Pete-87-22r

Has anybody ever made a spacer for the lower ball joints? I haven't really though it over yet but logically it would allow for more up travel while not harming the CV angles. It could decrease ground clearance there but I've searched and didn't find anything with an off road application. I figure there's probably some sort of issue that makes it not feasible, but I thought it might be a good idea for more flex without messing up the CV angle as they have plenty of room for up travel.
Pete

93Xtra-Cab

No. This has been covered before, I believe.

Adding a spacer between the lower ball joint and the knuckle will only increase the angle of the lower control arm. It will do nothing for travel, lift or CV angles.

93Xtra-Cab

However, if the torsion bar is on the lower control arm, a spacer on the lower ball joint would decrease CV angles, but would actually lower the vehicle.

I know our trucks have the torsion bar on the upper ball joint, but it was just a thought.

Pete-87-22r

Why would there not be any gains in up travel? I don't currently have a truck to look at right now so it was kind of a shot in the dark. The thought was it might be a good way to get some extra travel without compromising CVs or the center of gravity. If this has been covered already I haven't found it.

MudHippy

You would get a little more up travel. At the expense of lowering the LCAs. Which places them closer to the ground, reducing ground clearance. As well as limiting their effective range of camber/caster adjustability. Which won't likely be a problem unless you were wanting/needing to align it correctly(for street use) after having also raised the ride height(via torsion bars and/or BJS). Then you most likely will have a problem with that.

Pete-87-22r

Aha! There's the answer I was looking for. Didn't think about the LCA being used for alignment. I kinda knew that there would be something that would make it not work or else somebody would have done it before, but I couldn't just forget about it if no one had.

MudHippy

Well, I don't know for sure whether anybody has or hasn't. And to be honest, it's not the worst idea I can think of. But I also have a pretty good idea of the limitations of the stock IFS on these rigs. Enough to know that with either the torsion bars maxed out(≥+1.5"), or with 1.5" BJS on the UCA installed entirely for lift, the camber/caster adjustability is nearly maxed out too(as in barely enough in most cases to keep it fairly decently aligned for the street). Adding BJS to the LCA would then only worsen that issue.

Anywho, the main reason I wouldn't want to do it is the loss of ground clearance. I get those damn LCAs hung up on stuff enough as it is. Sticking them down there any further ain't gonna do me no good. And with my LCA bumpstops shaved, any more up travel puts my 35s directly into contact with the pinch welds(already hammered back as far as they'll go, + 3" body lift).