Well yes. Potato/Potatoe

The BJ spacers are for 1.5" lift & that lift causes this problem apparently; according to several peoples experience including your own. If they aren't any better at that than a T-bar crank why buy 'em? The added down travel? That's not what I wanted them for personally, just a little added benefit.

I'm certainly not bashing SDORI or the spacers but I hope for a brace system that will not break the bank & still work so I can have that little inch, inch & a half lift I bought the spacers for. They're sitting in my living room right now with new BJ's, tie rod ends, rotors, shocks, idler arm, pitman arm etc.

If there were a number of dead Toyotas in junkyards around my area & I could pick up numerous cheap arms as spares I might not care, but there aren't.

 

Does anyone have photos of these idler arm failures? I can see where the TC brace is much better than the Downey unit but where exactly do the arms fail? I think one problem is that the brace has to clear the frame when making a hard right turn - the arm goes under the frame. I'm waiting for Frank to chime in on some ideas.

 

ok. sorry to be skeptical......but how come many of us have been reading about/using the spacers and up until now, this has only been an issue for a small crowd.

is this thread just the latest argument or is it strange that we haven't really seen so much negative feedback on BJ spacers in a while?

Frank? Ike?

 

From what I've read, wouldn't low profile bumpstops also cause the idler arm to bend? It seems more the compression, more the load on the idler from the tie rod.

Also, wouldn't relaxing the T bars down to stock height negate the effect of the BJ spacers on the idler arm?

 

Just search for BJ spacers & idler arm on google (you could even search BJ spacers suck & go straight to the really negative posts), it's not a recent thing. And as far as an argument? It's not that on my part or anyone else's from what I've seen, it's just a discussion to dig out the actual truth of the matter. Personally I'm leaning toward installing mine & just slapping on a idler arm gusset since I'm a more moderate wheeler when I wheel.

I'm sure it depends a lot on how they are used or abused but I'm with Victor; I'd like to see some pics of them bent with & without BJ spacers & a little info on what situation they were in when they gave out.

 

maybe my choice of words were wrong. sorry. i completely agree with you, i just haven't really heard much negative about the BJ spacers in the two years or so that i've had my eye on them.

 

Actually the bushings are a major issue with the "bend". Alot of peoples arms dont bend, the bushings get destroyed and it causes more play in the arm. When sitting level the arm will sit higher than normal since the bushing cant hold the arm in its stock location. I then has a chance to hit the frame.

I bent the stock arm and a brand new toy arm on mine, with relaxed t-bars and BJ spacers.

 

What were you each doing when you bent your idler arm? Lets hear more about the situation. Tire size, bumpstops, any other related mods?

 

33x10.5" radial swampers on steel 15x8 rims. 1.5" Bj spacer with torsion bars relaxed to give about .75-1" lift. Stock bumpstops. I was going up large washouts that requiredlots of suspension travel, 3-wheeling was required. I think the combination of tire weight and suspension travel cause premature wear on the arm.

 

Did you have a gusset? Did you have the solid bronze bushings from Custom Machining?

 

I have said a few times in variouse places that I belive the BJ spacers have lead to my high rate of idler arm failers. If you read though this thread you will see my my real world experience with them. 6 of the 8 Idler arm failers last summer was worn out idlers after just two days of Off road (loging road) use. One had so much play in the joint that the front end felt as if it was going to fall off.

Each time I posted any quetion about if this was due to the BJ spacers I had 5 ppl jump in and say it was my truck that was causing it. Well I find that hard to belive, I have replaces every part in the front for the truck, idlers, BJ's upper and lower, tie rod ends inner and outer and the t bars are NOT cranked. I do not wheel hard at all, just loging road use to get out camping and some miled rocks.

I'm just trying to warn people that they may cause problems with Bent and very rapid wear on the idler arms. I'm not trying to argue with anyone just letting you know my problems since installing them.

Jeremy

 

Nope i didnt feel like dropping that much $$$ into that weak steering. Thats alot of money for just one part, and your tie-rods will still fail with the larger tires. My friend stripped 2 brand new tierods on their first trip out. IFS just isnt made for very big tires. I just saved my $$$ so i can SAS my new rig.

 

OK that helps to know; and as far as $$$...? A brace & the bushings I mentioned both together would only run about a hundred bucks. That's not that much really, especially if you comparing it to a SAS. Bigger tires is a different issue altogether.

Now if you're talking about the Total Chaos idler....that's not a gusset, it's a custom idler arm with integrated gusseting & metal bushings.

 

I want to be 100% clear.

My feed back is NOT negative. I have had idler issues. I am EXTREMELY HAPPY with my BJ spacers, and SDORI is a TOP NOTCH organization, which is to say that Frank is a great guy! LOL.

I wouldn't put a ton of stock on my experiences unless you plan on seriously wailing on your stuff.

I've got a lot of other hardware on my truck that contributes to this and other issues.

 

I don't think anyone here is thinking anything negative about SDORI or Frank as a person.

I'm just trying to figure out what's best to do, use the spacers or not & if the choice is to use them then use them in what combination with what parts. That's why it'd be great to see what other components are installed along with the spacers when the idlers bend & how often; along with folks who don't use the spacers & bend them.

No bashing or negativity, just facts & your experience is part of it. I don't put a "ton" of stock in any one persons experience, it's a cumulative effect.

 

I'm running 4Crawlers 1.5" BJS up front and 1.5" Extended Shackles in the rear on my 94 and have had absolutely no problems what so ever.

I have to admit though that I have only been running A/T tires so hard core wheelin hasn't been an option since they were installed. I will be getting MT's on crawlers soon and will be testing everything a little more strenuously in the future.

 

Screw the ball joint spacers. Unless of course you just wanna have a taller truck to drive on trails with. A solid axle swap is the only way to go if you're really gonna use your truck to "wheel'. Otherwise you'll still tweak your idler arm and break your front axels.

 

LOL. Not the only way really, but I guess I just don't wheel then....

 

My truck is as close as makes no difference to stock, and I do drive off road often. They are very capable trucks of the production line. IFS isn't maybe first choice for rock crawling, but to be honest I think I'd prefer IFS on a washboard logging road. I've driving a solid axle cherokee down unpaved roads and its really no good. The solid axle really doesn't travel that much more stock. For instance (from the Pro Comp page):

'79-83 Toyota 4x4 pickup
uses a shock that has 7.4 inches travel

1986-1995 Toyota 4x4 pickup
shock with 4.7 inches travel, multiply by 1.5 as the shock mount is about 2/3 down the A arm and you get 7.5".

Now neither suspension system completely compresses the shock, but I think you get a pretty good idea. A stock solid axle barely articulates any more and IFS gives a much better ride.

We were also talking about a sub-$150 mod, not a $3000 SAS swap.

 

Sorry that was a little off topic. But correct me if I'm wrong, but Push-pull steering has plenty of weak links. Sure you could deck it out with hi-steer but that's a lot of money. With the same amount of money, you could probably built a pretty bullet proof IFS steering setup.