2016 Toyota Tacoma Front 12 Piece Steering & Suspension Kit TRQ PSA44110

Once your vehicle is raised and supported safely, you're going to remove all six lug nuts. So, next, it's going to be time to remove our front skid plate. To do that, you're gonna use a 12-millimeter and remove all the mounting bolts. The next thing we're going to do is remove this nut right here using a 19-millimeter. Go ahead and hold the bolt so it can't spin. Go ahead and spray down this area of the lower ball joint. Now, we're gonna remove that cotter pin. If yours is rusted and rotted like mine, I'm just gonna cut it off. Now, let's remove this lower ball joint nut. Let's remove this with the 24. Just start that back on there just a couple threads. Now, we're going to remove these 2 bolts using a 19-millimeter. The next thing we need to do is get this plate off of here. So, if you go ahead and push it like this, you're going to notice that it starts to separate. Don't go too far because your axle, of course, is still attached to the front differential and we don't necessarily need to remove it to do this. Go ahead and grab your pickle fork and your hammer and separate this. The next thing we're going to do is remove this right here using a 19-millimeter, and then we're going to do the same to the rearward bolt. It's a great idea to spray everything down with some penetrant before you start.

Now, for this rearward one, you're actually going to turn the rearward nut. Remove the adjuster. So, now, what we're going to do is spray the inside area as much as we can with some penetrant and let it sit. I'm just gonna put this nut on so it's flush with the end of the bolt, and then I'm going to give it a couple loving bonks and just try to drive it out. At this point, it's clear to see that this bolt's definitely not wanting to come out and more than likely it's going to be damaged in the removal process. So, you need to make sure that you have another set of these cam bolts with, of course, the adjuster. Once you're sure you definitely have a replacement, you would continue by bonking as you will. So, the next thing we're going to do is actually heat up the bolt end of this cam bolt. And the reason for that is because I want this to get a little bit warm and then I'm going to spray some penetrant on this side and hopefully, the heat will draw it through and loosen this bolt up. Once I've let that heat up and soak through like that, I'm going to retry again. You can use something as simple as one of these little torches or, of course, if you got access to a larger set of torches, it might be a little easier. Let's give it a little spray. We're going to let that soak right through the whole center of this area. Make sure you're in a well-ventilated area or have a fan on.

Okay. So, as you can tell, this bolt definitely is not coming out. We've tried everything that we needed to try. We tried heating up the other side. We tried giving a little bit of a spin. It's not coming out of the bushing that's on the inside center of this control arm right here. What we're going to need to do next is, of course, wear extra safety gear. Some ear protection, of course, our hand protection, and eye protection, and we're going to use something that looks a little bit more like this. I'm going to come right in between here, and I'm going to go ahead and cut that bolt right out of there. And then, of course, we'll do the same to the other one.

Now, we're going to do the same thing to this forward one. The next thing we're going to do is remove this bolt right here. Just keep in mind that when you remove this bolt, there isn't really going to be very much holding this control arm in. It's going to take a little bit of work to get it out of there, we're probably going to use some pry bars, but first thing we're gonna do is remove this. So, just be very careful in case it swings down. Now, we're just going to try to get this adjustment point off of the shank that comes through the center.

Okay. So, now, we can move this around fairly freely, and that's great. The only problem is this piece right here that goes through the center is stuck inside of that bushing. So, we're going to have to continue on by cutting this. Just like we cut the rearward bolt out, we're going to do the same thing. And I like to do the rearward side because the side on the front is a little bit shorter. And so, maybe we can just do one and then just kinda weasel this out There it is, friends.

Let's go ahead and get this control arm up in here. Just pay attention, the rearward bushing has a smaller hole than the forward bushing. So, line it up the way it needs to be. Go ahead and get it in there. And then we're going to start in the rearward bolt using the smaller of the bolts or a thinner. Now start in that skinnier bolt, that's the rearward one. Let's get the forward one in there. This is the one that's gonna have a bushing. So, you can go ahead and slide that through. If you want to use a little bit of copper never-seize, it's probably a good idea. I usually just kind of spray it on there ahead of time. Start that through. When you have these adjusters, they go facing up. So, don't put it this way.

Let's get this adjuster on here, then, of course, our locking nut. If you're reusing old stuff, you'd probably want to go ahead and either replace the nut or at least at minimum, use some thread locker. Let's go ahead and lift this up. We're going to line this up. You might need to push this. Now, when you grab your bolt, it's going to come through from the rear to the front, and then you're going to use a washer and then, of course, your locking nut. Let's go ahead and get this back on there now. Make sure that your ball joint stud is straight up and down. Also, you want to make sure that the cotter pin hole is going straight from front to back of the vehicle. Slide this up. I'm gonna start in both my bolts before I try to tighten any of them down. All right. Let's bottom these out. Go back and forth. Let's grab the ball joint nut. Can see it's a castle nut. You're going to have your cotter pin that's going to go through. So, it needs to line up with that hole. We're gonna go ahead and bottom this out and then we'll continue on by torquing everything to manufacturer specifications. Let's go ahead and torque this to 103 foot-pounds. Now that it's torqued, check the hole to make sure it's lined up. If you can't get your cotter pin through, you need to continue tightening until you can. Slide that cotter pin through and then make sure that you peen it over so there's no way this nut can come loose. Now, we're going to torque these to 118 foot-pounds. The next thing you want to do is jack up right under here to bring it up to close to a ride height level. And then we're going to go ahead and snug these up.

The next thing you're going to do is grab the forward portion of this bolt and you're going to turn it so this is facing straight up and down. Just like that. At that point, you're going to go to the rearward side and snug up that rearward nut. Just keep watching, make sure you didn't fall out of anywhere. Want it to be as close to centered as possible. That looks fair. And that's going to help get us down to the alignment shop. Do the same to the rear. Let's get that one so it's lined up centered as well. All right. That's bottomed out. Let's snug this up. Now, we're going to torque this lower shock bolt to 61 foot-pounds. Let's torque these to 100 foot-pounds. Torqued. Let's relieve tension here. Now, if you were like us and you had to cut out your cam bolts, you're going to replace them. The ones that we got, of course, have the grease fittings on them, so we're going to make sure that we put those in, and then we're going the add the lubricant that's needed to go into it. Let's just go ahead and pump these up with grease. So, we have everything put back together and torqued down. We have the alignment areas set dead center. At this point, what you would want to do, of course, is to get the wheel back on there, torque it down, and then get it down to a reputable service station where, of course, you'd get the alignment done. The process to do the other side control arm would be the exact same as doing this side.

Let's put our shield up on here. You have your mounting areas on these plates. If you want to hit them with some copper never-seize, it's not a bad idea. Okay. We're cruising. Let's get the wheel back up on here. Let's go ahead and bottom out all the lug nuts. Okay. Now, we're going to do the same to the other side and then we're going to torque them to manufacturer specifications. All right. Let's go ahead and torque the wheel in a criss-cross pattern to 83 foot-pounds. Torqued.

Once your vehicle is raised and supported safely, you're gonna remove all six lug nuts. This one has a wheel lock key.

Let's go ahead and spray these nuts that are holding the sway bar link on.

I'm just gonna use some locking pliers right in here. Try to hold onto this.

Now we're gonna remove the nut using a 17-millimeter. Let's get this off of here.

Once that's free, we're going to do the same to the other side right down here.

There it is.

Now it's gonna be time to install the sway bar link. You want to pay special attention to the fact that it has a long stud and a shorter stud. The long stud will go through the knuckle.

Of course, when you put it through, you'd want to go ahead and put this on first, nice little washer like that. Then, you're going to put it through. Something I also like to point out is this little metal ring right along here that's holding the boot to the shaft. You're gonna hold this right here using an 18-millimeter. And once you tighten this up, you might push on that little ring and pop the boot off. If you do, you just need to put it back on, because if water gets in there, it's gonna mess up your sway bar link prematurely.

Slide it right through the knuckle. I'm gonna put my washer on my other one, get them both lined up here. Maybe I'll start with a lower one. It should go through just like that. We've got our two locking nuts. Go ahead and start both of those on. Then we're going to bottom these out.
I'm gonna use my 18-millimeter wrench. Grab right onto this right here. 18-millimeter socket, snug this up.

Okay. Get my wrench out of there. That looks good. Do the same to the lower one.

Let's torque this to 52 foot-pounds. Nice.

Okay, we're cruising. Let's get the wheel back up on here.

And, of course, get all your lug nuts on, and start it.
Let's go ahead and bottom out all the lug nuts.

All right. Let's go ahead and torque the wheel in a crisscross pattern to 83 foot-pounds. Torqued.

Once your vehicle is raised and supported safely, you're gonna remove all six lug nuts. Now that the wheel's out of the way, let's continue on by removing this right here. Just pull that down. It depends on how far you wanna go to get it out of your way. That looks pretty decent for now. That exposes the nut right here. We're gonna spray this with some penetrant, and it comes all the way up, and it comes through to this point. So it's something that you're gonna wanna pay attention to is if you're gonna be able to clear your body. If you're not gonna be able to clear the body, there's gonna have to be some special maneuvering involved.

The next thing we're gonna do is use a 19-millimeter wrench. We're gonna come right up here on this bolt, and you're gonna use your 19-millimeter socket and whatever you have. If you have an air gun that you can get in there or a ratchet, remove this nut. This should move around freely. If it doesn't, just try to spray it down and work it until it does. Paying attention to this area right here, where the bolt's gonna come out, you might notice that you're gonna have this issue, where it seems as though it's gonna hit. There's gonna be something that you can do, you could try to pry on this right here and pull this away. Just pay special attention to any flaking or scraping. If you scrape the metal in any way that takes off the paint, I would just of course clean it off the area and then hit it with some undercoating, just so you could prevent the damage from rust and all that.

Okay, this is gonna keep coming out. If you were to feel behind here, there's gonna be wires that run from here to here. These are just clipped in. Let's go ahead and push those out and give ourselves a little bit more room here. So I've got that so it's pulled out of the way. Just make sure you put it someplace that that's gonna be easy to remember. The last thing you wanna do is leave this unsecured. Okay, at this point, we're gonna leave it right where it is because we know it's doing good. Let's move along to getting the rest of this stuff out of the way. So when we're doing this job, I usually like to start with the separate bolt because, generally speaking, this is the one that's gonna cause issue not wanting to come out. Once I'm sure that it's gonna be ready to come out, I'll continue on with removing everything else.

Let's get this locking clip off of here. Just take your pocket screwdriver, grab underneath the ear, pull it away, and then draw this out. I'll show you what I'm talking about. That's what it looks like. So I came in with my flat head, I pulled this away, and then I pulled out the cotter pin. The next thing I wanna do is remove this bolt right here. I just wanna be careful because usually they freeze up inside the control arm. Got it. That gives us plenty of slack right there. If you feel like you need more, you can take off the bracket that comes down here as well.

The next thing we're gonna do is remove the nut from the sway bar link so we can get this off of here. Just try to pull the stud. Awesome, now we have a nice, clear view and an access area to get this nut off. Let's get this nut off of here. I like to take my nut. I'll just start it on there, just a couple threads. That's gonna prevent this from falling down once this breaks free. Let's go ahead and bonk right on the knuckle right here. I'm just gonna try to break this free from each other. All right, that's enough. Take off that nut. You should be able to lift this up and carefully pull this aside. Now when you do this, you wanna be careful not to put a tug on your ABS wire, leave a little bit of slack, and of course your brake hose as well. So let's kind of put this aside and we can move along. Let's try this bolt out of here, wiggle the control arm around as needed.

Okay, awesome. All right, so we have our nice, new control arm. We compared it to the other one to make sure we have the right side of the vehicle because if you have it backwards, it's gonna obviously cause major issues. Let's go ahead and line this up in here. We're gonna grab our bolt. If you drop the washer, just make sure you put that back on there as well. We're gonna put it through the hole on the control arm first and then we'll kind of line everything up and slide it right on through. If you wanted to use a little bit of copper never seize, it's probably a great idea, but only do it on the smooth part of the shaft, not necessarily on the threaded area.

Let's go ahead and get this washer on there. Start on that nut. Let's hold this side with our 19-millimeter wrench. Go ahead and snug this one up. The next thing we need to do is torque down the nut right here, so let's hold the bolt side with our 19-millimeter once again, and we're gonna torque this to 85 foot-pounds. Torqued. Let's go ahead and pull this over. We're gonna try to pull down on your control arm. If you can't get it far enough down, well, don't get too worried. We'll use a pry bar and use some leverage. Use your 19-millimeter socket and snug this up. Let's torque this to 81 foot-pounds. Once it's torqued, you need to make sure that your castle nut portion lines up with the cotter pin hole. If it does not, you need to continue tightening until it does. That looks pretty great. Let's get our cotter pin in there. Slide that through and lock it in.

The next thing we're gonna do is put in this little bolt to hold this in. If you wanna use a little copper never seize, it's probably a great idea. Go ahead and snug that up. Okay, bonged out. A teeny bit more, that's great. Let's get the sway bar link back into the knuckle. Make sure you put on your washer first, just like that. It's easy to forget. We're gonna line this up, start in the nut, just like that. And then of course, now is a great time to go over and do the same on the other side before you snug this up. Go ahead and hold that. We're just gonna bottom this out and then we'll torque it to 52 foot-pounds. Take a quick look up here, make sure the paint hasn't scraped away. If it has, just go ahead and give it a little spray.

Don't forget about this wire right there. Make sure you re-secure that, you push it right through, just like that. Give it a nice tug. This feels great. Now we're gonna continue on by putting this back up here. Just put in all your little push clips where you took them out from. That looks great. We'll do the same thing over here. Now the process for this would be the same on the other side of the vehicle. Okay, we're cruising. Let's get the wheel back up on here. And of course, get all your lug nuts on and start it. Let's go ahead and bottom out all the lug nuts. Okay, now we're gonna do the same to the other side and then we're gonna torque them to manufacturer's specifications. All right, let's go ahead and torque the wheel in a crisscross pattern to 83 foot-pounds. Torqued.