1998 Lexus ES300 Front Steering, Suspension, & Drivetrain Kit TRQ PSA59035

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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.

In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the front lower ball joint in a 1998 Toyota Camry. This information is going to be the same from 1992 to 2001 on the Camry, as well as several other Toyota vehicles.

The items you'll need for this repair are new front lower ball joints from 1AAuto.com, a 17mm socket ratchet and extension, 10 to 19mm wrenches, a torque wrench, needle-nose locking pliers, a pickle fork, a breaker bar, a hammer, pry bar, penetrating oil, and the jack and jack stands.

Break all your lug nuts loose while the vehicle's still on the ground. You're going to need a 21mm socket and a breaker bar. Install your jack under the vehicle, line it up with the pinch weld, jack the vehicle up high enough that you can get a stand underneath. Making sure you have enough clearance to remove your tire, or whatever you have to do under the vehicle. Install your jack stand onto this unibody frame rail under the vehicle. If you need to work on the rear of the vehicle, put your jack stand underneath and just ahead of the lower control arm here, right by the tow point. Once the weight is on your stands, give the vehicle a little shake, and make sure that they're on there secure. Repeat these steps on the opposite side. Make sure that you bring the vehicle up so that when it sits on the other set of jack stands, the vehicle will be level. You can now lower your vehicle onto the stands on this side.

With the vehicle raised and supported, remove your lug nuts the rest of the way. If you need a little more room to work, you can pull the hubcap off. Remove your wheel from the hub. We've put our vehicle on a lift to make it easier to film for you, but this job can be easily done with a jack and jack stands.

Locate the lower ball joint on the back side of the steering knuckle, just below the CV axle. Using a pair of needle noise pliers, straighten out the cotter pin. The head of the cotter pin on the driver's side of our vehicle has been mangled from an improper installation. We'll show you how to get a stuck one out. We'll use a pair of side cutters to break the head on the end of the cotter pin. Once that's split, we're going to use a large flat-headed punch to try to hit the broken ends of the cotter pin where they've snapped off pretty flush with the bolt to try to knock it out enough on the other side that we can grab it with a pair of pliers and pull it through. You want to be very gentle when you hit this. You need to hit it hard enough to move it out, but not so hard that it peens the ends over, and it won't come out of the ball joint. We're going to use a smaller flat punch now to try to push the legs of the cotter pin through as far as we can. We're just going to add a little penetrating oil here, just to try to help get those cotter pins out. Using that same pair of needle nose locking pliers, grab on.

We're going to use a 19mm open end wrench to try to get on there and break the nut loose on the ball joint. You can see that the CV axle might interfere with us removing it all the way, but once we get it pretty close and we know it's going to move, we can separate the ball joint from the knuckle, which will give us the extra clearance we need and allow us to finish removing it. The nut is now coming in contact with this shield around the ring of the CV axle, so we'll have to lower the ball joint down into the spindle to finish removing the nut.

Using a pickle fork, or a ball joint separator, and a hammer, knock the pickle fork in to pop the ball joint out of the spindle. Use that same 19mm wrench to finish taking off the nut. You'll notice I left the pickle fork in there, so if we come in contact with the CV axle again we can just pry down to get the extra clearance we need. We're hitting it again now, so we'll pull down. Finish removing the nut so we have the clearance to do it without hitting the CV axle. Remove the nut from the top of the ball joint.

Using a 17mm socket and ratchet, remove the two nuts and the bolt connecting the ball joint bracket to the lower control arm. After you've removed all the bolts, use a pry bar to pull down on the control arm and release the ball joint.

Here we have our old part from the vehicle and our new part from 1A Auto. As you can see, we have the same bracket here, the same bend to mount the ball joint into, and the same stud on each one of them. Flip them over, and you'll see that they're the exact same, with the exception of the new one being serviceable. We have a grease fitting on the bottom here so when you're down there doing your oil change and other maintenance things, you can grease all your fittings. It helps with the longevity and keeps them in good shape a lot longer.

Our new ball joint also comes with new castle nut and a new cotter pin. Just to give you an idea here while it's a little easier to see, ours was in there incorrectly in the video. They had installed their vertically, like this. If you install it sideways like that, it leaves a loop, and makes it easier for you to grab and take out later. If your old ball joint has a torn boot, it's blown out the grease, or it has up and down play in it, this new part from 1A Auto is going to go in, direct fit, just like your original equipment, and fix you up right.

Here we have our new ball joint from 1A Auto. Flip it over, and you'll notice the bottom of the joint is threaded. It comes with a grease fitting, or a Zerk fitting, that we'll have to install. Just thread it in by hand. With the 10mm open end wrench, just bring it down until it's tight. It’s very fine thread on this so you don't want to crank them down super tight. As long as it's on there snug and it's sealed so no grease comes out, you should be all right.

Install your new ball joint into the spindle and start the nut on there as far as you can. We're going to insert a pry bar into the control arm and pull down until we can install the studs of our ball joint bracket back into the control arm. Start the nuts onto the ball joint bracket. You can see that they have little centering acorns on the bottom there, and that will help us line up the top. Tighten those with a 17mm socket and ratchet. Once the centering portion starts in, move to the other one. Start our top bolt in, bring everything down tight. Torque both nuts and the bolt to 94 foot-pounds.

Tighten down the nut on the top of the spindle with a 19mm wrench. Be sure that one of the windows in the castle nut lines up with the hole in the stud, so we can install our cotter pin after it's tight. We'll install the cotter pin sideways with the longer of the two legs facing in toward the vehicle. Remember that this goes sideways, not vertically. We'll bend one of the legs around the nut. We can leave the other one straight or cut it off, whichever you prefer.

Start your lug nuts. Check that they're all seated. Jack up on your pinch weld. Be sure that where you jack isn't going to interfere with your ability to remove the jack stands. Bring the vehicle up until it's off the stands. Remove your stands from under the vehicle. With the stands clear, lower the vehicle. Move to the other side, and repeat these steps. If you've removed the tire, only lower the vehicle until the wheel touches the ground. With partial weight of the vehicle on the ground, torque your lug nuts to 76ftlb in a cross pattern. Then you can remove your jack the rest of the way. To reinstall your hubcap, align this notch with the valve stem on the wheel. Snap it back into place.

Thanks for tuning in. We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.