Upper ball joint spacers

[Nev62]

Just after people's opinions on the use of upper ball joint spacers on IFS fronts. I am lead to believe it will increase downward travel. I still find it a little hard to belive that a 12mm spacer would make that much difference (this was on top of moving the spacer and joint below the upper control arm).

What says you

Oh and before the flaming starts, this was done to a rodeo and not the Raider

[Bitsamissin]

My advice is not to do it.
Basically it's usually done in conjunction with a balljoint flip (mounting upper balljoint under wishbone rather than through it) then fitting the spacer 10-12mm in between.
There are serious safety implications with a mod like that it's only the 3 8mm bolts locating the balljoint to the wishbone. If they shear then you have real problems. I seriously looked into this and decided against it mainly because of the safety risk and increased angle the CV's will be at full droop with a front locker.
Yes a 12mm spacer will yield a few more inches in down travel because the arm moves in an arc and that is multiplied at the wheel.
If your breaking CV's now your gonna have a worse problem with spacers.
Anecdotal evidence from the Paj boys that have done it suggest that increased bump steer can be an issue along with more bent idler arms resulting in broken tie rods.
Have you tried disconnecting your front swaybar ?? The balljoint flip with spacers is useless without doing this as it will prevent full travel anyway.

[Nev62]

My advice is not to do it.
Basically it's usually done in conjunction with a balljoint flip (mounting upper balljoint under wishbone rather than through it) then fitting the spacer 10-12mm in between.

Have you tried disconnecting your front swaybar ?? The balljoint flip with spacers is useless without doing this as it will prevent full travel anyway.

Not done a thing. Even disconnecting the swaybar will not make much difference in my case due to the standard shocks limited travel. I was just curious as to why people would bother asuming the vehicle is not a comp 4b.

[v8zuki]

did this to a hilux ifs 1"spacer ,doesnt give anymore down travel but
car sits at the same height but with out winding the crap out of the
torsion bars so u get a softer ride with more flexibility as the bars
arnt under so much tension just to get clearance.
worked extremly well .
fitted bigger bolts with aftermarket balljoints as they had more material around the bolt holes

[J Top]

Nev
Disconnecting the swaybar will often help the articulating wheels to give more ground pressure until they do run out of travel, so it would probably help your vehicles offroad ability.

V8zuki
You don't change the tension on a torsion bar by winding it , just it's relative position to the vehicle. The ride turns to custard when people wind the vehicle up on to the upper bumpstops.
And fitting the spacer does give more down travel as it spaces the top arm away from the stop. It also improves the camber on a lifted vehicle.
Totally agree with the larger bolts.
J Top