Last week I was out for a little off roading and managed to practically destroy 3 out of the 4 ball joints on the upper and lower control arms; 25-30 mph through mud and water will do that 
Upon checking out the front end, I noticed how worn out the bushings were and decided to replace a lot of the moving parts. I just hit 170K last week so I figured I might as well jump on some 200K maintenance. Last fall I installed OME tbars and shocks so those are already good.
New parts:
1. Upper control arms (Napa)
2. Lower control arms (Napa)
3. Tie rod ends (Toyota oem)
4. Sway bar links (Toyota oem)
After reading some threads about the advantages/disadvantages (thanks shotts)
of aftermarket UCAs I decided to just stay with oem style parts. I don't really need extra articulation and don't like the idea of maintaining uniball stuff (read kinda lazy).
There is almost zero rust under my truck so the tear down/install was fairly easy, although there is a lot of heavy wrenching. Big thanks to the fellow mudders who did write ups for the upper and lower arms. I did manage to screw up one thing though. I forgot to straighten my steering wheel before putting it all back together so now it looks like I'm always turning right.
Anyone know the easiest way to get it back straight?
Upon checking out the front end, I noticed how worn out the bushings were and decided to replace a lot of the moving parts. I just hit 170K last week so I figured I might as well jump on some 200K maintenance. Last fall I installed OME tbars and shocks so those are already good.New parts:
1. Upper control arms (Napa)
2. Lower control arms (Napa)
3. Tie rod ends (Toyota oem)
4. Sway bar links (Toyota oem)
After reading some threads about the advantages/disadvantages (thanks shotts)
of aftermarket UCAs I decided to just stay with oem style parts. I don't really need extra articulation and don't like the idea of maintaining uniball stuff (read kinda lazy).
There is almost zero rust under my truck so the tear down/install was fairly easy, although there is a lot of heavy wrenching. Big thanks to the fellow mudders who did write ups for the upper and lower arms. I did manage to screw up one thing though. I forgot to straighten my steering wheel before putting it all back together so now it looks like I'm always turning right.
Anyone know the easiest way to get it back straight?
