Good info. I'm going to be adding some BJ spacers in the next couple weeks. Just added some LC coils and some longer Pro Comp ES9000's my stock shocks were maxed out. Will add the spacers and level it out a bit.

 

Yep, bought two 555 brand idler arms and two sets of SDORI bushings. one for the pickup, one for the 4runner

 

I looked at BJ spacers' relation to idler arm failures really closely and I concluded that the idler arm failures were due to extra lift and fat tires (12.5"). In practice, I was pretty rough on my truck on my truck over a year and a half I had BJ spacers before I sold them, and I had no issues because I relaxed the torsion bars back to stock ride height.

The primary cause of idler arm failure is that the steeper the steering angle (tie-rod end to centre link), the more force is exerted upwards on the idler arm precipitating its demise. At stock ride height, the tie-rod ends exert barely any upwards force on the idler arm, just side-to-side force.

Wide tires are obviously harder to turn and require some sort of suspension lift (t-bar crank), so this explains why most of the guys complaining about bj spacers causing their idler arms trouble are running fat tires.

 

I was planning on getting the Toytec lift with the BJ spacers and add-a-leaf but it'll be almost $500 shipped!! Talk about defeating the purpose of a "budget" lift. Anyone got any spacers for sale? I'm sure it won't cost $189 to ship them to Canada.

I would do them but if I'm gonna spend over $300 for spacers alone I'll just save and go Blazeland I think and get 4-5 more inches of travel and a wider truck.

 

at that rate i agree, just go blazeland man.

 

I have spacers and larger torsion bars on my '88 and have no problems.

 

off topic, but damn i really like the look of your stock alloys with blacked out sections. too bad i don't plan on having mine for much longer otherwise i'd copy you...maybe i will anyways...

 

i considdered bj spacers but decided to go with the blazeland kit. im still gatherin parts, cant wait till i have everything installed...ima just get a tc idler arm cause mines almost shot as it is.

 

The TC idler arm is a nice piece of work. No issues with mine, like the stock one should be. I found mine used on the classifieds board here on YT, guy did a SA swap.

 

that tc unit looks burly! I have yet to bend or screw up my braced idler arm, knock on wood, but if i do the tc piece is on the list to purchase. Compared i would put my money on the tc unit being the stronger of the two but like i said this one has held up so far. Here's a pic for those of you interested in what it looks like when considering the ball joint spacer lift. It's from NWOR. Cost me around 70.00 bucks shipped if i remember correctly.

 

man i really need to get an idler arm brace and diff drop kit. i had the diff drop kit but it somehow got thrown away. lol

 

When talking to my guy here in st. louis for advice on how to make my truck stronger and more capable i asked him about the diff drop and if it would be necessary. He told me not to get it on the account that it would be hard to install the ifs truss for the overall strength with the diff drop in place. I opted for the truss instead of the diff drop and since i have very little crank in the t-bars i have yet to deal with axle binding when off roading so i'm happy without it. If you're planning on getting the sonoran steal truss with skid plates i would reccomend not getting the diff drop since they will interfere with each other. I had the same thought that i would need the diff drop but decided not to get it after e-mailing the guys over at sonoran steal and they told me they wouldn't fit.

 

^yeah, there's only like 1/2" clearance between the diff and a SS-style truss.

 

Ive been running spacers for a few years and over 60,000 miles with no issues along with Downey 2" rear springs. I dont wheel hard though so I cant say if Id bend an idler arm. I installed mine along with all new tie and ball joints, rebuilt idler and new steering stabilizer all at once, set the T bars where I wanted them and got a good front end alignment, the last set of Revos I had had over 45,000 miles and were not worn funny, just chewed up