Ive been thinking about lifting the front of my 4runner and the only options ive come across are

1. crank the t bars
2. Ball joint spacers

what other options are there?
longer front springs?
polyurathatne spacers?

id like to lift the front to match cruiser coils. so far i gonna go with ball joint spacers and then uncrank the T bars as much as i can. but i dont like the downsides of ball joint spacers.

oh and if anyone knows where i can get a set of used cruiser coils in bc canada please pm me

any help would be appriciated.

 

36 views and not one opinion?

 

I have ball joint spacers & OME t-bars & I wish I would have gotten a bracket lift for the front & lc coils for the back
you loose up ward articulation with bj spacers &/or t-bar crank & your cvs are at angles at ride height. I have man hubs now so I have stopped busting cv boots

 

Umm- think about it:

what springs would you replace with longer ones?
what spring would you put a spacer on?

You've identified the existing options- all lifts have significant downsides, which vary by the type of lift. You need to weigh those against hw you're gona use the truck and select what's best for you. The key questions are what size tire do you wat to run and are you gona wheel it?

What's best for me is 33's wth no lift.

 

You have torsion bars up front, you can crank them up, use ball joint spacers or larger dia. torsion bars. The first and last options result in a stiffer ride in most cases, the spacers can give you lift, added wheel travel and usually maintain the existing ride quality. You can't use "longer" torsion bars, then need to be bigger dia. (and the same length) to be stiffer, stiffness increases with the 4th power of the diameter. And no way to use poly spacers (like in a coil spring) for lift, as torsion bars twist and donw compress and extend.

 

How do you lose upward articulation w/ bj spacers? I still can hit my bumpstops with my spacers, so I don't think I lost any upward articulation.

 

You can get longer arms, but that is practically retarded.

 

would longer arms lift it any or would it just give it a very wide stance?

 

You do not lose upward travel with the spacers, in fact, you typically gain it without sacrificing down travel. That's really the point of them, you get your 1.5" of lift without losing 1.5" of droop like you do with a simple t-bar crank.

Frank

 

Aside from the benefits of a wider stance, you gain a larger window of travel. Your cv's would see no more angularity with longer arms. You can crank in as much as 4" of lift, but I feel that 2" is a reasonable lift with longer arms. I probably have about 1.5"cranked in with my arms.

 

ok so as my understanding goes i can either add ball joint spacers or crank the torsion bars, and anything else woud become pretty expensive. and longer coils or spacers wont help because the torsion bars will compress the whole thing to the same height anyways. would the rear end up being alot higher than the front if i were to use lc coils in the rear and a set of 1.5 inch ball bj spacers in the front? what did NC-B17A mean by a bracket lift?

 

Something like this 4" kit:
http://toyota.off-road.com/toyota/ar....jsp?id=186543

Called a bracket lift because of the brackets that drop the front suspension 4" below the frame.

 

To clear a few things up. The torsion bars are the front springs. They do not affect rear ride height.

Torsion bar adjusting is free. It does not increase overall travel. You give up droop for compression travel.

BJ spacers increase overall travel 1.5". You can get the same lift as a torsion bar adjustment and retain down travel. Down travel is a good thing.

Bracket style lifts as 4Crawler linked, lift 4" by offsetting the suspension 4". They don't increase travel as they are but can be modified to do so substantially. They can induce driveline vibes.

Rear suspension can be lifted by spacers cheaply or by coils for more dough. Longer springs are the more correct way to go but to each his own. I have spacers others have coils, we all have lift.

Frank

 

hmm... so the balljoint spacers seem like a pretty cheap and easy way to get a bit more travel and lift from the front...is there a downside to them? is there a concensus on a certain brand or place to get them from? i'm a noob to the truck world, and had never even heard of them before.

 

You are going to find people that swear by them and then you are going to find those that wouldn't put them on their 4th aunts twice removed brothers son. It's all a matter of opinion. I have a friend in town that has a set of his 4runner and doesn't have any trouble out of them or wear on the CV boots. That was mostly because he has manual hubs I'm sure.

 

I have read on here that some people have trouble getting the truck aligned after the BJ spacers.....but I also read that is more likely an issue of the wrong alingment shop doing the job.... just wanted to pass it along.

 

You can buy them several places - but they're all made by SDORI (el ripster). I would get them either direct from SDORI or from 4Crawler.

 

does that bracket lift work on a second gen?

 

Yes. Check out lots of vendors. Although I haven't tried it, Black Diamond's kit looks to be very strong. I redesigned part of my old kit and just happened to do it like they did using .25" thickness tubing, etc...

Still, having had the 4" kits, I wouldn't do it again. Keeping the truck as low as you can while fitting the larger tires not only makes the truck more stable but actually improves suspension flex since you have less weight transfer off of the wheel you want to compress for a given lean angle. Aerodynamics and on-road handling are better on a lower vehicle saving fuel and making the vehicle safer. You also avoid drive-line vibration issues which for me with about 5" total lift meant a custom drive shaft that was almost $500.

All these bracket kits lower the lower control arm 4" AND the lower bumpstop 4". If you fab your own bumpstop brackets at say 2.5", you just added a load of up travel.

Most alignment issues with the spacers are due to improperly trained alignment techs. I posted a bit ago how to align your own truck and save yourself a LOT of money. If you decide to go with a bracket kit, learn this method because the alignment goes out in those kits very easily and frequently. Spacer lifts don't have to be realigned any more than stock did.

Frank

 

What is the issue with ball joint spacers and auto hubs?