Front Suspension Upgrade

Ok I know there are a lot of threads on this, and I've looked over a lot of them, I just had some questions and needed help on buying options.

Vehicle: 1998 Tacoma 6cyl 4x4 TRD SR5 manual trans

Right now I have the ARB OME leafs in the back with billstein 5100's and love it, it never bottoms offroad and supports 2 dirtbikes with gear no problem. Lifted it up a bit too. Great recommendation from everyone on here with the OME leaf springs, thanks for that.

On the front, I put in 2.0 fox coilovers almost a couple years ago. It lifted the front and was definitely an improvement, but I think it could be just slightly better with 2.5's on the front. (After meeting a couple different 1st gen owners with 2.5's and hearing their experience) I should've saved up and probably got 2.5's in the first place.

I have total chaos diff drop on the front. OEM steering rack just replaced with poly bushings, poly bushings on the sway bar too.

I currently live in socal but will hopefully be moving to Alaska in the next few months then offroading there, in the snow too of course. I love going to the desert, mountains, not so into rock gardens where I could bust something. Not looking to hit stadium whoops but don't want to have to worry so much about the front bottoming easily either. I like sometimes just have having it in 2wd in the dirt and just skimming across some bumps.

One thing I didn't know about with the 2.0's is that the threads are so small on the shock body that you can't even adjust the coilovers unless you have a spring compressor because you risk damaging the threads (the local offroad shop did not want to touch them unless they were off the vehicle, because you can't even get a spring compressor in there with them on the vehicle). I've looked at both, and yea you can see the threads are bigger on 2.5's.

The 2.5's have bigger threads and people adjust them on their vehicle right? Just jack up, let the front wheels drop, and just use a general adjustment wrench?

People with 2.5's almost always get the upper arms. I eliminated this as an option after hearing all of them squeaking terribly. I love that my suspension is quiet with the 2.0's and stock arms.

That was until recently that I talked to ORW and they mentioned the Icon delta joint. It's supposed to combine the ball joint and uniball, of course may have drawbacks but it allows for the extended 2.5 coilovers with greater angles like a uniball, but is quiet like a ball joint and supposed to last longer. Sounds like some great feedback from people that have them as well.

Another concern is with bigger/longer coilovers and an upper arm that allows for more articulation (droop/drop out), what is the limiting factor in the drop? They say the coilovers are built in with a kind of stop but are the cv's/diff taking a lot of abuse from that? Is it worth putting limiting straps on?

Then of course what brand coilover, reservoir or not? I was thinking about the king 2.5's, but that other thread sounds like maybe a bit controversial, or just one person's bad experience? Icon and Fox make a 2.5 with a reservoir for our trucks but is it worth it or only if I was hitting whoops for several hours straight?

Getting my alignment done recently, they told me my front lower control arm bushings are shot. Has anyone used the whiteline? Energy? Other options/opinions?

Sorry for so many questions, been thinking about all of this for a long while and now with the my control arm bushings bad (I just replaced them with new arms like a couple years ago), it's time to do something I think.

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

I have the OME complete suspension kit installed on my truck. I have the following installed:

2883 front coils
Nitrocharger gas shocks
Dakar leaf springs
D43XL add a leaf
Light Racing under control arms

I'm running an ARB bumper/V6 engine block and plan on getting a winch & lights sometime in the future. You have a very nice setup with the Fox coilovers/5100 Bilsteings/Dakar leaf springs on your current truck. I would recommend the OME 2882 or 2883 front coils, upgrade to a better UCA, and replace the lower control arm bushings for what you're looking for.

 

I recommend biting the bullet and getting some 2.5s and a uniball UCA and just be done with it. The improvement in ride quality and performance is worth the money.

just my 2cents.

 

Thanks guys, guess I put too many questions for most people.

I need to figure out which lower control arm bushings to get still.

LukeCC, do your uniball upper arms make a lot of noise, any experience with the delta joint upper arms?

With the 2.5 coilovers and upper arms, is it correct to still shoot for 1.5" to 2" of down travel?

Also trying to decide whether will be necessity to get reservoir or not.

 

https://www.energysuspensionparts.com/about-control-arm-bushings.asp

try this for LCA bushings ^

I didn’t experience a whole lot of noise with mine. I had total chaos upper control arms. Higher end mid travel set up but with that they provide zerk fitting so you can loosen the through bolt and grease the bushings through said fittings to keep things quite and happy.

Here’s my old set up.

 

Not everyone that has uniball uppers have issues with noise on the Uniballs themselves. After years mine started to make some noise and a few drops of TriFlow made them silent again. Haven’t had to add any for months.


However, veryone will have noise with the poly bushings. You need to go through the process of loosening the bolt that runs through them and greasing them with SuperLube every oil change. If they will seize and you can’t lube them properly which requires changing the bushing out.

 

Routine maintenance is key with any “high performance” parts.

 

For your lowers- you could press them out OR.... I went the easy route, found a driver side with 60k on it and a passenger side with 77k - and that one came with both adjustment cams! Total cost: $180 and I’ve got 2 OEM lower ball joints with a fraction of the miles that mine have on them (170k and still tight)
I know it costs more but it’s an option. If you’re paying to have the bushings swapped it’s close to a wash. I could always put new bushings in my current arms and sell them- as even 170k mike oem balljoints are probably preferred to the aftermarket units from what I’ve read.

 

King/ADS/Fox/Icon 2.5, a good UCA with uniball, and replace LCA w/ whiteline bushings and new OEM bolts, sleeves and cams and add TC cam tabs they are beef. Make sure you antiseize them. A couple of group buys going right now for the shocks not sure on UCA.

 

Aftermarket uppers are NOT "necessary" unless you've lifted it to the point that you can't get it back into factory alignment.

Willing to bet 3/4's of the uniball UCAs out there are just window dressing. IF you do end up needing new UCAs to correct your alignment, you don't need uniballs, either. Just about ANY aftermarket UCA will do that.

As has been mentioned, a lot of people forget that high performance parts need more maintenance. Those $1500 shocks need to be rebuilt pretty regularly, which is an added cost on TOP of the expensive parts themselves. Uniball UCAs and poly bushings need to be cleaned and lubed regularly as well. The non-uniballs (SPC, light racing, etc) are ballljoint style and thus require less maintenance.

If you're looking for something with little to no maintenance and has a decent performance upgrade over stock, stick with the OME or 5100s and some SPC UCAs (if needed) and don't touch them for 80k miles.

Unless you specifically have extended travel coilovers, the total travel will NOT change, so you don't need "extra" articulation from your control arms. Down travel on Tacomas is limited by the shock. Lift coils just change where the truck sits within a set amount of travel. So lifting it basically gives you more up travel, and less down travel.

I went with extended travel Kings, and TC uniball UCAs, and I'm currently at about 1.5" lift. The extra inch of down travel from the shocks means I wanted more available articulation from the UCAs (although it's debatable if that was strictly necessary). I also have poly LCA bushings so I essentially have unlimited articulation from the bushings (vs. the rubber ones that need to twist). My diff drop also helps ensure that I don't bind the CVs when at full droop - even though I'm well below what lift is normally "needed" for a diff drop.

Do you know if either of those had been replaced as part of the factory recall before you obtained them? Do you know the history of them? 77k miles doesn't really mean squat if the truck was abused and not maintained.

No, it's really not.

Seriously, with the failures these BJs are known for, I personally would NEVER buy a used lower BJ, even OEM. I would rather put on new Moog BJs than even an OEM with an unknown history and XXX miles.

 

No clue, could have asked I guess but based on the bazillion posts here where basically nobody could recommend an aftermarket lower control arm that would last more than a year or so (the ball joint obviously) and with new OEM’s at like $350 per side- I went with low mile used OEM. I wanted someone to say their MOOG or Meyle/AC/etc. lowers we’re kicking ass- but nope. The guys who had them and were happy seemed to have only fairly recently replaced them and lots of guys who had them fail within a year- and I pile on the miles. Just trying to avoid doing this again 12 months down the road. As for the used control arms I got- they were about the same money (a little more expensive I guess) than aftermarket replacements but they look good to me. Both came from the west coast (no rust- I’m in Chicago... everything rusts here) and the bushings look great, ball joints seem tight. Used stuff is always a gamble I guess- but with the research I put in, all indications said aftermarket = band aid for about a year. My only experience with the OEM has been 5 years/ 170k without issue... so unless I have some very bad luck with the used lowers I grabbed- you see what I’m saying. At worst I’ve got 2 pair of lower OEM arms that I can put whatever ball joint in I want. Even my 2 170k mile ones- who’s history I’m familiar with.

 

Anyone heard of Filthy Motorsports? Ben has been super helpful and has some awesome videos (lengthy but informative). Recommends the SPC arms over something like Delta joint, he's had lots of good experiences with them apparently, the appear to be a lot beefier too.

I'm looking at the king 2.5 extended with the SPC upper arms and whiteline bushings for lower arms I'm thinking. From the sound of it, really gotta make sure all the bushings are lubed up a LOT during install.

I don't like the idea of putting used parts on my truck if I can avoid it.

I don't know about upper arms being just window dressing - if you get extended coilovers you have to get different arms right? You'll have great angles during full droop and puts lotta stress on ball joint. Not to mention difficulty in alignment.

I do have moog upper/lower ball joints and have been happy so far with about 15k miles. I do grease them along with driveshaft/chassis parts every oil change, so greasing control arm bushings/upper spc ball joint, won't be a lot different for me.

 

There's some debate on if you NEED UCAs with extended arms. I'm biased, since I got uniball UCAs when I did my ext travel Kings, but I would say it's certainly not a bad idea. My thought was the uniballs have more articulation, so I didn't want the upper ball joint to be the binding point given the longer travel, plus they're stronger.

If you're on a budget, IMO start with your stock UCAs and get it aligned after you're done with the lift/shocks. If you're having trouble getting it aligned to spec, it's likely your UCAs.

I don't think anyone will come on here and tell you that Moogs are the best thing since sliced bread. You can read up on my ball joint rant if you like on my build thread.

Basically, the animosity that people seam to have against non-OEM ball joints is (IMO) undeserved, however you should generally not seek out the cheapest option when it comes to critical suspension equipment especially since Toyota gave us a poor design in the first place. The "OEM or nothing" crowd seem to forget the poor design of the BJs and that Toyta had a recall on them anyway, so OEM isn't infallible.

Moog is the CHEAPEST I would go. Just because I won't go back to moog, doesn't mean I think they're crap. I just think there are better options (i.e. 555) for not that much more money. And doubling the price for OEM (from 555) IMO isn't doubling the quality.

My moogs lasted 6-7 years, and they were still fine (i.e. no measurable slop) when I replaced them when I did my front end King stuff.

In the end, what seems to cause balljoint failures is NOT necessarily the brand of balljoint you installed, but the fact that you likely ignored small problems (leaking boots or slop in the joint) or didn't torque the bolts properly. In other words: user error. So given that the balljoints have a poor design, I wouldn't go buy the $5 Amazon special, but IMO OEM is NOT the end all be all that will prevent all future failures.

 

How about SPC's vs the icon delta joints? I'm trying to decide between those two right now... For some reason all the local offroad shops hate on the SPC's, maybe because they previously had problems but have since been improved and revised.

Should I start using superlube for all the ball joints, u joints, etc? I've been using that Lucas red for all the chassis stuff, is it ok to mix the 2, or should I use maybe the superlube for the UCA bushings and ball joints or something?

Anybody use the "built right" LCA bushings? I called a shop recently and he claimed those are way better than whiteline (but I think he sells only the built right)

 

SPC vs Icon; I’m not personally experienced with either, but there is an obvious cost difference, and the SPCs are a ball joint vs. the uniball of the icons.

Some people just don’t like balljoints. Whatever, they’re fine for most people. Generally uniballs have more articulation and are stronger, but that isn’t always necessary.

As for what lube to use, don’t over think it. Just read the manufacturers recommendations as far as the type (lithium, etc...) then just use that. Brand or color honestly doesn’t matter.

 

Gotcha thanks. That icon delta joint is supposed to be more like a ball joint, kind of cross between both. Some of the shops have claimed that having the adjustability of the SPC is a bad thing and that they have broken or come loose at the ball joint but maybe install error?