Ball joint spacers cause extreme (beyond stock) CV joint angles, which can cause premature wear. It's advantageous to be able to unlock your hubs, to stop the spinning of the CV shafts. If by auto, you mean unlockable, that's not an issue. That's the biggest drawback of having spacers, the CV shafts weren't designed to spin at the steep angles that can occur with the added down travel of the suspension. And yes, down travel is a good thing, just not for spinning CV joints, if it's beyond stock parameters.

 

Auto hubs should unlock and stop the CVs from spinning once you shift to 2WD. It is more the ADD drive flanges that become a bit more of an issue, since the CVs are spinning all the time (2WD or 4WD).

 

and since he has a '93, he has the ADD flanges, not the actual "automatic" hubs...

 

If you ever get a chance, spin the wheels of a truck with BJ spacers by hand and you can see for yourself that the cv joints are not binding. I checked this very carefully when I designed them because they went on my truck first. There is room there.

I was thinking about your set up today and came me that you actually have a really good set up for breaking CV joints. You have much more angle than you would running just 1.5" on a spacer which BTW leaves the joints within the acceptable window of operation under load, without the suspension compliance it would give to relieve angle when it needs to be so. (Again, a wheel at full droop has very little load on it and thus neither does the CV joint, A wheel that can not droop cannot relieve the load unless you lift the wheel entirely.) This is made worse by the 26mm bars.

Just some food for your thoughts but if you really are as concerned about your CV's as I think you are, you have implemented the best recipe I can think of to break them. It is ironic don't you think?

As for wear, well if you are doing tens of thousands of miles in 4wd it is definitely something to think about. Otherwise, think how long it will take most of us to get 5K miles or even less and that's nothing on a CV joint. With ADD boots will wear faster but the joint is unloaded in 2wd so it won't wear fast enough to matter.


Frank

 

Is there a thread that shows how to adjust the torsion bars? Would i have to lift the rear of the truck if i adjusted the torsion bars or vice versa if i put in the bj spacers and what would you recommend?

 

Some information and links on this web page:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...nBarAdjustment

 

I just put on a 4" Superlift kit along with the 1.5" bj spacers and the tbars are still cranked up about .5-1" and even though the alignment tech cussed a little, he was able to get the truck aligned to specs. He did make some adjustments to the toe and camber due to the large tires I'm running, but everything was either in spec or done on purpose.

The truck rides and steers great.

FYI, it was a computerized 4 wheel alignment on a very large machine at the only place in town that could do a computerized alignment with larger than 35" tires because they do campers and busses.

 

ovrrdrive, now that your truck is aligned, you can easily maintain that alignment yourself if you knock it out. Search on it, I've put up some posts on how to align your truck. It can take a while the first alignment after lifting, but when it is in, it is easy to straighten out the wheeling "suspension adjustments" that are fairly common when our suspension hit the rocks or whatever.

Frank

 

This is pretty much correct....

Unless you do a bracket lift, like a 4" procomp or other brand, you will not gain any added tire clearance, the pivot point and bumpstop location are unchanged.... You do gain 1.5" extra droop with BJ spacers, which is really nice.. I would go with BJ spacers unless you want to run larger than a 33" or a 33 w/chains...

Bracket lifts drop the whole suspension assembly 4", giving 4" of lift and added clearance.

 

I actually had printed out your post on that and had it in hand to try to get a rough alignment done to it so I could drive it to the shop. I had some trouble figuring out what moved what but after a while I got it figured out enough that I got the toe down to about 1/8" towards the front and I went ahead and drove it to the shop.

I've been meaning to go out and get some references on where everything site now so I could do them myself if need be. I just haven't been able to find the time yet...

Btw, thanks for everything you've been doing for the community as far as making the spacers and posting like you do. It doesn't go un-noticed or unappreciated.

 

Yeah, if anything, you GAIN a little bit of travel because your lower a arm is farther from the lower bumpstop, which is the limiting part of the suspension going up.

I have 1.5in BJ spacers and have had no problems (I did have to buy 1/4" wheel spacers to fit 31s on stock wheels and not rub against upper a arm) I think they are a good, relatively way to get a cheap lift.

 

You will not gain any uptravel. the BJ spacer has zero affect on this as its on the opposite side of the hub. The lower arm bumpstop limits compression, the BJ spacer only affect hub relation to the upper arm.

 

i dont have any lift in the front and yet i break my cv joints constantly. is that just from the torque or is it b/c my "automatic" locking hubs arent stopping the joints from rotating when i switch back to 2wd?

 

I would say no. Trucks like mind with ADD spin the front drive train all the time.

Under what circumstances are you always breaking the joints? Are you breaking the inner or outer joint? How about one side more than the other?

Frank

 

Break the joints or tear the boots?

Breaking them onroad or offroad?

 

well i break mostly the outer joints and yes i tear boots too. I broke them once on the right and twice on the left. and now i even destroyed my bearings because i got water/mud in them.

 

Well breaking outers makes me wonder if there is a steering stop issue? Maybe the wheels are turning too far? (did they break when going straight or turned?)

Do you have a front locker?

Are you wheeling with massive amounts of right foot?

Also, how did the CV's look inside? Were there signs of water and mud in them?

Frank

 

You should not be losing any upward travel with spacers, if anything you should be gaining upward travel do to the fact that there will be more space between the lower a-arm and the bumpstop.

 

It might be the steering. b/c when i turn all the way one direction there are popping noises. and also inside there was some water and mud. so ya.

 

The popping noises are probably the steering stops and that's normal. You can grease them but they will "creak" and "groan" a lot.

The debris in the outer CV's almost certainly what did them in. If you keep them clean and well lubricated they will last a very long time.

Frank