albarran58215

hey everyone, i have read a lot of the threads on the 1.5" BJ spacer method of lifting the ifs. i completely understand how it creates lift. but since the lower control arm is now forced farther from the upper control arm. does this affect the amount of wheel travel?

i would appreciate some insight from people who have this type of lift and what their impressions were with wheel travel before and after installing the BJ spacer.

thank guys, there is a lot of knowledge here.

sebastianholmes

yea. it gives you more droop travel. read all the threads in the newbie tech section, or try searching. information is out there you just have to find it.

xXbrutalXcoreXx

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm pretty certain that it does nothing for the amount of droop travel. If you leave your t-bars in the same location it will increase the amount of compression travel and that is it.

91diesel

Actually droop travel is what it adds. It does nothing for up travel, the LCA and the bumpstops are in the same place so your wheel travel will not change as far as stuffing it into the wheel well goes.

Miyoda

--x2--

blake.nemitz

the amount of travel is the same, however you change the amount of up travel to a greater degree and decrease the amount of down travel, your ca's will still hit the bum,p stops, no magic here, bj spacers will give you lift but it does the same thing as cranking the bars but allow for lift with a softer ride and less angle on your uca's. a good option for a little lift to clear those 33's

blake.nemitz

you might get the thickness of the spacer amount of extra droop, because the droop bump is on the uca, so i take back my previous statement.

xxxtreme22r

Your all right and wrong at the same time. Adding the spacer increases the distance of the UCA and the droop stop that is a proven fact and thus they increase droop travel. However.......

Depending on why your adding the spacer ie height or simply to increase droop travel. If your trying to get 2.5" out of the spacer for ride hight your droop travel will wind up being about what it was before adding them, maybe even slightly less but because your using the t-bars to raise ride height this changes the distance between the LCA and up travel stop thus increasing it, however, it may or may not be usable travel unless you mash the truck on something because it's stiff and might be harder to roll the suspension over certain obstacle at slow speeds.

Now if you add the spacer and keep the same ride height that was there before the install up travel is not affected length wise and you'll gain droop travel. However because the t-bars will be more relaxed you will gain more usable uptravel on some terrain even at slow speeds because it's easier to stuff the tires.

Hope this all makes sense.

blake.nemitz

^^ good post xxxtreme

rattlewagon

Agreed. Nicely put.

albarran58215

well i knew i came to the right place, you all have cleared up my concerns. my plan it to add a small amount of lift to fit 33 and get little more ground clearance under the IFS but i didn't want to significantly sacrifice my wheel travel up front.

xxxtreme22r

Just to add to this some, I fit 33's without the spacer and with a little hammering (see my build thread) , but I had to crank my t-bars to almost where I am on my droop stops, so even though I gained up travel (more space between LCA and bump stop) I lost almost all droop with the t-bar crank. But overall full droop to full stuff is the same, with the spacers it will be more, but depending on how much additional lift you want, will determine exactly where it will be.

So in short the spacers are the best option if you don't want to use an entire bracket lift. And even then unless you eliminate the uptravel extensions with the bracket lift, you gain no overall travel at all.

albarran58215

yea i think the spacers will be the best way to go. i do some mild to almost butt puckering offroading. i like the fact that the spacers lift increase the clearance under the diff were as the drop bracket lift just lowers it down. also since i added Manuel hub i'm not worried about the cv's. i know i could fit 33 with out a lift but i like to have the little extra clearance to have the peace of mind while offroad. i like to wheel smart that way i can have more fun wheeling a less time fixing.

xxxtreme22r

I would highly suggest the diff drop kit as well. It will tilt the front diff pinion down to lower your CV angles especially at full droop. but it will not interfere with overall ground clearance of the diff as one might think.

1993hiluxsr5

Be careful of you cv's becuase if you try and drop your LCAtol much your cv's will start binding, your going to need to drop your diff at least 1", becuase if you don't and your axles bind at full droop then you'll destroy them while wheeling, imagine getting on 3 wheels and having a binding cv being forced round by the engine, it ain't pretty and you won't get home, make sure that your axles can take the extra angles without damage, also your boots will wear quicker due to increased angles and rubbing.

I have the 1.8" bj spacers and I had to buy 2" extended shocks to get full travel back because the stock shocks won't be long enough, and I've been through 3 cv boots and my 4th is leaking already (2 weeks old!!) so I've dropped my diff 3" to compensate for the 3" of lift the spacers gave me, another trick is to swap the inner boots (closet to diff) for a set of outer boots as these are designed for steering and can take the increased operating angle,
And now she works, I have increased up and down travel due to the LCA being further away from the bump stop allowing for more up travel and my UCA being further from my top bump stop slowing for more droop (down travel)

albarran58215

i see what you mean about the cv binding, but about you boots. do you have manuel hubs or are they full time hubs. cause if you install manuel hubs you will limit the wear on the boots and cv to only when your using 4wheel drive. other than that your 4runner is practically a true 2wd vehicle since the front wheel are free spinning on the spindle with out rotating the cvs.

have you ever head of a cv binding to the point of failure due to a 1.5" bj spacer? i ask this because you are the first person to mention this. every other thread about the bj spacer i have read, this potential issue has not been mentioned?????

1993hiluxsr5

Yes unfortunately I have fulltime hubs so my cvs are always turning,
And I havnt seen failure on the trail yet but I've seen some pretty shagged axles when they got home, but I suppose if you have free wheeling hubs and you cv jams you'll still be alright to get home.
But keep an eye on your boots , if sand or dirt gets in it'll turn the grease into grinding paste, which is bad news for the bearings