truckmike26

I got mine from Fat Bob's Garage. A kit's available -- spacers, diff/sway drop kit, shocks -- or available seperately.

I put my sway bar back ON a few months ago. Wow. What a difference in the way the truck feels. I took it off 14 years ago and it was hanging in the garage since. It absolutely limits travel off road when crawling but for on/off road high speed running, it really tightens up the handling. Best of both worlds is a disconnect system.

jbuck07

Sweet. Are the drop brackets necessary? What do they do? Im tryin figure all this out because i wanna do this same lift for mine.....

jbuck07

I did some lookin on fat bob's garage and they got eveything. I just have a few questions:
The diff drop kit; is it fairly easy to put on?
And, since my torsion bars have never been messed with, if i try to crank them, will they break because they're so old?

drew303

cranking the torsion bars doesnt stiffen them it just changes the leverage the A-arms have on them. When you turn em and lift the truck the arms have less leverage on the bar which is where you get your "stiff" ride feeling.

analogy; your under your truck (on your back looking straight up) and trying to loosen a bolt, if your staring straight up at the bolt, you put the wrench on it vertical (handles pointing straight to the ground [your head]), youre gonna have less leverage vs puting the wrench on the bolt horizontaly or parallel with the ground. Allowing you to push straight up (or reverse the handle to the otherside of the bolt) and use your weight to pull down. Either way youre still using the same wrench on the same bolt, just positioned differently. Same as a torsion bar, you cant change it's spring rate, only how the A arms are gonna put the weight of the truck onto that bar and make it twist.

But no, they wont break because you turned them.

The drop kit is simple, its two cylinderical pieces of milled metal you place inbetween the dif's mounts and the mounts on the frame. The front mount of the differential housing is left alone and self supports the dif while you do this process so no jack is required (tho it may make it easier to lift the dif once the mounting bolts are removed). Simply remove the old bolts from both mounts, let the diff fall.. slip in the spacers, bolts, nuts and tighten. done.

drew303

I had a set of 1.5 spacers i got from 4crawler years and years ago.

I dont know if its already been mentioned in this thread or not but something i always see failed to be mentioned in Balljoint spacer threads is that spacers cause the upper and lower arms to no longer be parallel.

This causes a few problems.... First off, it directly effects the steering. No longer are your outer tierods traveling with the suspension without binding, as the the tire travels up/down the tierod will be forced inward, it causes a toe in/out ..toes in at full droop and goes out as it up travels because of the non symetrical suspension arms. This isnt a big deal if the other tire is free to push out by the opposite side of the suspenion independently traveling.

In the real world, the steering binds and the idler arm takes the energy and bends instead of forcing the opposite tire (or both tires) to toe in and out as they want to. The solution to this is a beefed up idler arm (expensive) but thats why they make them.With the idler arm no longer the weak link itll force the tires to toe in/out as the suspension travels.

Second, camber now changes as the suspension travels, pos/neg... the tires camber will do this pattern as they travel ) ( ... this is directly related to why the steering tierods will push in and out as the suspension travels causing that toe in/out... and binding.

Tho the camber isnt that big of a deal it can cause weird tire wear and cupping. More importantly to know tho when you're INSTALLIG the balljoin spacers AND adjusting the torsion bars.......

is its inperetive to set your ride height exactly where you want it. so SET those torsion bars and make sure you're happy with where there at BEFORE you get the front end re aligned. The shop will reset camber at that ride setting to zero for you, if you then RE ADJUST the bars, you'll throw your camber out.

IT's best to leave the torsion bars at stock so dont even touch them and be happy with the 1.5" lift you just got.

goodluck have fun and save for a SAS

abecedarian

It's been mentioned several times that I can recall (by me, by the way).

Well, actually a big deal if you consider "whoops" where both front wheels compress and extend quasi-equally.

When you compress the front equally, both wheels will "toe out", meaning the left wheel will turn more left and the right wheel will turn more right, and when you unload or extend, both wheels will "toe in", meaning the left wheel will turn more right, and the right wheel will turn more left (think "cross-eyed").

Nearly every shock I've used has soft compression and hard extension valving so the tires will wear more on the inside than the outside edge.

I think, in the real world, the steering gear / drag link and idler arm take the energy and transfers it back to the relay rod. The problem is the steering gear is stronger than the idler arm (and the frame rail the idler bolts too) so something has to flex and give.

Keep in mind the suspension will toe in and out as necessary. It's the toe in/out (what some like to call "bump" steer) that puts stress on the tie rods, which in turn stress the relay rod and idler / drag links.

But this is mostly irrelevant with "on-road" vehicles, moderately relevant to mild off-road like sand or such, but extremely relevant to technical vehicles where wheels experience sudden changes in terrain such as rock climbing or high-speed desert where a vehicle, whether at speed or not, suddenly has to put torque to one wheel or another.

An experienced driver will respond to feedback through the steering wheel and cope / adjust with adjusting steering or throttle to minimize issue.

I disagree: it's best to reset your ride height back to stock (or where it was before the spacers) and be happy with the increased travel you just got.

If you really must use your BJ spacers for lift, and are 4wd, at least make sure your front CV's can handle it either by fitting any one of the few joints for it or doing a front differential drop.





Nice commentary, by the way, drew303.

drew303

well we're on the same page Abe! lol

for what its worth, all opinion here but I hated my BJ spacers! Ill never use them again, I sold the ones I had. that being said both my toys are solid axles. haha

abecedarian

no worries; no probs.

jbuck07

Wow, Thats alot of info. some of which im not familiar with. Im not THAT mechanically inclined.....
When i did some more research i did find that the CV axles will tend to bind. So, if i dont crank my torsion bars, will i still experience binding with my tie rods?
Also, i have a 3 inch body lift. Will the additional suspension lift cause any problems through out?

jbuck07

Basicaly, this is my everyday driver witht the exception of gettin off road every now and then. Nothin too crazy like rock crawling. Im just lookin to get a few more inches of lift. Thats all