While working on my first gen 4runner today I was playing with some ideas for the suspension. Then it hit me, why can't I have 2" BJ spacers? Yes I know at the stock settings for the torsion bars it'll eat up CVs, but what if I relax the T-bars a bit? Say my fender is 36" of the ground with 1.5" BJ spacers and stock T-bar settings, what if I throw a 2" BJ spacer in there and relax the T-bar until the fender is again 36" off the ground. People always say if you crank the T-bars for lift you lose flex, but if you relax them with larger BJ spacers will the front flex more with the same amount of lift and same stress on the CVs?

It might give the 4runner a little more body roll, but wouldn't the sway bar take care of most of that? Just an idea...

 

Go back to the drawing board. There are good reasons no one makes one bigger than 1.5" ... Besides CV axles binding which has nothing to do w/ the torsion bars... You forgot about steering and alignment.

With 1.5" BJ spacers you max out your ability to align the truck properly and really stress the steering (say goodbye to your idler arm.. plan on replacing it often).

 

Yea you cant align it right after 1.5 inches but to say they make ur idler arm break well I just dont see how u can say that... I dont see how thats possible. what is possible is the bigger tires, not having it braced or having the front axle locked could all lead to it breaking but just the BJ spacers themselves thats just not true.

 

I think the point was if you put in a 2" spacer and relax the t-bars .5" then you stay within the recommended suspension height and gain that extra droop from relaxing the bars.

I thought about this when deciding to go with BJ Spacers too. I wouldn't think there would be any problems with this approach but then again I'm no engineer.

Maybe Elripster will chime in...

 

actually I would not worry so much about breaking the idler arm as I would the ball joint itself. Basically you are increasing the leverage the steering knuckle has on the ball joint which will at least decrease the life of the joint. at worst it will kill you or someone else when it fails.

 

If I'm not mistaken elripster makes custom length bj spacers and I'm almost positive I've seen 2" versions before... He definitely doesn't recommend them over 1.5" though.

He'll be along shortly I'm sure...

 

The problem is 1.5" spacers already throw the parallel-ness of your upper and lower arms more than they already should be. That's what screws with geometry and why you shouldn't go 2". Raising or lowering your truck .5" with torsion bars shouldn't affect your ride quality that much anyway.

 

The risk of the 2" spacer is over extending the CV's and binding them. That will cause them to fail.

2" is possible but on the edge of acceptable. 1.5" leaves some margin for variations in truck suspension after years of wheeling and settling of the upper bumpstops.

Alignment issues will likely be minimal but I have not experimented with a 2" spacer and impacts on alignment.

It's your truck and of course you are free to do with it as you wish I just want people to be aware of potential consequences of mods so they can weigh the trade offs.

BTW, I'm going to be on my honeymoon for the next 10 days so if I don't get back to a post during that that's why.

Frank

 

This is a little off topic but id rather ask here than start a new thread. This question is for strykersd or anyone else running this same set up. I noticed u are running bj spacers with stock offset rims, 4.75 corret me if im wrong. my question is do u have any rubbing issues. I thought in order to run bj spacers u had to have rims with 4.50 backspacing or less. Anybody please help me on this. I have 32-11.50-15 in tires and i want to run a 15x8 with 4.75 in backspace with bj spacers. By the way this is on an 87 4 runner. please any help is appreciaed. Reasoning for 4.75 is i can get them a lot cheaper than the 4.50 backspaced ones.

Thanks Bryan