sincal

Im trying to find out what brand of A-Arm i have. The PO did the lift and i dont know what he has done. Can anybody tell me by looking at the pics thanks in advance.

abecedarian

Looks like rancho.

sincal

awesome thats a start. I will search rancho and see if i can tell.. thanks abe

Jay351

Yeah, looks like one of the old kits they sold in the early 90's I havn't seen a bracket lift that replaced the UCA's and shock mounts for a LONG time!

sincal

is it a bad lift then?

sincal

Should i upgrade the lift or should this one last awhile. I have no problems now but if i do is parts going to be hard to find? Is this lift any good

Jay351

I don't see why you should change them out. They have lasted this long...

sa51

i'd keep it and just upgrade the shocks and torsion bars,that is unless u want to swap a solid axle in.

sincal

The only reason i say upgrade is because i have a sever off camber issue i have too much negative camber my front tires litterally look like this / \ I tried to get them aligned 3 times to no avail. The camber adjustment is all the way maxed to bring the bottom of the tire in. And i dont see a way to bring the top of the tire out? I have no bent parts that i have found. Both top and bottom ball joint and inner and outer tie rods have been replaced on both sides. Is there a way to fix this issue without buying new control arms.

abecedarian

have you measured to verify the front LCA mounts are the same distance apart as the rear LCA mounts? (checking if the frame has spread)
knowing your problem (camber adjustment), I'm going to say that it looks like the torsion bars are cranked a bit adding some lift, which will complicate getting your camber dialed in.

sincal

yes i have measured and all measurements are good. Yes there is a T-bar crank to about a inch. Have ball joint spacers on order will be here next Wednesday. You think with the 1-1/2 BJS i should be able get to camber back to 0?

sincal

still there abe?

abecedarian

the bj spacers might get your upper knuckle pushed out far enough if you relax the t-bars, but that would depend on how far out your camber was.
do you have the alignment readings the shop measured?
then you'll have to deal with the excess travel the bj spacers will give you and where the bump stops limit your travel, maybe requiring new shocks and bump stops.

you're finding out one of the reasons rancho went to a bracket lift instead of control arms. their setup works great off-road, but eats tires on-road.

sincal

Abe. I have low profile bump stops with longer blistein shocks. My travel will be fine. I am just concerned about the camber. I do not have access to the paper with the results due to its in a different state where i had it aligned and i left the paper there (dads house). But I thought being that the lift is full new uca that it would be stronger than stock. (not sure) Im just trying to get the darn tire straight and its making buy everything else..lol

sincal

I reread what i wrote and it sounds as if i didnt appreciate your responce, I hope you dont take it that way. Thats the last thing i want to do to a guru like you. I appreciate all the help you have given me in the past and hopefully present

abecedarian

no problems.
my concern, using the rancho arms with bj spacers is that you have too much travel and will bind the cv's. I'm not so much worried about the compression stops as I am with the droop stops. BJ spacers will let your lower arm travel even farther downwards, and that might push the CV's too far.

sincal

OK i get what your saying now. I have aftermarket cv's that have telescopic travel. (however you spell that) They are like 5 times thicker as well. I dont know who makes them as they were on the truck already but they sure are straight as of now so i think when i put the bj spacers in there a relax the t-bars i should be in about the same spot i am now.

sincal

just a question you know who makes these heavy duty cv's?

Dbl. E

From what you are saying about having different CV's and a different upper shock mount I think you have a Downey Off Road long travel kit. The kit you have is not the current kit they sell because they now have their own arms made. If you are having alignment issues I would contact Downey Off Road to get their advice. Eric

abecedarian

the most common CV mod is using Porsche CV's on the inner end, close to the differential.
someone mentioned 'telescoping' and that fits right in with the Porsche joint.

otherwise, the outer joint is the same birfield used on Solid Axles.


(/me waits for the flames on this)