Ball joint angle issues

viper

New Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2009
Location
Charlotte
I separated my ball joints on my '99 Toyota Tacoma, it has about 170k miles on it and I guess I should have known it was coming but now my mechanic is telling me that due to my lift (OME 883 front springs on 4 cylinder tacoma) that there is a possibility it can happen again due to the suspension angles.

how can I correct these angle issues without changing the lift to a lower spring or spending a couple thousand on a solid axle swap?
 
You cant really. I have a friend that just went through this. He was running fabtech adj. coil overs at 2.5" of lift with relatively new tre's and bj's. He was coming down albemarle rd. the other day and hit a pot hole and drove his front tire up through his fender and door. There really is just no way to fix the problem with out buying a cradle lift to drop down the a-arm pivots to make them more parellel to the ground.
 
yea... thats what I am afraid of... this time I escaped with relatively minor damage but if it had been my driver's tire I would have been pulled right into the path of an on coming dump truck.

how often do you hear of this happening?
 
This is about the fifth one. Not all Toyotas, but in every case its been a vehicle with a coil spacer lift or torsion keys or cranked torsion bars that make the angle on the control arms steeper.
 
well this truck has neither cause its a '99 but with the 3" lift its supposedly still pretty bad angles... I am just unsure how to correct those angles without spending tons of cash or how to reduce the chance of those popping out again without spending a ton?
 
The OME springs are the same a lift spacers as far a what they do to the cortrol arm angles. The only chance you have at keeping them from popping out again is to run limit straps that are pretty much tight at ride height.
 
well ive been looking at these uniball UCAs and those seem to atleast address how to stop so much damage from occuring at those angles but man they are expensive. I guess I will also have to get a diff drop to help with the CV axle angles as well... what all is involved with a diff drop if about an inch other than bolting up the parts with the spacer... is there any other parts I might need other than the bolts and spacers?

Also just as a quick side note while I have things apart I know rear leaf springs typically limit suspension travel in the rear, however I was wondering how I can tell if it might be the shocks that are limiting the travel? I was considering saving for some Bilstein 5125 -12" shocks to replace the OME shocks that are currently on the vehicle to help length the rear's travel, but I do not know if it is currently limited by the leaf springs (OME Dakar set) or the shocks?
 
The only way I know to drop the diff and the lower arms would be to buy a 4?" or 6?" cradle lift from somebody like fabtech or rough country. Thats gonna give you the best results but its a little more pricey. I'm sure there are more options out there but I'm not that familiar with the tacoma aftermarket.

Uniball uppers will fix that problem, but it still wont help the lower bj's, cv angles and tire scrub through travel.
 
well i wasn't necessarily talking about dropping the diff to fix the arms that was just to help with CV angles, apparently thats only 2 bolts with spacers to move but wasnt sure if there was anything else needed.

The lower ball joints weren't in that bad of a bind, the uppers were the worst of the set so I'm not too concerned with those. As for tire scrub I've got almost 3.5" of suspension lift and only running 33s lol... tire scrub isn't an issue as a matter of fact having tire clearance is the least of my issues.
 
When I say scrub I'm referring to the tire moving in and out under the truck. The steeper the arms the more the tire scrubs in and out loading the wheel bearings when you hit bumps. And even though your lowers don't look like their binding on flat ground when you turn and the body rolls it may rise up 2 or 3" on the inside and that is maxing them out. Simple things like crossing a curb will do it too.
 
I've been trying to do some research on cradle lifts... I cant find ANYTHING related to a tacoma. can anyone give me some advice on what to get to fix it?
 
Basically, your only fix is to either ditch the 883's and go with an adjustable coilover set to a lower height, or buy aftermarket upper control arms. What shocks are you running with the 883's?

Also, the diff drop won't help you out much with the CV angles.

Drop bracket lift, lower suspension height, long travel conversion, or solid axle swap are the solutions.
 
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