joshuapc

Hey everyone out there with bj spacers
Im looking to get more flex and ride quality out my ifs without haveing to do an SAS. Places i off road arent radical enough where youll need an SAS. Its bumpy though and the cranked torsions make the ride stiff. ive read that the bj spacers are great and im looking toward them. i just wanna know how it reacts with a 4" lift and is it worth it?

THANKS!

elripster

They work fine with the 4" bracket style lifts. They improve flex just as they do in non-lifted trucks. The bracket lift will hurt your trail flex though so you won't see as much benefit as you would if you had BJ spacers and no lift.

Is it worth it... well that's subjective, can't help ya' there. I ran spacers with a 4" lift and liked them. Maybe some others will chime in.

Frank

trbizwiz

My truck had a T bar lift from the PO. i hated the ride quality, let alone taking it off road. It would flex about as much as a brick. I put on SDORI's Bj spacers, and softened the t bars and it is sweeeeeet. You can get em from 4 crawler and TRDparts I think those are the 2 dealers. Both are great I have worked with both.
i have no idea what kind of lift you have or how it would work with it. But just comming froma T bar lift to these, it will make you made you waited this long to do it.
Your shocks may require shims, there have been discussions about that. I bopught the OME N98's which appearantly dont need any. Something to do with travel and compression.
For less than $120 delivered to your door, it's worth a shot if you dont like what you have.
While your in there add grease zerks theu are 6mm 1.0 thread. My ball joints didnt have em so I picked some up from O'reiley's Auto, about $3.

a4runnerfreak

Well, you can get them Frank's site....SDORI. I've purchased coil spring spacers from him, and will buying his 1.5" BJ spacers in the future. Great person to do buisness with, and had my coil spacers in 3 days.

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

What size spacers?

elripster

Standard 1.5" spacers. When I designed the spacers my truck at that time had a bracket lift on it. Spacers work with the suspension differently than does the bracket lift so they compliment each other fine.

I'd say hit up our webpage and check out our vendors. They carry a lot more stuff which you may or may not need but it's worth a look.

Frank

87LVRunner

This thred has caught my eye. I'm going through my suspension now and came across the BJ spacer. I see it works with a 4 bracket lift, which is what I have. I'm not interested in more lift, but I like the idea of a little more travel and a softer ride. So, if I install these with a ProComp Stage II lift, do I only adjust the torsion bars to get the ride hight correct? Or absorb the 1.5 inches of lift? I read through the docs, but didn't find the answer I was looking for.

Thanks!

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...acer.shtml#FAQ

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

Cool, thanks for the info Frank!! I've used 4Crawler's site so much I feel I should pay him!!! I'm thinking about running the 1.5" spacers up front and the Zuk mod out back.

phildelfino

I'm stocking up parts for mine right now. I bought the 1.5" BJ spacers and 1" diff drops from 4 crawler. Need to get some longer front shocks before I put this all together. I won't touch the torsion bars, so I'll keep the ride better.
Out back I have a flip kit, ZUK brackets and coils to install.

Good idea on the zerks, I hadn't thought of that.

Keep us posted on your progress, with pics, and impressions after the fact.

Junkers88

Be sure and get the straight ones. Mine had 90 degree fittings from the factory and there is no way in heck you could get to them once the ball joint is in the spacer. While you're there be sure and grease the heck out of them.

phildelfino

You mean the new ball joints? Probably a stupid question, but do some people re-use the old ones?

BigBluePile

iTrader: (3)

I too am stock piling, but I'll post pics when I'm all mod'd up!!!

a4runnerfreak

Your not changing your ball joints, your just adding spacers to them. But you do have to change the grease zerk fitting from an angled 1, to a straight 1 so you can still grease the ball joint.

elripster

You have it right. Installing the spacers will allow to have some lift with a softer ride and more flex. One of the nice things about torsion bars is you get to set the height where you like it. The compromise is typically ride quality/flex for height. While this is subjective, I run 1" of lift with 1.5" spacers. The result is good flex on the trail for IFS.

If I was to run more sand/desert, I'd probably set it for 1.5-2" of lift. Since it's so easy to align these trucks yourself you can change these parameters at will.

Frank

joshuapc

yeah that the kind of off road i plan on doing. flex plus higher speed lava off roading. we got some bumpy off-roading here in hawaii! thanks a lot everyone for the input. i really wanna do this spacer mod but have been a little skeptical. how hard is the install and the alignment?

elripster

We have instructions on our site, www.sdori.com for the install and the alignment. Maybe read them over and see what you think.

As for ball joints, if you have original ball joints and plan to wheel you might just replace them with a good aftermarket like the higher line Napa brand. I have had a few trucks that were not wheeled before I owned them and all needed ball joints within a year after hitting trails and jumping sand dunes. After replacing them though, I have never had to do it again.

Beware of ball joints from Autozone, the brand they carried around here was different from the OEM and appeared not only cheap in quality but located the spindle post more inboard. You can tell by the profile of the joint, it doesn't match the profile of the OEM. If you are installing spacers, just bring one to the store and line it up to the ball joint. If the joint doesn't match the spacer's profile don't get it even if the bolt holes line up.

Frank

joshuapc

yeah im probably gunna change those kinds of things since im in there already. thanks for the heads up. what kind of an effect with the spacers have on cv boots and angles?

elripster

The angles get steeper. If your boots are in good shape they will be fine. If not, they might tear sooner. You can tear them during the install if you aren't careful.

It's really hard to say since our CV boots are anywhere from 13 to 22 years old. Rubber exposed to the elements like CV boots are only last so long. I have one of the clamp on boots on one of my shafts, the rest are original.

Frank

Junkers88

The install is pretty easy and can be done in the driveway in about 3 hours depending on beer.