1st Gen - Who has Leveling Kit Spacers? Ball Joint touch Spring????

I recently installed brand new Kelly Safari TSR 265/75 tires and I really need this 2.5" leveling kit to work. But when I drop the lower control arm and install the spacer, I try to reinstall and the spindle is forced downward , forcing the Ball Joint into the Spring pretty hard!!! Anyone else have or had this problem? What did you do without buying aftermarket UCA's ???

 

you need new UCA's or you need to go lower on the lift, enough said...

 

fixed

You can lift the front end properly (either stock springs and 5100's or eibach coils and 5100's) with stock UCA's and there will be enough clearance. I'm not familiar with spacer lifts but everything I've read on them says they are not good, throw everything out of whack...that may be your problem. I have a 3" lift in the front and when I had stock UCA's....I had zero problems.

 

if you set the 5100 strut to 2.5, using stock coils or Eibachs, you may have ball to coil contact on full droop, plus proper alignment (especially caster) will be hard to achieve...it depends on the truck, some are ok, some are not...

anyway, spacer lifts are not the way to go...I would imagine you installed blocks in the rear, not an AAL? This can lead to problems too..

not all lifts are equal..

 

I'm interpreting bama trd as having installed a spacer kit that gives 2.5" lift. This causes the spindle in full droop to be 2.5" lower than stock.

@bama trd: While the truck is supported at the frame, you can put a jack under the lower control arm and raise it. This will compress the suspension and let you move the spindle away from the coil. However, as others have said, spacers are bad. You can imagine the setup will stress the ball joint and cause it to fail prematurely.

 

Is the ball the joint hitting the spring after you've dropped the truck back down to the ground?

Is the spacer 2.5" tall or the overall advertised lift supposed to end up at 2.5" tall?

A couple solutions:

1. Uniball UCAs.
2. Shorter top plate spacers

Pictures would be most helpful.

Top plate spacers (like body lifts) aren't necessarily bad. It is just that there are better ways of solving the same problem. And, like everything else in life, best in moderation.

BTW, I had a 3" lift in the front using OME coilovers and had spindle to coil contact with the stock UCAs at full droop. Solved it with Icon UCAs. YMMV.

 

I've got the same issue, primarily on the PS, caused by the 10mm spacer on top of my OME 881s. Down the road I will be getting new UCAs, as I don't want to lower the front at all.

This thread http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/270560-ome-lift-uca-touches-coil-spring.html chronicles others' experience as well

 

This was my addition to that thread:


http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1s...lift-uca-touches-coil-spring.html#post6772018

 

Thanks everyone for the replies, it was an advertised 2.5" spacer front lift. I sent it back for a full refund. I didn't get to drop the truck down off the jack stands with it installed, because the ball joint was hitting the spring so hard. I just pulled it right back off. I'm going to save and purchase the 5100 shocks, I just hate to buy new upper uca's ....I've heard they're really expensive...

 

This is exactly what it was looking like!

 

You can get LR UCA's for <$400. Not that bad compared to some of the uniball setups out there.

 

Not sure LRs will solve the problem because they have a ball joint just like stock. Would have to compare the two geometries between stock and the LR to see.

 

Just order Bilstein 5100's for Front and Rear!!! Can't wait , Thanks Guys