John101477

hey guys just wondering what your ideas are on BJ spacers? what are the pros and cons to them? just thinking with my runner kinda high in the rear it would not hurt to much to level it out some. what are your thoughts?

Trustyrusty

Do it, or crank your torsion bars up, they work awesome for more flex, and smoother ride, cranking the t-bars does the opposite, it reduces flex and ride, but its fine if you just do it a wee-bit...

Junkers88

I like them. In fact I like them so much on my 86 pickup that I'll probably do them on my 89 4runner. Nice little lift without decreasing ride quality.

Of course you do realize that you're starting down that slope? You raised the rear to eliminate sag, in your other thread we convinced you to go with ARB's, now you're looking at BJS's........ It's going to be a rock crawler before you know it and the you'll have to buy another 1st gen runner for the wife to drive.

He's one if us now guys! We lured in another one!!!!!

John101477

HAHA well you know what my problem is right? I do! I could never stand to do anything half A$$ED...
and the wife can drive her car just fine... lol. last year I bought her a dodge magnum with the small 6. it is actually a great car. the day we bought it i was on the phone with Les Shwab Tires two days after signing it was sitting on 20's and performance toyo's. the next week it got graphics. see a trend here? I hate stock...

Matt16

BJ spacers on their own won't help the suspension flex any easy but they will allow the wheel to droop lower. If you relax the torsion bars so that the ride is stock height, they will flex better. You'll also save your CVs and most importantly, your steering (which doesn't like to be lifted).

There's a wealth of information on this subject, so search "BJ spacers".

John101477

I believe the torsion bars are pretty much stock now. what i need is alittle more height and a closer to level stance

swapped89

I think the BJ spacers are a good idea

Junkers88

My advice is this then. Put the 1 1/2" spacers up front, get it aligned and check out the stance. I'm willing to bet that the front end will be higher. If that's the case you can relax the t-bars a little to get it level. Doing so will soften the ride up front as well as help you keep from tearing up your CV boots, basically what Matt16 said. You can also buy some inexpensive low profile bump stops for the up travel protion of the suspension and gain about an inch of up travel. Don't go with low pro's for the droop side since it might cause binding in the CV axles. I made that mistake but was fortunate enough to catch the mixup and shim them before I tore anything up.

I went with BJ's on my truck because the ZUK coils in the rear lifted me almost 2" over stock height. The BJ's leveled the rig out nicely.

John101477

I called the 4x4 shop today to find prices and the first thing the guy said was "thats not the preferred way to lift." and i think 1 1/2 may be to much. i seen some online that were 1/2 and 1 as well as the 1 1/2. i may go after the 1in. just to get a little raise out of it. I'll measure first though.

Matt16

Just lower the torsion bars half an inch after the 1.5" spacer install. I think most generic 4x4 shops are unreliable sources of accurate information.

abecedarian

and 4Crawler offers custom height ball joint spacers... http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...ntSpacer.shtml

As for BJ spacers not being the preferred way to lift, read that as "we don't make as much money off of them". Not being "preferrred" doesn't make it wrong.

When you think about Rancho or whichever kits that don't drop / re-locate the lower control arms as well (a.k.a. "bracket lift")... how are they going to lift the truck without pushing the spindles down (like a BJ spacer does)? Answer: they are custom made to force the stock upper ball-joint to sit lower (sounds like a BJ spacer, no?) thus raising the frame. Or in the case of the long travel kits- the a-arms are longer thus causing lift.

John101477

That's the exact place I was looking at them. I just don't wanna buy something that will mess up my rig but it seems as though BJ spacers are fairly common.

Trustyrusty

Just frickin buy them, every retard at a 4wheelparts type store will tell you this WONT work, or THIS will work, and what does work for them is you buying their crappy product. Hell, a guy at 4wheel parts told me a 33x12.50 tire would rub on my truck with a 3" body lift, and guess what, it doesnt

John101477

hahaha yeah i have pretty much come to that conclusion as well.

joshuapc

buy um!!! got mine ready to go in this weekend. not preparred to do the at-home alignment though. no experience doing an alignment so i plan to ask a buddy of mine who has a degree in auto mech

Matt16

Yeah, nor had I. It looks more intimidating than it is. Read the writeup and it would be very hard to have any trouble aligning a truck yourself.