ball-joint press and adapters from Autozone, 27023, 27163, 27165. And knee-pads, unless you have a lift or thick carpet in your garage, these are a must. I never used the pickle fork.

It didn't take long to find stuck pistons in my brake caliper. Luckily Autozone has rebuilt Toyota calipers in stock. I always open the bleed screw when pushing brake pistons in, don't like pushing old fluid up.

Take the upper bolt of this link arm out to give you room to work. Notice the ball-joint has been soaking in PB-Blaster for days, not sure if it really helped.

This little tool I picked up at a garage sale long ago worked perfectly for popping the ball-joint tapers out of the suspension arms top and bottom.

 

[scottm]

Bottom joint, same tool. Notice I'm pushing against the nut partially threaded onto the joint, not on the threaded shaft.

Get the axle out of the hub. If you didn't loosen the axle nut before taking the brake apart it will be very difficult at this stage. Yes I need new axles, but I'll wait 'till they're making noise.

My exotic hanger to keep the steering knuckle out of the way.

Playing with the ball joint press. These adapter rings/tubes don't quite fit, so this isn't going to work. I ended up making my own out of some structural tubing pieces someone had already cut by mistake at work, how convenient for me. The outside dimension of the flange my adapter had to fit around is 2.35", if you want to make your own adapters. Or I can loan you these if you are anywhere from west Michigan to O'Hare.

 

[scottm]

So this is my custom adapter tube. I'm applying a little heat with MAPP gas, after tightening the press until I thought it might snap. I lubed the press threads and cranked on it with a long wrench, was putting a lot of pressure on. I expected to hear a loud bang when it let go, nope, I just noticed the retaining-ring groove was no longer above flush, you can sort of see that in this pic.

Pressing the new joint in, using the parts in the kits I rented.

Put on the snap-ring, then put the zirc fitting in. Hopefully you put the hole facing forward or back, otherwise you'll never get a grease gun on these fittings.

Pressing the upper ball joint out. The adapter ring over the top flange is custom, you can't see the lower part of that ring, but I cut down the outside diameter to fit into the profile of the upper suspension arm, and over the flange of the ball joint.

 

[scottm]

Pressing the new upper ball joint in. On the bottom I'm using both the custom pieces I made. Notice the upper custom piece has a flat ground into the edge, to fit into the bottom of the lower control arm, and the lower piece has the shiny step-down on the outer diameter to fit into the top of the upper control arm.

Installing this snap-ring is a pain, wish I'd brought my good snap-ring pliers home from work, but at least I have something. The red is grease, be sure you clean and grease the suspension arms before pressing in the new ball joints.

Yes, it can be done.

Clean and grease the hub and axle seals. I'll be replacing these axles before too long, so extra incentive for me to make it easier to take apart.

 

[scottm]

This is what my hokey bench-bleed setup looks like. The bottle on the bleed screw is what I always use when bleeding or pushing pistons in. The blue bottle of fresh fluid is what I use to squeeze fluid into the caliper. I can flow fluid in and out of the caliper this way, bubbles work their way out and up the hoses. I'll do this with the caliper mounted so I can quick put the brake line on without losing too much fluid.

Brake line plugs from Autozone, they work most of the time.

 

[scottm]

So shiny. I put copper anti-seize under the brake caliper. I used silicone grease on brake parts, dielectric grease. Threaded fasteners got thread-locker, more to keep out corrosion than anything else. After a drive around the block all the lugnuts were loose, probably because of the anti-seize under the caliper squishing out. Notice the brake pins are inserted from the back, to make them easier to push out next time. I use a long drift pin to drive them out, then vise-grips, life in the rust belt.

 

[mercedeezel]

wow man good job! thanks for posting pics of the tools used to release the lower ball joint from that weird "arm". I tried unsuccessfully to replace the lower joints in our GX after lifting it. I'll give it another go in the spring.

 

[scottm]

wow man good job! thanks for posting pics of the tools used to release the lower ball joint from that weird "arm". I tried unsuccessfully to replace the lower joints in our GX after lifting it. I'll give it another go in the spring.

I think you can rent them from Autozone, or buy them for $15, but you would have to get the right size. Autozone has an adjustable pitman arm puller that looks like it would work well.

 

[phishtaco]

Nice. Thanks. I will need to do this in the summer.

 

[buck208]

Probably a three-banana job, based on having to make my own adapters for the press, to make this work.

How are the rebuilt Toyota Calipers working? I need to replace my Rotors/ pads/ calipers . Thanks.

 

[wingysataday]

Fantastic writer.

 

[scottm]

How are the rebuilt Toyota Calipers working? I need to replace my Rotors/ pads/ calipers . Thanks.

I have to rotate my tires very soon, gonna take a close look at those calipers, 15,000 miles on them. These were replaced free by Autozone under their lifetime warranty, they just don't last, same as the stock ones. They aren't hard to replace, and the lifetime warranty is nice.

 

[SOTF]

Old thread bump but will these ball joints work in the KDSS-style LCA? Looking to press in new bushings and K500017 ball joints. The item is listed on multiple sites as "Not for Kinetic Dynamic Suspension".

 

[470SNC]

Epic write up, looks like the whole front end got a good refresh!

 

[scottm]

How are the rebuilt Toyota Calipers working? I need to replace my Rotors/ pads/ calipers . Thanks.

Just replaced my calipers again, and again they were free from AutoZone. Seized pistons again. It is actually easier to replace the calipers and pads than just the pads when they get a little rusty. Sub-zero here, so anything to make the job quicker!

The ball-joints seem to be doing fine. I still have a clunk when going over bumps, but now I know I'm not going to lose a ball joint. Still running those front axles with that torn inner boot, no noise yet at 207k miles.
.

 

[vwynn]

how many miles are on the MOOG joints now? good to hear they are still treating you well.

 

[scottm]

how many miles are on the MOOG joints now? good to hear they are still treating you well.

72k I also just had the same ball joints put on my '03 Land Cruiser, a bit over 200k on that one. I had a shop do it while replacing sway bar ends, wheel bearings, timing belt, etc.

 

[vwynn]

how much wheeling were you doing at 72k?

 

[scottm]

how much wheeling were you doing at 72k?

None, this is my mostly-highway commuter. Right now that highway is a two-track, but mostly just smooth cruising.