So yesterday i pulled my truck into the shop just to give it a quick checkover. i found that both my lower ball joints had play, the passenger side has a lot of play. the last time i checked the front end, which has been a while, it was all tight. i have added ball joint spacers (prior to the last time i checked for play), and have yet to get extended shocks. think this is the culprit? i mean, these are the origional 200k mile ball joints, but its wierd it went from no play to a lot. longer shocks were already on the to do list, so i'm gonna do those as well as new upper/lower ball joints. i thought i had read about this happening with stock shocks and spacers on here, just curious if anyone else has seen this.

 

and i have wheeled this thing a few times since the spacers were put on as well

 

Yep, it's because of the shocks.

Read this thread, specifically post #5: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...joints-269220/

 

thanks. well, time to throw some parts at it.

 

Some longer shocks and new ball joints and you'll be good to go for a while. Just don't get ebay ball joints. I learned my lesson on those about a year ago...

 

Just as an update to the thread linked above, I bought the OME front extended shocks, had my OEM balljoints replaced under warranty, and within two months the same play has developed. My recommendation is either leave the front suspension stock or SAS it.

 

I don't want to turn this into another "BJ spacer vs. no BJ spacer" thread, but I've had my new Moog ball joints on mine for about 10 months and they're still fine, with ball joint spacers. There are hundreds of guys on here that have ball joint spacers and have no issues. Either that, or they just don't notice the play while (or if) they do maintenance on their vehicle.

I'm not really sure what could have caused that amount of play the second time on yours.

 

i know some will say use toyota parts, but i install a lot of moog stuff and rarely see problems. if a problem does arise, i doubt it will be the brands fault. as i said, i have done a few wheeling trips that my truck should not have gone on, and i pushed it pretty hard to make the trails. thats my fault, and i think i'm kind of over that phase now. i may still play around, but i'll leave the hard trails to the big rigs.

 

Get rid of the ball joint spacers...problem solved.

Who ever invented those stupid things should be shot...multiple times.

 

I don't know what the problem is either. I am aware that many, many people use them without reporting any issues. I've only found one other person experiencing issues similar to mine.

To the best of my knowledge, I have the BJ spacers installed correctly with all the correct components. I have all Toyota sperical joints new within the year. I have the Old Man Emu shocks installed. The lower ball joints were installed after the shocks. I am running 1.5" eBay spacers, and 4Crawler diff drop. The torsion bars have never been adjusted. With this setup I don't see what the problem is.

While I don't agree totally with your suggestion, I do agree that the BJ spacers are not the ideal way to lift the trucks. The Toyota suspension system works well and for a very long time if left stock. In my opinion, the BJ spacers are the reason for my suspension components wearing rapidly. I would recommend that people either leave the truck stock, or SAS it. There are also bracket lifts available but I never really liked those. They don't gain any ground clearance, only vehicle height. I plan to SAS the truck within the year.

 

All ball joints do really is add droop articulation. Hence why they put more stress on the lower ball joints.

Ball joint spacers totally change the geometry of the front suspension. Why would a rational person want to do that?