Ball Joint Spacers; Yes or No?

[Chapman88SR5]

Whats the deal? I have searched about Ball Joint Spacers and get mixed reviews. Are they good or no? I want to lift my runner at least 3" and I figured this would be one way to get an inch and a half. But now I am not sure :yikes:

This is what I planned on doin for the front:

Ball Joint Spacers
26mm torsion bars
Low profile bump stops
New Shocks
Total Chaos Chromoly Idler Arm

[slosurfer]

I have them and like them very much. They will put more strain on the steering, but no more than cranking your tbars. I wouldn't suggest cranking your tbars with the bjspacers, unless you are just doing it for looks. YOu should definately get some manual hubs to help with the wear of the cv boots. Idler arm brace or TC idler arm are a must. I just have the idler arm brace which has kept my arm straight, but you will still wear out your idler arm bushings faster than normal. They are a cheap and easy fix and will become part of my routine maintenance (maybe once a year, I am going to do this soon and I will see how long they last). Study up on how your alignment works, there is a very good article in the general tech section for this. Knowing how your alignment is adjusted will help you find a good place for aligning your vehicles. Some places don't know much beyond setting the toe.

Keep your stock droop bumpstops (these are the upper ones that limit how far your UCA comes down) you may even have to shim them to keep from ripping your cv boots. Low pros on the compression bumpstops are fine. I just ran them at DV and they were awesome, but now I need to add a 1" body lift because I get more rubbing now at full stuff and turning.

No one lift is perfect, they all have their pros and cons. The important thing is knowing what you are getting yourself into. Knowing what parts to keep an eye on and what to knowing as much as possible about your suspension and steering.

I have found them to be great, and I have wheeled with them on dunes, washboards, high speed desert(well high speed for a 3.slo), hard trails, and long road trips (CA to MN, plus a week wheeling in CO). IN the end it all comes down to doing your homework. Some people have ripped tons of cv boots, but when I asked them if they checked for binding at full droop, I got the deer in the headlights look. They are tearing boots because at full droop, the inner joint is making contact with the boot and ripping it. The solution is shimming your droop stops or adding bigger ones. This is in the instructions for bj spacers but it seems like it is skipped over because it is supposed to work with your stock droop stops. My case was that the passenger side was fine and my driveside needed to be shimmed, don't know why and we couldn't figure it out but that is the way it is.

[Chapman88SR5]

Could I crank the 26mm torsion bars or do those need to be cranked? Not quite sure how they work.

[garrett]

someone needs to get axleike over here...

[Euphorickaty80]

I have never had any but from what i hear they are a good for a moderate lift but make sure that you get an alignment afterwards.....

[Chapman88SR5]

I was aware of needing an alignment after the spacers but what is the deal with Torsion bars and not being able cranking them? Can you crank the 26mm or do you have to?

[callmej75]

You can crank the 26mm bars...but its going to put your cv's at an angle and give you a stiff ride up front. The bj spacers allow for a lift, and take care of not having to crank tbars to alleviate the stress on cv's and provide a more comfortable ride..

[Robinhood4x4]

The whole idea of the BJ spacers is so you don't have to crank the tbars. Your CVs will only endure about 1.5" of lift, after than you'll be cracking boots or breaking CVs if you wheel.

If you want to go higher than 1.5" then you'll have to go with a bracket lift.

If you just want the look, then do the 1.5" BJs and then a 1.5" body lift.

[Chapman88SR5]

I don't just want the look, thats just a perk. What type of bracket lift are you talking about?

[AxleIke]

someone needs to get axleike over here...


LOL, well, you asked for it, you may come to regret that...

Well, as far as the questions go, it's been pretty well covered:

You can crank all you want. The higher you go, the more likely things are to have problems, but this is true for anything.

Your ride will suffer, but some folks don't mind that. I mean, if you just want lift, you might be better with a bracket lift, as that will get you high, and keep angles good.

[Chapman88SR5]

I still am not sure what a bracket lift is?

And I was also planning on installing a Diff drop along with the spacers and torsion bars.

[AxleIke]

bracket lifts are the superlift type: a subassembly that is bolted into your current lower arm brackets, and drops your diff, lower arms and axles about 4 inches, giving you more lift.

[amgraham]

Some people have ripped tons of cv boots, but when I asked them if they checked for binding at full droop, I got the deer in the headlights look. They are tearing boots because at full droop, the inner joint is making contact with the boot and ripping it. The solution is shimming your droop stops or adding bigger ones. This is in the instructions for bj spacers but it seems like it is skipped over because it is supposed to work with your stock droop stops. My case was that the passenger side was fine and my driveside needed to be shimmed, don't know why and we couldn't figure it out but that is the way it is.


How exactly did you find the binding on the CV? Was it obvious when you looked at it and spun the axle at full droop? I'm just curious what it looks like...

[slosurfer]

How exactly did you find the binding on the CV? Was it obvious when you looked at it and spun the axle at full droop? I'm just curious what it looks like...


Exactly, at full droop, tire removed on my driverside when I would lock the hubs and turn the axle by rotating the hub, I could feel it get kind of tough to turn, I could force it to turn without much force, but you could tell that it wasn't turning as easy. YOu may not notice it as much if the tire is still on and you are rotating the tire, because you can put more spinning torque by turning the tire. When it binds like that and you force it, it will pinch the boot and put a little hole in it. Eventually that one hole will open into a big tear. I want to be clear that the "binding" isn't the type of binding that will tear apart the actual joint, it will still turn, but the angle of the joint opens up and pinches the boot.

[amgraham]

Gotcha. That's what I figured. I might do some spacers soon so I'll be sure to check that. Thanks!

[norcalsvx]

i run the BJ spacers with OME torsions (not as stiff as the 26mm) and i wheel it a few times a week without any problems

[91ToyTrck]

I was thinking about some BJ spacers for my truck as well. It's good to know what to check for when installing these parts.

What if I wasn't using 1.5" bj spacers? Could I run low pro droop stops? Everyone always assumes 1.5" is all anyone is using, but I'm only netting about 1.5" lift for the rear and probably going .5" or 1" bj sacer instead of the 1.5". These are just things that came to mind. I have already purchased droop and compresion low pros because I'm all stock at the moment.

[norcalsvx]

keep the droops stock and use the low pro bumps

[91ToyTrck]

sounds good. a few extra dollars I can spend somewhere else.

[DEATHRUNNER]

What type of bracket lift are you talking about?


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/86-96-Toyota-pickup-4-inch-lift-kit-Rough-Country_W0QQitemZ160124575784QQihZ006QQcategoryZ33 585QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://i10.ebayimg.com/05/i/08/97/eb/9e_2.JPG

[Red3.slow]

I use them and I like them just fine. I have ball joint spacers, 1 inch diff drop, relaxed T-bars, OME spring and 2.5 inch coil spacers. I like it and it works well what I'll do next is going to be a bracket lift or SAS.

[elripster]

Aw man, I now belong to yet another bbs. :D I'll never get anything done now...

I'll introduce myself. My name is Frank and I co-own SDORI. I designed the ball joint spacers.

Well, most everything has been covered very well by Slosurfer and the rest. The only clarification which is probably not necessary that I could add is the relation between adding spacers and simply adjusting torsion bars.

Adding stiffer bars does not add lift. You have to adjust them for the desired lift exactly the same way you would your stock bars. All they do is stiffen the suspension. There are cases where this is desirable. For example, you have installed a heavy bumper and winch or you like to jump a lot. For those of us on trails trying to squeeze as much flex out of our IFS as we can, stiffer torsion bars are the last thing we want.

Ball joint spacers do more than just lift. They open the suspension's window of travel 1.5" too. To contrast this with simply adjusting the torsion bars, when you adjust the bars, you get lift but no gain in overall travel. You simmply sacrifice the amount the wheel can drop for the amount the wheel can compress. With ball joint spacers, you can have 1.5" of lift without sacrificing any down travel. They also soften the ride a bit.

Frank's views on bracket type lifts: I had the Trailmaster on my 89 4runner for like 6 years. I had to remake the rear a-arm mounts because I snapped one on the trail. There are pros and cons.

The pros I saw were that with the BJ spacers, and I'm not lying here, I had about 13" of travel. I did this by making custom bumpstop brackets out of 1.5" aluminum square. When flexing on the trail, I'd typically get about 7" of that travel because the stock bars were too stiff for more. When I added air shocks to the front, I was able to reach about 9" of travel. Where it was nice is when I was hitting fire roads hard. I could catch some serious air without bottoming the suspension. I ran it with those bumpstop brackets from about a week after I installed it. It killed my OEM ball joints in about 4 months but the new ones lasted until the truck was stolen some time back (I have a '94 now). Likely that was because the original joints wore in around that narrow stock travel. When virgin metal entered the socket, it probably had worn a step and also had some corrosion which caused rapid wear. That would explain why I wheeled the crap out of the next set with out issue for many years.

The cons:

I went to the alignment shop a lot. Welding up the 3 piece design into one piece would have helped but still, they bend and shift. A burly skid plate is a must if you want to hit the rocks. I broke the driver's side rear a-arm lift bracket and made a new one out of .25" steel tubing. The lift gave me driveline vibes that were expensive to fix. There's a reason why they are 4" front and 3.5" rear lifts. I lifted the rear up to the front and had first a $450 driveshaft and when that didn't work, new pinion bearings (with gears) installed to cure the driveline vibes. However, with that setup I was able to reach 5.5" of lift (added my spacers up front)without vibes.

If you want a lot of travel out of them, it can be done but you have to modify the kit or you get a whopping zero increase in travel, just lift. When you do, expect to replace aging parts like ball joints.

So, like Slosurfer said, each lift has its pros and cons, you just have to figure what is best for you. I'm not going with anymore bracket lifts, I'm just doing spacers front/rear, going to add sliders, lockers, etc... I learned the first time I don't need to spend nearly as much dough for capability.

I try to keep up on the posting but when you have 4+ boards you can miss stuff so if I seem to come and go, that's why.

Frank

[slosurfer]

:coffee: :good: Hey Frank, welcome to UY! Lots of good info in there. We're lucky to have you here, so we can pick your brain. :thumbup:

[elripster]

Thanks! You know I like to talk trucks.

Frank

[Robinhood4x4]

Hey good to see you here Frank!