i was contemplating the BJ spacers, good thread. Subscibed

 

i'll prolly be putting in an order.....if this goes down.

 

I'm out of town until the 19th but I will look into this when I get back. After all, I have the same truck as the rest of you for the most part and need the upgrades just as badly.

Frank

 

I have not bent anything with the brace on or the Moog iders(dirrent design) with out a brace I bent 2 idlers. The pice that bent was the shaft not the arm. The main problem with the idlers that I have had is the bushings getting hammered out after one weekend of wheeling. the Moog idlers are a bit better as there is no busing just a large metal cone. Those last me about a month at the most then there back for warranty replacment.

The reason for going with a Diff drop lift is that I am going on what I have seen myself and not internet talk. I have wheeled with a friend that has the 4" lift and the same size tires. He has not bent any parts, gets 1 year out of each idler and drives his truck harder than mine. Last summer I went though more idlers than both my friends combined in 5 years of ownership and off road use.

If I have the same problem this year or somthing simular I will sell the truck and move on.

Good luck trying to make somthing to eliminate this problem. The only fix I can see it the get the tierods back level with the cross shaft to take the load off the cross shaft and ider. Problem is when you relax the t bars enough to do that you end up with no lift at all.

Jeremy

 

All of my friends have destroyed idler arms with BJ spacers. I tend to destroy the bushing where it pivots which inevitably leads to failure.

My friend broke the joint on the idler arm conecting to the center link. Snapped it right off. Way too much force applied to the idler arm in that situation. The bigger the tire it seemed, the more carnage.

My friend had his at lifted height with no t-bar adjustment and i had mine at about 1" total lift. T-bars relaxed .5" after lift.

 

http://www.chaosfab.com/product/acce...y4wd/95130.jpg

 

I'm getting ready to install some of the SDORI ball joint spacers I bought last week. I hope they don't cause as much destruction as it sounds like they will, although I have a spare idler I don't want to be changing them every time I do any moderate wheeling.

This thread has me a little apprehensive about installing them now; I'd try the Downey brace but I've heard they do very little in practice. The Total Chaos Idler is just too danged expensive for my blood. I'd just rather not pretzel parts during moderate wheeling.

 

Well if I look at the cost of all the idler arms over this last year I would have easaly got a TC idler. If you do the BJ spacer have the spare idler at all times with you. I have changed mine on the trail after it bent enough to prevent steering as it was hitting the frame(hit a pot hole 3 other IFS toytoa had hit at the same speed I was the only one not driving after).

Jeremy

 

I should point out that I've only had one failure of an Idler in the last year, AFTER relaxing my torsion bars down 1.5", so that my lower a-arms sit stock. I get the added down travel, but haven't had idler issues.

Thats at 100:1 with two ARB's.

TC has had one failure as well, w/out bj spacers, but twice the drive ratio.

 

I won't have to worry about it as I'll just not install them if all this is in fact the fault of the spacers. I hadn't heard any negatives up until this thread & I looked at them for a year....just my luck. But Frank seems to be a pretty sharp tack so I'll wait a bit before jumping on the bandwagon & returning them.

I just wanted to level out the rake a bit from my rear spring upgrade. Once I armor up & put in a winch & lockers over the next year or two the weight on the front of my rig is going to increase too which will probably make matters worse all the way around.

I wish I could just spring for a Total Chaos Gen 2 system.

 

As I mentioned I wanted them more for leveling the rake (a little lift) in the front, so if I crank the T-bars back down until the front is 14" give or take, the rake will be the same as it was & the spacers then become a $110 moot point as it pertains to what I wanted them for.

On the positive side, I wheel moderately; I'm not into tearing up my ride. I'm not saying I've never gotten stupid with the skinny pedal but I do it a little less these days than I used to. And I've been reading around the intardweb & the SDORI bj spacers have been treating most people right except for the idler arms & that expensive Total Chaos idler arm seems to be the solution (dang it) I'm anxious to get my front end re-hab going & I don't have the money for it right now.

 

Funny you mention that. My frame had a groove in it from idler arms hitting it. Pretty cool.

That TC idler arm prevents the arm itself from bending but it still see the issue arise where the joint breaks. Doesnt look like it runs the same style of bushing either so it would be a good option, but quite spendy. Id rather buy hysteer for a SAS.

 

Wasn't there somebody who kept trashing their idlers and went this route? http://custommachiningusa.com/Specialty_Items.html
Scan down a bit...

I seem to remember it fixed his problems.

 

That only takes care of the bushing wear issue. If one wasn't bending braced arms, then that might be an option if they are wearing bushings.

Frank

 

I'm getting some of those made now for my truck. I figure they cant hurt and with a 4" IFS lift i'm sure I still need it.

Jeremy

 

From the the sounds of it, the BJ spacers are the coup de grace for the idler arm. And if the idler arm goes, your truck will most certainly flip, catch on fire and explode.

If anyone has now decided to sell theirs, please PM me, I want a set.

 

Thanks for the link. I was looking for that bushing kit the other day with the search function but nothing came up.

I don't think that the BJ spacers are the problem with the idler arms. When I ut mine on it was immediately obvious that my idler arm bushings were worn - that is - they increase the amount of energy applied to the bushings so there is a more obvious sensation. People have been bending idler arms long before BJ spacers were around. Is anyone bending their pitman arm on the steering box? I think that is made of much stronger stuff so a bronze bushed idler with that strong arm on it may be the complete fix. Or something like that

 

I might contact you with a brand new pair from TRDparts in Dallas if I can't figure out what I want to do about the bending idler arms.



If you read through enough crap on all the different forums, you'll find a large number of people who say #1 they bent MORE idler arms after the BJ spacer install & #2 after putting the T-bars back to the stock ride height it went back to normal; or about one a year.

The bushings are not the issue, (I mean they are, but not because of the BJ spacers) it's the increased number of arms that bend after the BJ install & go back to the norm of bending one every year or two after the T-bars are cranked back down to take out the 1.5" lift.

I hope Frank comes up with a beefy brace (better than that Downey crap) for a fair price that doesn't require altering the steering link by drilling like the Total Chaos arm does, if you damage that, the only spare that's going to work is another TC arm & those things are high dollar.

 

They aren't. Its the lift thats the problem. You'd experience the same issues with a tbar crank.

 

Agreed. Frank?