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About to buy an ome 2in suspension kit for my 87 4runner with ifs and wanted to know your thoughts on their torsion bars? I plan to get the kit through rocky road outfitters (great deal). They sell one kit with the torsion bars and one without them. There is a $200 difference and my question is, is it worth it to change to the ome ones? My guess would be yes because the rest of the suspension is new.
Also I'm planning to do new cvs, upper and lower ball joints, and an idler arm while the front end is apart. It would probably make sense to do the inner/outer tie rods and pit man arm too. Any other ifs replacement parts you recommend?
Thanks in advance
Chris
Last edited by 84 yota dude; 01-11-2016 at 12:33 PM.
When i redid my suspension to fit 33s, i added the 1.5" spacers up front for lift. Then i put on the new OME Rear leafs, and shocks all around. Stabilizer too. I had to crank the t-bars a little to level it.
Because of this, i kept the original t-bars, expecting the new bars would be even stiffer it i were to crank them at all. Any crank stiffens the front significantly.
Unless you know you need new bars, or you're going to soon be jumping the truck Dukes o' Hazzard style, you can save some money there.
Replace all your bushings. Don't forget a new steering stabilizer. If you're going through the trouble to replace all CVs, may consider rebuilding your hubs at this time. If they don't turn nicely already.
Thanks for the quick reply!
Makes sense with the torsion bars..I'll have to check them out. And no don't plan to be jumping this bad boy haha
I was thinking about doing the spacers as well, but maybe the 2in ones. Also already have a set of manual hubs I rebuilt ready to be swapped in!
Watch out for the bolt on the clip that holds the leaf springs together, make sure it clears the fuel tank pinch-weld.
OME torsions bars are engineered to work with the rear leafs.
Ruined adventures and Defrag took them to the test driving all the way to the end of South America. However, some people say they're stiff, so some prefer BJ spacer.
BJ spacers are less expensive, but there are different schools of thoughts on ball-joint spacers. Check out Blazen8's dissertation on them. See what it takes to make a clean modification of the Upper Control Arm, research more and make your decision.
IIRC, Adventure Copan on T4R.org also recently did OME's. Check out what he says.
And pls keep us posted. Wanna do, OME too, someday.
Last edited by RAD4Runner; 01-11-2016 at 11:43 PM.
I've got OME on my 93 and did all the parts except new t-bars too. I heard they're great if you have extra weight on the rig like a heavy winch+bumper or are always loaded down with gear but I'm usually empty and by myself in my truck. I got 1.5 BJ spacers also for the front.
In regards to "what else" you can do, seems like you'll have everything covered with all thos new parts. When you swap your hubs over make sure to grease everything up and repack wheel bearings and set everything like new. Should drive like a brand new truck afterwards.
Highonpottery-cool name haha! That's good to know about the weight difference between the bars.
I actually won't be doing the work myself because I am so busy with school. However, I plan on dropping my 4runner off at Mudrak's custom cruisers located in Sonoma in March. My friend works there and I have helped out occasionally at the shop. They specialize in land cruisers but do awesome work all around. Next time I call Gary I'll ask him what he recommends for the torsion bars.
Last edited by 84 yota dude; 01-12-2016 at 11:10 AM.
Mudrak is very reputable shop, they'll get you sorted out for sure. I'm going to guess they'll suggest you keep your stock t-bars for now, they can always be upgraded later down the road. OME is one of the only companies still making them
I forgot to add, on my truck after I put on the new, stiffer leaf springs, I decided to lower my t-bar setting to compensate for the lift I got from the BJ spacers. Not only that, but I actually ended up removing my swaybar too, in order to soften it up even more. Finally when I put bigger tires, I added a little more height via t-bars, for clearance. My final height on all 4 corners is 22.5" center axle to bottom of fenders, I'm not quite sure what stock is, but it's around 20-21" I think (yours will be slightly different since you have a different gen vehicle)
Ok so I made a little excel spread sheet just tallying up some numbers. Kinda high in my opinion but I want the right parts and always believe in doing things the correct way. What are your thoughts on parts from rock auto? The prices I selected are from either the highest quality or second highest on their list.
Ok, so doing everything When I did my ball joints I didn't go Toyota even though they're likely the longest lasting option. I sought out "555" Sankei parts which I got in Beck Arnley boxing from Amazon. I've gotten the same brand for all the other steering stuff on my 1975 truck, dunno for the newer IFS steering parts specific to your truck. 555 has a reputation of being good - supposedly the equivalent of OEM since they're "made in the same factory".
For idler arm, get the one that Blazeland did a little write up here on YT recently I'm not sure the part number/brand right now. It's the beefiest option we have available right now from an auto parts store and is not a $400 TC version -- then get a steel truss for it for more strength. I still need to do this on my truck.
You might not need new CVs if they're not all torn up and running with no grease for long time. I always heard OEM is the strongest option for CVs unless going to RCV or other high end CV parts. Maybe find a set from someone ditching IFS.
Your list is pretty thorough but I didn't do my IFS control arm bushings yet and need to. It's pretty tough without a press or burning them out, so if you're at the shop already you may consider doing them at the same time. Also I'm not sure if your truck falls under that center link recall but you might be able to get a new center link. Look it up. I don't remember if we've got a rag joint in the steering my old truck has one, but that would be another thing to tighten steering. Ask them to repack wheel bearings and lube everything up too.
I was told by Toyo tooler about the Sankei parts as well. Thing is I couldn't find them for all the parts on rock auto, that's why I picked the ones on the upper end of the price range.
Would these bushings work? A little confused which bushings I need for the upper vs the lower control arms. http://www.northwestoffroad.com/parts/urethane1.php
Id probably run those NW products by the blazeland guy as he is on these forums and he has lived and breathed the IFS control arm rebuild dream for quite a few years. I know he is a huge fan of the floating poly bushings, but maybe these particular ones/brand have a bad rep among suspension rebuilders? I went and checked the site out, they sell the control arm bushings as a full lower/upper set, so no real decisions to be made in that regard.
EDIT: yeah i thought i remembered some fishy stories about NWOR floating around: quick NWOR into google brings up a nasty series of stories about the shop. Pirate 4x4 is the one i remembered: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/toyot...-anyone-2.html
Yes, it would be the IFS control arm bushing set. I haven't done mine yet so don't have a whole lot to contribute. I've heard mixed reviews about poly bushings - depending on location used. Yes they are a great material that is typically superior to rubber in many ways. But on the negative side of things I've heard they can be squeaky/noisy in some applications - not sure if control arms is one of them but I assume it is. On something that sees a lot of movement, like the control arms - i'm not sure which you'd want. Consult with blazeland, he's done a lot of IFS homework for his LT kits.
84 yoda dude that is a good article taking about rubber vs poly bushings. It explains the pros and cons very well. For Toyota IFS bushings burning out the rubber bushings and converting to poly is a hassle but once its done the poly is user friendly. As far as the bushings I use in my Long Arm kits they are from Energy Suspension and they are poly. Poly will squeak but when they do re-grease them. I recommend Energy Suspension Formula 5 grease.
Nate/blazeland, not really sure how to address you formally on a semi informal site. You use their products in your kits, do you sell them as a vendor too? i didnt see them listen on your website. Just about to purchase quite a large # of things (poly bushings and moog parts) from aftermarketsuspensionparts.com and wanted to get a few more prices on the list before pulling trigger
Not nay saying, but my basic physics principles would lead me to believe that the biggest point of concern in large impact situations would be pulling tie rods and the stock control arm mounting locations. Ive never heard of one failing, but a longer arm exerting a twisting force back to the mount points seems like it could maybe get that joint to fail.
I'm not a vendor of Energy Suspension. I do buy in bulk but not in large enough quantities to make it worth the effort. I sometimes buy at 4WP if I am low and in a hurry and the speed and convenience is worth a few dollars.
When converting to poly bushings you do re-use the steel sleeves, shells, washers, and nuts. I've found these items hold up better if all surfaces contacting the poly get blasted to clean metal and new zinc is applied. The shells get covered with baked on powder coat.
You might want to read this thread to see the rebuild process.
BlazeN8 good info there. After reading that thread, I'll definitely make sure the spacers are installed without a hack job.
@highonpottery.. How do you like the beck/arnley ball joints? I'm planning to get all the senki parts I can from rockauto (ball joints, inner/outer tie rods, and the adjusting sleeves.)
01-11-2016, 12:27 PM
When I did my ball joints I didn't go Toyota even though they're likely the longest lasting option. I sought out "555" Sankei parts which I got in Beck Arnley boxing from Amazon. I've gotten the same brand for all the other steering stuff on my 1975 truck, dunno for the newer IFS steering parts specific to your truck. 555 has a reputation of being good - supposedly the equivalent of OEM since they're "made in the same factory". 
