Draglink and rubber boots

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Sifu-Lux
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Draglink and rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Anybody know of a supplier for the two rubber boots that protect the draglink balljoints
other than the Toyota stealer? Was quoted ~ R 500 a while ago.
Draglink4x4sfa_rubber.JPG
boot.JPG
boot.JPG (3.38 KiB) Viewed 22321 times
Last edited by Sifu-Lux on Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by ROOIWYN »

Andrew,
just replaced mine with the halfmoon kits as well as 2x ball joints, total cost: R 380-00.

One problem they are outside Pta, N1 4x4, tel. 012 - 545 0200. I know they will courier it.

Marius.
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Thanks Marius, will contact them.

How did you get the ball joints off the pitman arm and the knuckle arm? Are these pressed on?
Do you have to remove the pitman arm?

Time for a quick replacement procedure with pics hey!! :mrgreen:
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by ROOIWYN »

Andrew,
the work wasn't done by myself, work restraints, i had to ask a local engineering firm to replace them.
I do know that the original ball joints are pressed in and the pitman arm as well as the arm on the hub had to be removed, they struggled almost a full day to remove the pitman arm. DONT BRING ANY HEAT NEAR THE PITMAN ARM OR STEERINGBOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is where the engineering okes made a bugger up and I had to replace some seals on the box afterwards. The new ball joints were pressed in again and welded up for safety. All new again, the half moon kits can be fitted quick and easily.
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

As I thought, ball joint replacement is not an easy job.

My steering has been developing more and more play over the last year, so today I decided to check the adjustment on the draglink arm. Found that the splitpin was missing from the front pitman arm end. I adjusted the paly with a screwdriver, but couldn't adjsut deep enough to get a splitpin though the holes. Steering was much better, so I left it at that. Now looking at the workshop manual I seems that somebody worked on the draglink before and assembled it incorrectly. I will completley strip it next weekend and inspect it to see ow much wear there is on the ball and half moons.

Front and back assemblies are not the same. See below for interest to others:
draglink assembly.JPG
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Got a quote today from N1 4x4:

The halfmoon kits going for R110 + vat on a side
The L/H tie rod going for R190 + vat
The R/H tie rod going for R160 + vat

They don't have the rubber boots :( so its off to the stealer I suppose.
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by JohanM »

Andrew,

I bought my draglink kit and new boots for +/- R 300 - 00 incl vat from Toyota self, which i think was very resonable priced.... :wink:
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Thanks Johan, will phone them tomorrow. I asked for a price on the boots about 2 years ago,and they quoted me ~R450 for just the boots, which I thought was really excessive.
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by JohanM »

Its a pleasure Andrew!!!

Just a quick tip, when you replace the draglink, remember to retighten the balljoints after doing approx 1000 km's as I have found my steering to all of a sudden to feel like it has to much play, turned out it just needed to be re-tighten again!!! Now I must have the wheel alignment done on mine! :wink:
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Well, the steering draglink saga continues... :evil:

I phoned 3 Toyota branches to get prices on the rubber boots and ball stud seats
Branch 1: Rubber boot: ~R 229ea, Ball stud seat (1 half) ~R 96ea
Branch 2:Rubber boot: ~R 269ea, Ball stud seat (1 half) ~R 106ea
Branch 3:Rubber boot: Not on Microfische or ever existed according to parts guy,
Ball stud seat (1 half) ~R 106ea

Bloody expensive!

So today I decided to remove the draglink and strip it completely to inspect it.
Well,
Pitman end, completely wrongly assembled by somebody in the past, also minus the spring seat.
Draglink_pitman side.JPG
Draglink_pitman side.JPG (15.13 KiB) Viewed 22243 times
Knuckle end, all pieces there, and some extra, 2 x RSA 1 cent pieces as spacers Grrr :shock:
Draglink_knuckle side.JPG
Draglink_knuckle side.JPG (16.82 KiB) Viewed 22243 times
So, I need to make a new spring seat for the one side, and therefore I suppose I'll make a new one for the other side to. One thing I see, is that the springs are not the same length.

Can anybody tell me if : a) the springs are meant to be the same length
b) if not, and I have the correct springs, then how long must I make the new spring
seat?
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Toybox »

Hmmm, IIRC mine are both the same length. i had a lot play on my steering to i had longer springs made up by the local spring works. i hade them made 30mm long. no idea what the original length is....
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Family_Dog »

Andrew, not much help I'm afraid, but this seems to be all that my Ellery's Manual has to say.
Y-Series Draglink.jpg
There's no mention of different sized springs but they do say you should replace the ball-joints as a unit, supposedly in kit form?


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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Thanks guys. Maybe somebody will have some info.

On closer inspection just now, I see the one spring looks reasonably new, possibly made
to replace an old spring.

The knuckle end seems to have spent some time without any grease before I bought the
vehicle, as the ball seats, spring and inner walls of the draglink and quite corroded and pitted.
This would not have happened had this been greased regularly.

The ball seats don't look to badly worn ( at R106 x 4) I think I will re-use them. They will just need a light sanding on the outside with some water paper. The other parts I'll get one of my guys in the machine shop to make me some new parts.
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

You can get the parts on Aussy eBay here:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HILUX-STEERING-D ... 5001r12260

Quite reasonably priced, but the postage is the killer. Est $77 Aus :thumbdown:
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

After much searching of the web, I remembered somebody mentioning getting hub seal kits locally from
Gemini Parts. Well, I phoned them, and ended up buying a complete new draglink with all the parts
complete for R 450. :thumbup:

Got it today, and the quality looks good. Part is made by Hwang Yu. Co in Taiwan. www.hwangyu.com

So if Korean engines work, why not Taiwanese draglinks :mrgreen:
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Re: Draglink rubber boots

Post by Family_Dog »

Andrew,

Smart! Please take some photos of the replacement drag link as well as when you fit same and then post them here.


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Re: Draglink and rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Here are the parts - I disassembled the draglink tonight as because I am particular ( read anal :shock: ) about attention to detail, I will paint it properly before I fit it. It comes just metal blacked, so it will get surface rust after a while.

Just a point which I picked up on these draglinks - they all seem to wear the same, generally from lack of lubrication. BUT, even if you grease them regularly the grease does not get to all the places due to the fact that as you grease it through the nipple, it just works its way out through the rubber boot. Path of least resistance. I really recommed to everybody that you rather take the draglink off, strip it, clean all the parts
and the lube them individualy with grease and then re-assemble the whole link. Should not take more than 45 min.
Hwang Yu draglink Pitman side.JPG
Hwang Yu draglink Pitman side.JPG (12.01 KiB) Viewed 22176 times
Hwang Yu draglink Knuckle side.JPG
Hwang Yu draglink Knuckle side.JPG (12.34 KiB) Viewed 22175 times
Hwang Yu draglink assembly.JPG
Hwang Yu draglink assembly.JPG (8.24 KiB) Viewed 22176 times
Hwang Yu draglink part ID.JPG
Hwang Yu draglink part ID.JPG (7.04 KiB) Viewed 22176 times
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Re: Draglink and rubber boots

Post by Hiluxman »

On the SFA - it is far better to replace the balls with tie rod ends - and have a high tensile steel rod cut with threads in opposing directions for adjustment purposes. Mine runs on Isuzu KB350 joints
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Re: Draglink and rubber boots

Post by BenHur »

Arthur

Please give us more detail. Does the ball joints come in a pair with opposing thread. Do you have part numbers What is the length of the rod and tread sizes?

Cost Involved?

So by making it adjustable you can correct your steering on the drag link I presume?
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Re: Draglink and rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

Ah Arthur, too late...

Here's the new drag link painted, greased and fitted. Colour coded to match the OME shocks :D:
Hwang Yu draglink painted and fitted.JPG
Hwang Yu draglink painted and fitted.JPG (18.38 KiB) Viewed 22080 times
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Re: Draglink and rubber boots

Post by Sifu-Lux »

FYI for the future

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