I'm replacing inner tie rod ends, rack bushings, ball joints (upper and lower) and CVs. I'm guessing I should start with the tie rod ends, then do the rack bushings, replace the ball joints when the rack is loose (from what I've read you have to loosen the rack to get to the lower ball joint bolts?), and then just swap CVs when it's all done. Does that sound right?
Do the CVs and ball joints together and the inner TREs with rack bushings together. Otherwise the order doesn't matter. The rack doesn't have to be moved for any of the other procedures.
Where on earth did you read you had to loosen the rack to get to get to lower BJ bolts? Not on my 1st gen Taco anyway. The only hard part about doing LBJ's is the price tag!!!
When I did mine they were stuck in the lower control arm pretty good and I didnt have any proper tools for working on/pulling BJ's or anything. So to break them lose from the lower arm, I loosened the castle nut 2/3 turns, then put the floor jack under the BJ "stud", give it a few pumps to put some pressure on it, enough that you start to compress the suspension, but your not trying to lift the truck. Then give the lower arm a few whacks with a hammer around the BJ and it will pop loose.
For me, without the proper tools, getting the outer tie rods off the LBJ was the hardest part, took a lot of hammering and cussing. Without proper "pulling" tools, the job is a lot easier if you replace the outer tie rods at the same time, that way you dont have to worry about screwing them up, trying to get them out of the lower BJ to replace it. But I did mine backwards, did LBJ's first, then replaced the whole steering rack a year or so later, so I had to be "gentle" on the outer tie rod ends the first time around.
The NAPA where I live seems to sell 555 stuff. Packaged in NAPA boxes ofcourse haha. So far iv got lower ball joints and outer TRE's from them. So far no complaints, but not a ton of miles on them either. Im sure there not as good as toyota OEM, but for OEM prices i could buy a couple sets of aftermarket stuff atleast.
Also I have new experience to share. Last weekend I put in some new lower control arms. I decided to go the route of all new arms instead if trying to mess with melting out old bushings and pressing in new ones. To pull the rear alignment cam/bolt/tube out, you nearly have to take the steering rack out. I removed all the mounting bolts from the rack. All that was left were the fluid lines, steering input shaft, and outer tie rods still hooked to the knuckle/LBJ/whatever you want to call it. After this experience, I would say if you can possibly do the work that involves removing the rack and new lower arm bushing at the same time, then do them together. Otherwise you basically take the rack out twice. Not a big deal either way, could just save yourself some time and headache.
Side note: when taking the lower arms off the truck... On the drivers side both adjuster cam/tube pieces were frozen (rusted) into the lower arm bushings. The bushings themselfs also have a steel tube that the adjuster cam tube goes thru, these two were rusted together so bad I had to destroy the adjuster cam/tube piece to remove it and get the lower arm off the truck. Luckily I also bought new replacement parts for this when I got the arms so I was ok and didnt have to wait for new parts, but I just wanted to warn people that things could get messy if you have rusty stuff. And I even live in an area where rust isnt a huge problem. There are basically 3 parts to each adjuster cam, and there are 2 adjusters per lower arm, 4 total for both sides. I dont know their exact names, but the only part I found on the dealer web site to order when I ordered my lower arms was what I would call the cam/tube. There is also a long bolt that goes thru this cam/tube, then on the backside there is a one piece cam/nut that the bolt screws into.
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