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Help Balljoint spacers

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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 01:05 PM
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Help Balljoint spacers

I searched a little and cant find it, where do I need to trim for these to fit? Is it a hard job? I have all the tools I should need just none of the brains is there a good writeup?
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 01:14 PM
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Here's a good "how to" from our buddy 4Crawler.
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...er_HowTo.shtml
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 01:26 PM
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Thanks bud, Wish me luck I got a lot to do, 2'' coil spacers 1.5'' BJ Spacers, possible new T-Bars Im guessing I will need extended brake lines and Im doing skyjackers shocks all around. And Im replacing both CV axles, fun week ahead
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 01:30 PM
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Good luck!

That will keep you busy for sure. Should be well worth it.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 01:44 PM
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most deff good luck. i did shackles and bjspacers on my 2wd and it doesnt require grinding, and i still had a blast... lol. had one person hanging from the leaf springs, one person lifting the truck, and i was poundin on the shackles to make em go on. hehehe. thats how ya do er right thur.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 01:51 PM
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Yeah, well yesterday I did coil spacers on my friends heep cherokee and it was a huge pain in the a$$ but Im hoping my runner wont give me too much hell, I just jacked up the front and pulled off a tire and it doesnt look to be too hard but Im doubting it will be easy
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 02:32 PM
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dude, i'm in the same boat as you are. just had the rear OME springs done saturday at a local shop. they are not interested in the front BJ spacers job because of the cutting and grinding, they are not a 4x4 specialty shop. so i'm going to try it myself, if possible, give us a blow by blow after you have yours done.

good luck.

Last edited by TC4RNR; Jul 16, 2007 at 02:33 PM.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 02:37 PM
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Installing the BJSs is easy. Just follow 4Crawler's instructions and you will be fine. It is only a little bit that needs to be trimmed. As to Bejita talking about new T-Bars. I wouldn't worry about them since you have a 2nd gen and they have very large wheel wells. You will be able to fit 33s no problem with just BJSs. You want to keep the stock T-Bars so the front end doesnt get really stiff and not flex. I have the Downey 26MM Bars (way too stiff if you dont have a winch). I have basically no flex at all. unless i am posing the rear end and it is putting a lot of force on the front to make it flex.

Last edited by 881stGenRunner; Jul 16, 2007 at 02:39 PM.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 02:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Bejiita
Thanks bud, Wish me luck I got a lot to do, 2'' coil spacers 1.5'' BJ Spacers, possible new T-Bars Im guessing I will need extended brake lines and Im doing skyjackers shocks all around. And Im replacing both CV axles, fun week ahead
You don't need new brake lines, the stockers are fine.

Purchase an angle grinder and use a 4" cut off wheel for around $20. It will go through the metal like a warm knife through butter. If you try to grind, you'll be there forever.

It is possible that shop doesn't know how easy BJ spacers are to install if you have that 4" cut off wheel.

As for the rear spacers, disconnect the shocks, brake line bracket, and pan hard bar. If it still won't drop far enough, than I think the upper links too. The rears are kind of a pain but it is easier if you don't try to pry them in and instead keep removing stuff until the axle allows them to be put in place easily.

Frank
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 05:06 PM
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you guys, what's your take on replacing the old balljoints? i don't know how long these things last, in general.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 05:31 PM
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Well my friends heep what we did was removed the shocks and jacked the body way high up and put jack stands on the frame then used my scissor jack to seprate one side and jacked up the other side and they went in with a lot of persuasion Im not too worried about it just a lot of stuff to do
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 05:39 PM
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Originally Posted by TC4RNR
you guys, what's your take on replacing the old balljoints? i don't know how long these things last, in general.
Toyota 4wd pickups/4Runners have kick-ass ball joints. I've yet to kill one and the abuse has been unrelenting. One of the FEW worthy components in the over all design of the IFS, IMO. They last forever, untill I prove otherwise.(Trust me some will disagree, but...) They'd probably tear right out of their mountings before failing catastrophically.

Unless your having problems aligning your rig or you can tell from physical inspection that they're too loose, I say let 'em ride(well lubed of course).

Last edited by MudHippy; Jul 16, 2007 at 07:47 PM.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 05:40 PM
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if hippy says they arent gonna break, u aint gonna break em.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 05:52 PM
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Originally Posted by elripster
You don't need new brake lines, the stockers are fine.
Frank
you will need new brake lines for the back. i did and they came with my downey hd coils. good thing i had the new ones cuz later i installed some coil spacers too.

the front brake lines are ok.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 07:31 PM
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Originally Posted by elripster
<SNIP>

As for the rear spacers, disconnect the shocks, brake line bracket, and pan hard bar. If it still won't drop far enough, than I think the upper links too. The rears are kind of a pain but it is easier if you don't try to pry them in and instead keep removing stuff until the axle allows them to be put in place easily.

Frank
Actually just disconnect one end of the shocks, the brake line bracket and the sway end links. No need to mess with the track bar or the upper links.
You should have the rear frame on jack stands and then using a floor jack, lift up one end of the axle and the other will drop enough, etc.
It's really pretty easy.
Just put new springs in a month ago and had no problems at all.



Fred
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 07:33 PM
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From: Tucson, AZ USA Age:60
Originally Posted by Bejiita
Well my friends heep what we did was removed the shocks and jacked the body way high up and put jack stands on the frame then used my scissor jack to seprate one side and jacked up the other side and they went in with a lot of persuasion Im not too worried about it just a lot of stuff to do
Sounds like you forgot to disconnect the sway bar end links.
If you had done that, you won't have had a problem at all.
We've done a ton of Jeeps (TJ's) and it's pretty simply.





Fred
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 07:40 PM
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If the downey 26mm bars are to stiff then what else is there around? Sway a way? OME?

Last edited by CJM; Jul 16, 2007 at 07:50 PM.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 07:45 PM
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From: Tucson, AZ USA Age:60
Originally Posted by CJM
If the downey 26mm bars are to stiff then what else is there around? Sway a way?
OEM sized bars.
Anything bigger is going to be stiffer (higher spring rate).

What's wrong with the bars that you have now ?
Why do you think that you should change 'em ?



Fred
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 07:53 PM
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OME 24mm or Sway-Away 25mm, that I've found.
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Old Jul 16, 2007 | 07:54 PM
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Originally Posted by FredTJ
OEM sized bars.
Anything bigger is going to be stiffer (higher spring rate).

What's wrong with the bars that you have now ?
Why do you think that you should change 'em ?



Fred
Nothing would be wrong with them, working on a build list and info for a late 80's truck/runner to be a trail rig. I wondered if there was any real benefit besides stiffness.
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