drew303

Kind of the fun of having BJ spacers is you mess up the steering geomoetry and new found pressure is laid on the pitman arm and the idler arm when the front end flexes.

My stock idler arm bent before I got BJ spacers years ago and I replaced it with an Schucks aftermarket one. Life time warranty free replacements! Since I've had the lift on I'm finding myself tossing in new idler arms once, usually twice a year now. They bend upward and require fun trail-alignments high up in the muddy mtns! When the idler arm (far far far weaker than the pitman arm) bends UP, it kinda pinches the steering in so you get a toe-in effect. Not healthy =P

I CALLED DOWNEY all excited to order a brace and they told me their braces don't fit aftermarket idler arms. Said something about the aftermarket ones are "thicker" but he didnt specifiy what exactly is "thicker". Just said there was no possible way of getting their brace to fit at all. I said, you just ruined my day.

I thought this lil page was amusing. Rebuilding an idler arm

http://www.off-road.com/trucks4x4/ar....jsp?id=300937

he rebuilt his BENT idler arm.

save me the trouble of photographing my bent idler arm, this is exactly what mine looks like as of today.



and heres a YT thread on installing the downey brace

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f129...n-truck-75307/

that idler looks (to my naked eye) identical to what i got. Markings differ tho.


Anyone point me in a good direction? A OEM idler arm is $210 from the dealer and.... im not about to give up free aftermarket replacements for a stock one that is just as weak =p

thanks



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heh found this picture on YT, lol, this kinda what happens when your arm bends.... LOL well this is a little worse

norcalsvx

i used a aftermarket idler arm w/ downey brace no problems

tc

Wouldnt be that tough to fab your own just like the Downey one...

Or just suck it up and get the Total Chaos one and be done worrying about it forever...

http://www.chaosfab.com/toyaccess_4wd.html

drew303

hmm, where did you get your aftermarket arm from?

As for the TC arm, I saw that in my searches here of YT. but at what 370 bucks, lol... no thanks. I dont think I'd ever break a idler arm, it just bends to where its comfortable but it bugs me =p I dont like 'bent' parts.

I might just bight the bullet and just try downeys arm. I can't figure out how the aftermarket arms differ from the stock ... but i also dont have a stock arm to compare.

hmmm

norcalsvx

i just used a moog i think (or whatever they had at NAPA)

if your going to wheel the truck a lot the TC is the way to go though

drew303

Just got back from a all day wheeln trip and the idler arm didnt bend any further and I couldnt of really punished it any worse than I did today, all day. I might just leave it alone. Maybe it just bends to where it wants to be and thats ok, i dunno. Isn't really structuraly weaker being bent a bit. The nut on the steering stablizer does rub the frame but its been "rubbing" for so many years it clears it now fine.

In other news, the truck didnt like the freeway home tho, sob started sputterng at about 65mph on the first incline. Barely made it to Olympia to an exit I could get off of and limp home. But it ran fine off the freeway, so i dunno. I think the 12 hours of thick dust from todays trip + the probably two years of wheeln since i last sprayed carb cleaner through it might of just upset it today. I cleaned it good, Ill take it on the highway tomorrow.

<3 Yotas lol