o all, I'm new to the forum and have a couple questions regarding my 1992 Toyota

[ocsnakeremoval]

Hello all, I'm new to the forum and have a couple questions regarding my 1992 Toyota 4x4 Ex cab. I recently purchased this truck and do some off roading, nothing crazy though. I want to level the truck out or have the front end just a bit higher 1-2''. What is my best bet here, do I lower the rear end or do I get a small front end lift. I want it to keep its stock ride as much as possible and do something the is most cost effective. Thanks!

[CJM]

Cost effective is to raise your torsion bars very slightly. It will affect the ride as the more you raise them, the harder the frontend will ride. They are basically giant springs. 1 inch will probably level the truck and you really wont notice the difference. Its a totally free adjustment except for the rust you need to get off to free the bolts that raise/lower these.

Other options are

1. Get smaller rear shackles. Shorter they are than factory the lower the rear will be. This will cost money and will take a bit of work to make the right ones.

2. balljoint spacers, which require you to cut the top suspension arms on the front and fit them in there. But they raise the truck high enough to fit 33 inch tires and you need longer shocks.

[ocsnakeremoval]

Thanks for the info, I forgot to mention I did raise it a bit with the torsion bars, about an inch but the rear still seems at least 1'' higher. Maybe I will go with shackles...

[CJM]

Shackles would probably be the easiest overall.

[ocsnakeremoval]

What if I installed 1.5'' front ball joint spacers? That with a slight torsion bar raise would do the trick? Also If I did that would I need to install the differential drop as well so less tension would be on the tie rods and CV joint, etc...??? Or would the Differential drop not be necessary because its only a 1.5'' joint spacer?



Here is the link to the Joint spacers and Differential drop kit. Its 99.00 for the one and 29.00 for the other....

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/BallJointSpacer.shtml

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/DiffDrop.shtml

[ocsnakeremoval]

Also I have Rancho 700's on the truck now...Not sure the length but they might possibly be long enough????

[slosurfer]

I wouldn't worry about the diff drop. Just get the bj spacers and don't crank the tbars any more or even uncrank them just a bit. It's not a bad thing to have the back end slightly higher than the front on a truck, because once you load it up then it sits level.

Welcome to uy! :thumbup:

[ocsnakeremoval]

Thanks for the info. If I decide to go with the shackles does anyone know which ones I could go with??? I'm having a hard time finding proper ones...

Also, if I do the BJ spacers is the cutting a bad idea? Does it have a lot of negatives?

Which do most people prefer here... Shackles or BJ spacers?

SOrry for all the questions ;-)

[corax]

Out of the 2 options, I would definately go with the BJ spacers. I have never heard of anyone lowering a truck using short-than-factory leaf spring shackles - won't a shorter shackle run out of travel and not let the spring extend (flatten) fully? effectively stopping the spring while it still has some arch to it and making it distort into a well rounded w shape or just stopping uptravel completely (and arch is difficult to compress). Unless someone else has done the geometry to be able to prove otherwise . . . besides, I don't think anyone makes a short-than-factory shackle.


BTW, OCSnakeRemoval - Welcome to the site :D

[CJM]

^ that is possible depending on how much your shorten it. I was thinking no more than 1 inch would work.

Personally a set of balljoint spacers will lift the front to level the back-but even so the front may be higher than the rear still. However adjusting the torsions and lowering them down may alleviate that.

You can get ball joint spacers at toytec lifts, good people to deal with. Or you can contact the maker 4Craweler offroad and get them there as well.

[slosurfer]

The amount of cutting you have to do in the upper arm for the bj spacers is minimal and doesn't hurt it structurally.



You can get ball joint spacers at toytec lifts, good people to deal with. Or you can contact the maker 4Craweler offroad and get them there as well.


Actually bj spacers are made by www.sdori.com (http://www.sdori.com) but you can buy them from the ones listed above as well. All are good businesses to work with, sdori and toytec both support the pismo jamboree. :thumbup:

[CJM]

^ Ya know Chris, I always wondered. Did Roger make them/create them or did SDORI? Or is it all the same???

[slosurfer]

Frank at SDORI makes them and the others sell them. From what I've seen and talking to him, he doesn't mind whether you buy them from him or the other sellers. He's a really cool dude. Also, all the businesses that I've seen that sell them are really good people to work with too, so you should be good buying them from any of them.

Roger's the only one I see who advertises doing them in custom sizes, but I imagine, most of those are made from cutting down the regular 1.5" ones. I think someone on here recently got some 1" ones from him.

[ocsnakeremoval]

Thanks to everyone for all replies. Looks like I will be going with the Bj spacers. Hopefully I will have the BJ spacers in the next couple days, I will post some pics after I get them on.

Don't think I'm going to put the Differential drop on... Most people seem to think its not necessary. If anyone thinks its a good idea to go with those as well, let me know.

Thanks again everyone!

[CJM]

Only thing the differential drop will help is if you really go overboard lifting the front and it will help knock the angle of the CV axles down a bit-thus they may not fail as early or at all from extreme angle the lift puts on them.

In reality I would put the BJ spacers on and then relax the torsions so the front matches the rear. Thus no issues with the CV axles.

[ocsnakeremoval]

Got the spacers today and am putting them on now. I will post a pick after. Thanks again for all the info.

[ocsnakeremoval]

So I have the spacers in but something feels a bit off... I'm not sure if I need longer shocks or not... Here is a pic of the shock before I put the recommended washers in. What do you guys think? And if I do need new shocks can anyone recommend the size I will need. There is a small clanking sound when driving, is that cause my shocks are not tightened enough...? Again, sorry for the questions I'm just learning about all this stuff.


http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e53/tlavelle/0105001441.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e53/tlavelle/0105001635a.jpg

[Seanz0rz]

you need to pretty much get that nut as tight as you can, if not bottoming it out on the threads to keep those washers from clanging around.

id suggest longer shocks, but i have no idea what size. hopefully someone else can help you with that.

[Obi..]

*Probably too late for me to chime in here, but for anyone searching the ball joint spacer subject here goes..

If you go with just a 1" ball joint spacer on the 89-95 4wd vehicles, like my 4 Runner and this Xtra Cab, you need not always cut the upper arm. You merely have to tweak/massage the rear portion of the pocket around 1/8" with a small mallet to clear both the spacer as well as the washer and bolt heads.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4250603432_ec8338aba2_b.jpg

Again, in most cases, using just the 1" spacer, it will fit fine. Same for anything less than 1".

Roger has since updated his site to reflect this.
(*I just haven't looked for where he put the topic) and hopefully Frank is now also aware of this.

:D




id suggest longer shocks, but i have no idea what size. hopefully someone else can help you with that.


Loosen the top nut of the shock all the way. Raise the front of the truck until the upper arm is fully resting on the upper droop stop, remove the top nut if you have to. Measure the distance from the top of the upper shock housing to the base of the shock mount. Now, rotate your cv's by hand and check for binding, also doing so with the wheels at lock and lock, both ways. If there is no cv binding, the distance from the top of the shcok body to the base of the mount, plus 1/8' is the minnimal necessary amount needed to add to the shock extended length. If there is cv binding, you need to shim your bump and droop stops or get a driveshaft drop kit if you want the amount of lift you've dialed in.

IE: In the pic above, with my 4runner back to ride height and on the ground, even with the shock spaced, you can see there is 1/2" of the lower body now showing, meaning I need that 1/2", plus the 1/4" of spacer washers I used, or in other words, a 1" longer distance in shock extension.

Hopefully I said all that right, if not refer back to the directions your spacer kit came with.

[Obi..]

O/T..IMHO, put some fender lips back on that thing before you go out and have wiring shorts start happening. If you have a body lift and the old ones are too short, just find a set and recut some to fit. OSH has the 1/16" thick rubber mat and it works great. :D

[ocsnakeremoval]

when roating the CV joints by hand and checking for binding...Does that mean looking for a irregular spin or grinding in the joint when spinning? Thanks again guys!

[CJM]

Ya longer shocks would be ideal, if you can find a heavier duty shock like a rancho or bilstien or something for a stock suzuki samurai it fits perfect according to 4Crawler aka Roger Brown.

[slosurfer]

Old Man Emu shocks part# N98 work great with bj spacers. :thumbup:

[ocsnakeremoval]

Hey guys, Spacers and shocks in, everything is great and it looks great too! Got another question though :-) I got a smog test done today and the truck passed but the NO (PPM) was very high, MAX is 891 and My truck came in at 882... Any ideas on what that is caused from and is it something I should replace? Thanks again, this forum rocks!

[Obi..]

*Lets see pics of those shocks since I still have to finish ordering mine. :)


As for the NOx, was it a trustworthy shop you have dealt with before? Some places deliberately will foul things up in the hopes of getting additional labor out of you.

If yes, then check your vacuum lines first and foremost IMHO, too easy to have little non visible cracks around the junctions. then the EGR function if there are no vacuum leaks.

*3VZE?? Make sure there are no shorted wires of the two that are for the exhaust temp probe (the one just behind your power steering pump, then look into checking the EGR valve itself and if there's any crud in the vent filter. It comes apart and you can clean it all out. Just did one and it was dirty, and filled with a little water, when we blew into the pipe that goes around, the thing was plugged w/ rust. It seems that the pipe rusted, trapping what little condensation occurs from warmup in there and built up a nice little pond making things go all funny.

I don't want to overload you all at once, try this stuff first.

[ocsnakeremoval]

Thanks for the response. As for the shop, yes I have dealt with them many times before, smog only station too, he's a good guy. As for the tips, I will be checking the things you mentioned tomorrow and I will let you know. Thanks again for the response and tips!