dont need to take off brakes... it might be easier to work with though.

 

What's a realistic time to have the arms taken out of the car? I'm thinking I may try this tomorrow morning while it's sunny and (relatively) warm.

I'll probably be using ramps to get the nose in the air and jackstands to keep her up.

 

Depends on if your bolts are rusted or not. It took me four days, might take you an hour.

 

I haven't found any rust on my car, so hopefully I'll be fine.

How can I check my ball joints before removing the arms? Once the nose is in the air, can I just peek in there and see them? I haven't played with the front suspension since the summer of '08, so I don't remember how it looks. I'd really rather not go through the trouble of getting the arms out/bushings in to find the ball joints are toast and I need new arms...

This is pretty much the same pitman arm puller I have:

Is this the tool everyone recommends to remove the ball joint? How is it done?

I also have a pickle fork, but have read that's not the safest option when trying to retain the ball joint.

I'm searching all over the forums and want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I start.

 

Ive got a question for you guys. Is it better to replace the whole arm? Or does people just do that to not have to go through the trouble of putting new bushings in? if putting new arms on is the supra ones any different? Any better? Can someone just give me the general info on this. thanks

 

How the ***** did y'all get the castle nut off? I've got a 21MM crescent on it and the thing won't budge. I just doused it with some PB so maybe it will let go a bit.

Also, how do I remove the 2 long bolts that hold the arms to the frame?

 

complete control arm gives you a new ball joint also.
a bushing kit will only swap out the bushings. also there's more work with pressing out the old or cutting out the old and installing new.

 

impact wrench really helps here.
don't even try to do this with a crescent wrench (adjustable?)...unless it's a box (closed) wrench or a socket.

 

I have an impact, but didn't think it would fit in there. And I don't have a 21MM socket, that I know of.

I ended up being able to unscrew it wit my fingers after soaking in PB for a few minutes

 

Been reading the forum and looks like lots of great info here. I'm looking to change out my LCA with the supra parts on my sc300. I checked out the Carson Toyota website and price currently is $263 per side. Anyone know of any cheaper sources? I'm in Hawaii as well.

 

Ok, just found the post for toyotaparts123.com with the parts for around $220. Site seems to be down at the moment so will try again tomorrow.

 

Simple huh? it took me a good 4 hours to do one side

 

Did you do it on a lift or jack stands?

I did mine on stands and think it would have been much easier if I could have gotten under the car properly.

 

i did but i couldnt take off the ball joint so what i ended up doing was torching the bushings to put on ployureathen under the car and it worked out pretty fine..

 

FWIW, I just wanted to point out that there is a pretty significant error in this DIY write up. The OP is instructing us to tighten the new OEM CAs with the wheels off !!

To do the job properly, you should have your wheels on and the weight of the car compressing the suspension to normal riding position BEFORE you tighten the bolts all up. If you don't do this, and you tighten your new rubber bushings in place while the suspension is in its fully drooped position, you are subjecting the rubber bushing to pretty severe twisting which WILL cause premature failure.

This either requires putting the car on a drive up rack/ramp... like an alignment machine has(best), or at least some floor ramps. Ideally, the car should be level too, so just putting them under the front wheels alone is better than the OP suggested, but still not optimal. The trouble for the DIY'er, is getting all four wheels of the car up high enough to crawl underneath and tighten those bolts up. I used four ramps and extra blocks of wood under the tires to add height. (if you choose that method, be sure you can tell what safe to crawl under and what's not!!)

Alternatively, if you are going straight to the alignment shop, ask them to loosen the CA bolts up again, let the bushings fully relax, and then retighten them with the alignment. BTW, I believe the torque is something like 166 ft.lbs. (just beyond most peoples 150 ft.lb torque wrenches lol)