Lower Ball Joint Cure

It is widely held that the 3rd Gen 4Runner and 1st Gen Tacoma are two of the most renowned off-roading platforms produced by Toyota, and while they are known for their superb reliability and capability the major area they fall short is their lower ball joints.

Due to a design oversight they are notorious for catastrophic failures typically costing the driver thousands in repairs and oftentimes severe roll overs due to the entire front spindle separating from the vehicle when the ball joint fails.

The prospect of this scenario is what motivates most owners that off-road their trucks to inspect and replace these joints on a very strict and regular schedule.

The Arcworxs Solution

This failure point represented an opportunity for Arcworxs to develop a stronger and more reliable lower ball joint system. By utilizing a massive 3 inch ballistic fabrication uniball featuring rebuildable, greaseable, and adjustable bronze races along with a stainless steel nitride treated pivot ball, we created the first and only bulletproof stock width lower ball joint system for the 3rd Gen 4Runner and the 1st Gen Tacoma. The ballistic uniball is placed in a dual shear custom built steering adapter that eliminates the possibility of lower joint separation and catastrophic spindle failure.

Prevention and Protection

With a 0.125” internally reinforced lower control arm and rebuildable polyurethane pivot bushings, these control arms are designed to handle the toughest rocks and fastest desert sections the driver can throw at them. After eliminating the risk of lower ball joint failure, the steering adapter is applied to relocate the outer tie rod joint which increases the steering force of the rack and pinion by 15%. This design feature adds compensation for larger tires and reduces stress on the rack and pinion itself.

The improved placement of the outer tie rod joint also reduces the overall steering angle by 4 degrees, so that when pushing the trucks limits in rocks, the risk of breaking the weaker outer cv joint is greatly reduced by preventing it from reaching its weakest position at full suspension droop and full steering angle. Those with a front locker on an ifs setup know this scenario all too well.