[zawelch]

I tired of replacing my front lower control arms on my Supra. I don't know how many of you pushed out the bushings to replace them with poly bushings but is sucks and it sucks even more when when the dust boots on the ball joints get messed up and/or torn or the ball joint has a little slop in it and you have to replace the entire control arm. I'm on my third control arms now because of the ball joints wearing out. I understand that the N/A control arms are not as strong as the TT arms and ball joints are slightly different. The arms on it when I got my Supra were the N/A control arms. I replaced them with N/A control arms that my local Toyota dealer had in stock and did it myself. The ball joints had some slop in them in less than an oil change. I then went back to the dealer and got the TT arms and I put those on. About 6,000 to 7,000 miles later the ball joints on those went bad too. I thought maybe I just sucked at putting them on. Went to the dealer and had them put a new TT control arms on. In less than 8,000 miles those now have some slop in them. My solution for this it to modify the control arms to use press in ball joints. I'm about half way done in modifying a driver side control arm.
Here are some of the details. I looked around until I found a Toyota press in ball joint that has the same shank dimensions. I found only one. Modifications I've made to the arm so far is that I drilled out the ball joint and machined the hole to fit the slightly larger cup of the new ball joint and machine around the side of the control arm for a smooth surface. The cup of the press in ball joint that I'm using is slightly larger than what looks like the out line of where you would press out the ball joint if it were serviceable. I had to add about a 3/32" of material around the end of the arm where I had machined. I did this to thicken up the wall around the ball joint and to make it so you could use a standard ball joint press to press it in. I've also added some bracing around the sides of the control arm that lead to the hole for the ball joint. I do understand that the size of the ball can make a big diffence in the range of movement and it's ability to move properly. As of right now, I'm assuming the ball is the same size or is so close in size it will not matter. As soon as my second ball joint comes in I will be splitting it in half to compare it to the original ball. That's as far as I've gotten so far.
I still need to shave off more material from the top of the arm to hold the ball joint at the proper height and I may need to add a ring material at the base of the arm so the snap ring will fit properly. I also plan on having this powder coated black to give it a clean finish.
I will post pictures as soon as I find my usb to iphone cable, or I email some pictures to myself. The whole goal of this is to have a conrol arm that really never will need to be replaced, just serviced like any other normal car and to reduce the cost of maintence. I will be testing this out on my own Supra under rough road conditions and I do plan on trying to drift and autocross using this set up. I think this will be a great way to test it. If I works out, I will be doing this to my passenger side and possibly offering this as a service for a reasonable charge to do this to others control arms.

 

[Tres]

I need to replace my lower control arm bushings and this would be great! Looking forward to pictures.

 

[MDSUPERSTAR]

Kudos to you for doing this. Replacing the entire arm for the ball joint is an expensive proposition.

 

[Wreckless]

I would seriously love to see this happen!

 

[Martin F]

If your ball joints are wearing at such a low mileage then something is not right with your chassis\alignment.

 

[botchilah]

Interested as well. Are the front lower control arms the only one with ball-joints in the front suspension?

 

[normore]

I tired of replacing my front lower control arms on my Supra. I don't know how many of you pushed out the bushings to replace them with poly bushings but is sucks and it sucks even more when when the dust boots on the ball joints get messed up and/or torn or the ball joint has a little slop in it and you have to replace the entire control arm. I'm on my third control arms now because of the ball joints wearing out. I understand that the N/A control arms are not as strong as the TT arms and ball joints are slightly different. The arms on it when I got my Supra were the N/A control arms. I replaced them with N/A control arms that my local Toyota dealer had in stock and did it myself. The ball joints had some slop in them in less than an oil change. I then went back to the dealer and got the TT arms and I put those on. About 6,000 to 7,000 miles later the ball joints on those went bad too. I thought maybe I just sucked at putting them on. Went to the dealer and had them put a new TT control arms on. In less than 8,000 miles those now have some slop in them. My solution for this it to modify the control arms to use press in ball joints. I'm about half way done in modifying a driver side control arm.
Here are some of the details. I looked around until I found a Toyota press in ball joint that has the same shank dimensions. I found only one. Modifications I've made to the arm so far is that I drilled out the ball joint and machined the hole to fit the slightly larger cup of the new ball joint and machine around the side of the control arm for a smooth surface. The cup of the press in ball joint that I'm using is slightly larger than what looks like the out line of where you would press out the ball joint if it were serviceable. I had to add about a 3/32" of material around the end of the arm where I had machined. I did this to thicken up the wall around the ball joint and to make it so you could use a standard ball joint press to press it in. I've also added some bracing around the sides of the control arm that lead to the hole for the ball joint. I do understand that the size of the ball can make a big diffence in the range of movement and it's ability to move properly. As of right now, I'm assuming the ball is the same size or is so close in size it will not matter. As soon as my second ball joint comes in I will be splitting it in half to compare it to the original ball. That's as far as I've gotten so far.
I still need to shave off more material from the top of the arm to hold the ball joint at the proper height and I may need to add a ring material at the base of the arm so the snap ring will fit properly. I also plan on having this powder coated black to give it a clean finish.
I will post pictures as soon as I find my usb to iphone cable, or I email some pictures to myself. The whole goal of this is to have a conrol arm that really never will need to be replaced, just serviced like any other normal car and to reduce the cost of maintence. I will be testing this out on my own Supra under rough road conditions and I do plan on trying to drift and autocross using this set up. I think this will be a great way to test it. If I works out, I will be doing this to my passenger side and possibly offering this as a service for a reasonable charge to do this to others control arms.

Ball joints worn out in 7-8K miles??? Sorry I don't buy it. 130K miles on my original ball joints and they ar fine. The bushing were worn after about 80K, bearings on right rear and right front went bad at about 90 K and 110K respectively and shocks were gone at about 90K but ball joints are OK. And yes I do know how to check ball joints. The ball joint boots get torn frequently when you remove the control arms but they can be replaced/repaired.

 

[xxtoobsxx]

so any progress on these arms?

 

[jcieslik]

How much needed to be machined off for the new ball joint to fit? I hope not much since you may weaken the integrity of the control arm. Needless to say I am very interested in the outcome.

 

[1A1]

I'd say something is wrong as well. No way you should be replacing them that often. My originals have 120k miles and were in spec last time the car was apart when I did the wheel bearings.

Steve

 

[Tres]

Any update on this?

 

[roadtalontsi]

ya what suspension are your running on your car? like school bus springs lol. it would be nice to have the option to replace a simple balljoint then replace a whole arm. and to answer the question about, all the arms have balljoints. thats 8 control arms/8 balljoints. at what $200-400/each. ouch...

 

[871JZ]

Why are you going through ball joints every 6-8k miles is the real question. I don't think you're inspecting them properly, OR you've got something seriously wrong with your Supra...

 

[zawelch]

Sorry I have not updated this in awhile. I had some big changes in my life and my car stuff all got put on hold. I'm on try #2. I put the control arm in a vise and used a press to see is the first design idea I had was a suitable option. It was not, it failed so I'm trying a different method. I did not shave anything off the control arm itself except to clean up the hole to press in the new ball joint so it will be just like the original control arm other than having a press in ball joint. The ball joint that I'm using from a Toyota SUV had to have the outside casing diameter shaved down to fit in the hole in the control arm. With everything being put on hold and moving, this project has just been sitting in the machine shop. I do most of the machine work in my spare time so I only work on it when I have the time.

A lot of you have asked why mine seem to go out so fast. From what I can tell my control arms were the original ones because they were the weaker N/A control arms and those were superseeded by the TT control arms a bunch of years ago and when I replaced them the dealer had the older N/A control arms in stock so I got those. I thought I just got shitty control arms the first time or I put them on wrong. The second and third time I had the help of some Toyota techs so I didn't think they were done wrong then. They are bad because when I put my car on a lift and push up on the wheels, the spinel moves up and on further inspection, the control arm stays stationary but the ball joint moves up about 3mm-5mm. From my understanding they shouldn't move up and down like that at all, it is a ball and socket joint after all. The first time they went out I assumed it was because they were old. The second time (1st pair I bought from Toyota) I thought maybe I installed them wrong. Toyota gave me new ones for free that were the TT control arms because they said the older N/A arms had issues. When the TT arms got some slop in them even after getting help putting them in I started to think this was a cronic problem maybe. I had my allignment checked and took my car to make sure the frame was straight. The frame was a little off but not enough to cause that kind of problem from what the frame guy said. On the third pair I did find that the driverside tie rod was bent and the passenger side outer was also bent. The tie rods had no slop in them and my steering has always been tight so it was something I hadn't looked to replace. They were replaced when I did the control arms last time but the ball joints still got about 3mm-4mm of up and down play. The only other reason I can thing why the ball joints would go out is because I do drive my car pretty aggressively and I drive through heavy raod construction areas on a daily basis. The road construction has been bad too. I've had busted belts in 3 of my tires of all different brands. So I think it is a combination of the way I drive and the shear abuse my car gets just driving down the road. It's almost like off roading lol. It was also asked what kind of suspension I'm running; stock with Titan sway bars and I have a harness bar that stiffened up the body a little bit and poly suspension bushings.
I still haven't taken any pics. I've been really bad about that. I'll try and take some soon. I've got pics I've got to get up on the Austrailian forums and on here. So I'll get them up eventually.

 

[supralover93]

any pics?

 

[FastTurbo]

You bumped a 3 year old thread?

 

[Dj6ta]

3 year old bump or not, someone needs to make our lower control arms with the ability to press in new ball joints. Fuck replacing the whole lower arm. Shits expensive

 

[supralover93]

I'm with him ^^^

 

[jza80king]

I just did this, both front LCA. It definitely would be nice to not have to do a whole arm to replace the ball joint.

 

[Thelostrican]

I would have to agree, I replaced mine not so long ago, I have to say, it was great, but tons of $$$, I would love some, but I would like something that is not "racing harsh"....