Lift help?!

[TheWhighet]

Hey guys so I got a 3 inch spacer in the front and I got my 33s put on yesterday they look great but the tire guy told me a couple things that made me uneasy.. First he said that if i flex its going to break my ball joints because there is literally like no space between that and the tire:

ALSO the tire dude said that after a few times of turning the 4wd my axle is going to break? WTF!! Please tell me he is talking out his ass...

My plan was to get 1.25-1.5 inch wheel spacers so that should fix the ball joint issue right? Also he basically said "You're gonna need to get a new axle" but I have messaged people running my lift and all they said was they got wheel spacers. Can you please shed some light on this topic? Atleast it looks cool....lol

 

[JayRolla]

Hey guys so I got a 3 inch spacer in the front and I got my 33s put on yesterday they look great but the tire guy told me a couple things that made me uneasy.. First he said that if i flex its going to break my ball joints because there is literally like no space between that and the tire:

ALSO the tire dude said that after a few times of turning the 4wd my axle is going to break? WTF!! Please tell me he is talking out his ass...

My plan was to get 1.25-1.5 inch wheel spacers so that should fix the ball joint issue right? Also he basically said "You're gonna need to get a new axle" but I have messaged people running my lift and all they said was they got wheel spacers. Can you please shed some light on this topic? Atleast it looks cool....lol

The UCA hitting tires won't make the upper ball joint fail. Just cut into tires. Spacers will fix this.

Now a 3" spacer for lift up front is bad idea. It pushes the suspension down. This causes stress on lower ball joint and tie rod ends causing them to overstretch and fail if you off-road hard. I had same spacer lift and ball joint failed causing tire to fall off and lots of damage. Good luck

 

[TheWhighet]

The UCA hitting tires won't make the upper ball joint fail. Just cut into tires. Spacers will fix this.



Now a 3" spacer for lift up front is bad idea. It pushes the suspension down. This causes stress on lower ball joint and tie rod ends causing them to overstretch and fail if you off-road hard. I had same spacer lift and ball joint failed causing tire to fall off and lots of damage. Good luck

Any idea why he said about "After a few times of turning your 4wd on your axle will break"? Thanks by the way! What would you recommend to replace the front lift? I do a lot of highway driving light offroading.

 

[zoombyu86]

Any idea why he said about "After a few times of turning your 4wd on your axle will break"? Thanks by the way! What would you recommend to replace the front lift? I do a lot of highway driving light offroading.

I'm looking into the Tundra/TRD or Tundra/eibach lift up front. From what I've seen, the Tundra/Eibach will yield 3".

 

[KaliKid]

Any idea why he said about "After a few times of turning your 4wd on your axle will break"? Thanks by the way! What would you recommend to replace the front lift? I do a lot of highway driving light offroading.

Did you put in a diff drop? Should correct the problem with the CV angle. As far as breaking them... An IFS rig will break CVs regardless of angle, etc but with the added stress of the spacer lift you are more likely to break this. I would be more worried about LBJs than a CV tho. Be careful....

 

[TheWhighet]

Did you put in a diff drop? Should correct the problem with the CV angle. As far as breaking them... An IFS rig will break CVs regardless of angle, etc but with the added stress of the spacer lift you are more likely to break this. I would be more worried about LBJs than a CV tho. Be careful....

No I did not. I'm going to order one right now does Toytec sell that separately? I see Revtec has a differential drop spacer kit that in the reviews people said were a perfect fit for their 98 4runner, same year as mine.

 

[KaliKid]

No I did not. I'm going to order one right now does Toytec sell that separately? I see Revtec has a differential drop spacer kit that in the reviews people said were a perfect fit for their 98 4runner, same year as mine.

Yeah Toytec has one, Revtec has one, same exact thing. Its direct fit and will help your CV angle but wont prevent any damage, the 3" spacer will run train on your CVs so be prepared. Id buy a CV with a lifetime warranty at an auto parts store near by! Seriously look at your LBJs tho, look into replacing with Taco ones as they are beefier and wont break as easily. If you dont know what LBJ failure looks like look it up, scary shit.

 

[SpidermanGeek]

Seriously look at your LBJs tho, look into replacing with Taco ones as they are beefier and wont break as easily. If you dont know what LBJ failure looks like look it up, scary shit.

Beefy Taco LBJ is a bit of a myth from everything I've read on here. The 4Runner LBJ's are just as tough and won't sacrifice turning radius.

Just get Genuine OEM Toyota 4Runner LBJs and you'll be more than fine.

 

[KaliKid]

Beefy Taco LBJ is a bit of a myth from everything I've read on here. The 4Runner LBJ's are just as tough and won't sacrifice turning radius.

Just get Genuine OEM Toyota 4Runner LBJs and you'll be more than fine.

Not a myth, they actually are stronger than the OEM 4runner LBJs, also never had trouble turning not sure where you read that... If your going to replace why not get something stronger [MENTION=118836]SpidermanGeek[/MENTION] ?

 

[SpidermanGeek]

Not a myth, they actually are stronger than the OEM 4runner LBJs, also never had trouble turning not sure where you read that... If your going to replace why not get something stronger [MENTION=118836]SpidermanGeek[/MENTION] ?

Got a few hours to spare?
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/92427-ball-joints.html

Here's a sampling from the last page of that thread...

Some of the posts a couple of pages back, say the Taco BJ mod is not worth the loss of turning radius and that, in fact, the BJ is the same and the arm and OTRE are larger. It was also stated the TACO has similar failure stats to our 4R's. Anymore updates from the guys that did this mod?? First hand comments would be interesting! Thanks ahead for the time!!

what more reassurance do you need if the OEM 4runner ones go for 100k miles?

keep the turning radius and have the assurance that the OEM ones lasted majority of its owners 100k+ so changing them out for another set would be fine..

my 2 cents, i know you were specifically looking for comments from those who changed to taco BJs but before you consider that route consider that you are moving away from OEM BJs that did just fine its whole life till now..

all the BJs will fail at some point and the only way around it, is custom fab work to get them to the newer design where the BJ is on top instead of at the bottom which obviously isnt going to be worth it.

Yeah, sorry to chime in with another non-taco LBJ user, but the fundamental problem with the LBJ is the design (paired with the design of the knuckle), which is exactly the same for the Taco, so the actual problem is neither solved nor improved by going with the Taco LBJ. Sure you'll get beefier TRE's, but those aren't the problem, and aren't really failing with any kind of frequency (Of course they wear out eventually, but not as frequently as the LBJ's, and not in a way that the taco ones wear less). You don't get actual improvement if you don't improve the weakest link.

 

[MStudt]

Not a myth, they actually are stronger than the OEM 4runner LBJs, also never had trouble turning not sure where you read that... If your going to replace why not get something stronger [MENTION=118836]SpidermanGeek[/MENTION] ?

No, it's a complete myth. Toyota did a recall on both the 4runner, and Tacoma LBJ's. So there's no advantage to getting the Tacoma LBJ's.

 

[KaliKid]

[MENTION=98153]MStudt[/MENTION] when looking at the ball joint arm side by side where most failures are the Taco one has more girth than the 4runner one... as far as LBJ failures go I can see them both failing.
[MENTION=118836]SpidermanGeek[/MENTION] Got a few hours to spare? haha nope and in regards to turning radius I had these on my 02 with tie rods and did not experience any difference. Maybe that is in regards to a stock setup?

Anyway, OP do what you want but I would look at replacing LBJ sooner than later if it hasnt been done since the spacer lift.

 

[Fishwerks]

The UCA hitting tires won't make the upper ball joint fail. Just cut into tires. Spacers will fix this.

Now a 3" spacer for lift up front is bad idea. It pushes the suspension down. This causes stress on lower ball joint and tie rod ends causing them to overstretch and fail if you off-road hard. I had same spacer lift and ball joint failed causing tire to fall off and lots of damage. Good luck

I'm trying to understand how a spacer pushing the suspension down is any different than what a coilover does? Lifting the truck pushes the suspension down, no matter what you use to do it.

Now, I would say a spacer is a bad idea because it will ride like a dump truck on your old shitty front suspension (quote taken from [MENTION=82211]TCMach[/MENTION]).


OP - your tire guy sucks.

 

[JayRolla]

I'm trying to understand how a spacer pushing the suspension down is any different than what a coilover does? Lifting the truck pushes the suspension down, no matter what you use to do it.

Now, I would say a spacer is a bad idea because it will ride like a dump truck on your old shitty front suspension (quote taken from [MENTION=82211]TCMach[/MENTION]).


OP - your tire guy sucks.

That extra few inches in lift you get causes that additional droop. Causing cv's to bind, ball joints to stretch and stuff fail. I dont need to explain something that is been beaten to death. Research I guess.

 

[MStudt]

[MENTION=98153]MStudt[/MENTION] when looking at the ball joint arm side by side where most failures are the Taco one has more girth than the 4runner one... as far as LBJ failures go I can see them both failing.

First off the failure is not the arm. The failure is the studded ball, and receiving socket. I have never seen nor heard of the arm breaking, and that has never been the topic of LBJ's. The failure is, and always will be the actual studded ball pulling out of the socket.

So again, the Beefy Taco LBJ's being stronger is a complete myth. The fact that you can't read a thread that someone provided you with is stupid. That thread would put your thinking of the beefy taco LBJ's to rest.

These beefy Taco UBJ's now have me thinking about real beefy taco's.

 

[THatfield]

These beefy Taco UBJ's now have me thinking about real beefy taco's.

mmmm tacos.

I agree with doing your LBJ's as soon as possible. It's a fairly easy job. Took me and my dad about 2 hours on one side and then I did the other side in about 45 minutes. Got to buy a new tool (tie rod puller) when I did the job too so that's always good too!

 

[JayRolla]

Not a myth, they actually are stronger than the OEM 4runner LBJs, also never had trouble turning not sure where you read that... If your going to replace why not get something stronger [MENTION=118836]SpidermanGeek[/MENTION] ?

Ive seen Tundra's and Tacos with failed ball joints just like ours. MYTH and loss of turning radius.

 

[KaliKid]

Alright Alright ALRIGHT, I GET IT! Myth

 

[Fishwerks]

That extra few inches in lift you get causes that additional droop. Causing cv's to bind, ball joints to stretch and stuff fail. I dont need to explain something that is been beaten to death. Research I guess.

I guess I wasn't thinking in terms of droop when you said it pushes the suspension down.

Assuming the shock travel is the same I can see how the spacer would cause droop past the normal shock travel since it isn't using any of the shock to lift, where a coilover would be at the travel limit. Makes sense.

 

[Dubk_trd]

those spacer lift puts too much stress on the LbJ . My tundra had the same setup and the lbj failed and rip the whole axle, hub wheel ,brake hose, off and damage the fender. Good thing i was just rolling thru a parking lot when it failed on me. i seen pictures of this happening during highway speed. to be safe just get a real lift asap .