So I heard You can buy AIM or Belltech Drop Spindles and it would bolt on to an 83 suspension all you need is the hub...rotor...and brake cailper is it true lol

 

Yes, all these parts need to be from an 84+. That what mine is and mine is an 82 with an 84+ front clip with Belltech 2" dropped spindles, buy Belltechs by the the way, I have heard they are the best ones you can buy.

Good luck

 

Oh, by the way, I am so jealuos of you for having the Mojave Edition, my favorite body style the 82/83. Please do me a personal favor and take good care of her and give her the very best you can, that is a very rare truck to have, completly loaded.

 

lol thanks bro when i got it....it was in terrible condition but its coming along now lol

 

Sound Great, thanks, kinda funny, it's not even my truck and yet I care so much about it.

There is an older guy around here lives up in the old "up it dee" part of town that has a Original Mojave, I am almost certain he is the original owner of the truck, it's all stock, saw it sitting in his garage a few summers ago when we were out driving around and started panting heavily LOL and I am pretty sure you and I both know, he knows what he has and would never sell it, lucky stiff!

If you ever had an interest in selling it, I would be very interested in buying it, I would have to do some serious dealing/bargining with my wife but for that, I think she would let me buy it.

 

You must swap pretty much all the front suspension bits to run 84+ drop arms/spindles. (except steering stuff)

Upper control arms, lower control arms, spindle, hubs, brakes, caster rods.

And a custom alignment with a crap ton of camber shims.

But its worth it...

 

At Andy Ya bro i got it for a steal 400.00 Bucks and it was mainly cheap because he didnt know how to work on toyotas I used to have an 87 but i love the mojave its really awesome what made me buy it so quick was the fact it had a tilt steering wheel and sunroof lol someone in tacoma was selling a mojave for like 200.00 last month just the fact it had a blown headgasket lol but im sure u will find one bro

 

At Raff..a little bird told me you didnt have to swap over the LCA or UCA just the hub, rotors, and calipers but it looks like it would be alot cleaner to swap in the later suspension i got my truck dropped but i wanna go lower lol

 

I was actually going to model my truck after the mojave, complete with the mettalic beige paint job, I did paint some interior pieces brown over the tan like the Mojaves, until I fell head over heals with another color advertised in the mantrack section of Playboy, oh baby and I'm talkin about the color not the woman, thats sad huh? LOL.

Anyway I want to add an aftermarket sunroof someday and I am defintly getting a tilt wheel, an aftermarket one though I love a tilt wheel, wish my truck had it.

I also wish the older SR5 trucks came factory with everything like the new Tacoma SR5's, I am guessing that these days it is cheaper on production costs to make them all the same, vs back then it was probably options that the buyer wanted to add, mine is an sr5 and has:

buckets
console
tach

does not have:
tilt
a/c
cruise

 

?? for what? Later model brake swap? Yea prob. that would work, I havnt tried it....

But your not going to unbolt a 79-83 spindle and just put a 84+ spindle in its place. Its quite a bit different.

And if I wanted, I could drop it another 3in with drop arms But that would be a rediculous static drop. Like 3 in off the ground crossmember.

 

There is a Mojave in the junk yard near by. I took a few parts off. Kind of wanted to take the Cruise and AC, but was already spending a lot that day.

Technically you can keep all your stock arms, the lower ball joint just needs to be turned upside down, so the castle nut faces up. Then you need hubs, rotors, calipers, and lines. Its usually best to be replacing your ball joints while you are in there too.

 

is a ball joint flip recommended for more drop or just better fit?

 

You cannot "flip" the balljoint on a 79-83.

The lower control arm is humped on the other side of the control arm. The ball joint wont sit flat.

(im talking he popular suspension drop method)

 

Yeah you cant really do a "balljoint flip" 79-83 i tried a while ago and FAILED lol it will only work on 84+ suspension.....thats why people swap suspension so that you can use drop spindles and etc.....it looks like thats what i gotta do dont wanna but i gotta lol........Hey Raff quick question what kind of shocks would work to make it a lil lower for the front and back i already have my torsion bars cranked and a 3 inch block with one leaf removed in the back....but can shocks make it go a lil lower?

 

IDK anything about dropped shocks. I just run 23 dollar monroe blues. Really dissapointed with them, but truck still handles great. And they were cheap.

Shocks dont affect ride height, Unless your shocks are too short, and they are holding your truck lower. (Thats a bad thing)

Otherwise

 

alright sounds like a plan i guess when i get done with my motor....my suspension swap will be the next major project lol

 

Thanks Seth. That's exactly what I wanted someone to say. I plan the same with 84+ spindles on my 78. I HATE solid rotors. And then drop spindles is an easy option if I ever need it. Ride height looks like about the same and the track width pulled in about 3/4" on each side. Which would be perfect for some nice small lip rims.

Anybody know of any issues Im missing? I know about the leftyrighty swap

 

That hump on the control arm can be trimmed off, in order to flip the balljoints upside down. I don't like the balljoint flip, where you put the balljoint on top of the arm. It comes below the arm stock for load reasons. But if you do it this way, you need to replace all of the hardware, because it sees a higher load now.

On my blue truck I had the stock lower arms, and balljoints. I eventually swapped to 84+ ball joints because they are much cheaper to buy new, and I had to re angle the front of the arm and drill new holes. Would be easier to get the later arms. Just saying it can be done.

standardbyker88, I don't really like the idea of putting the later spindles on your truck because it is a totally different suspension design. It might be close, so you might get away with it. I just dont much care for the spindle swap idea from one chassis to a completely different design. I'm not familiar with the pre 79 suspension, but I am very familiar with suspension design. And a front steer spindle will not work in a rear steer car. I put S10 spindles on a rear steer setup I built from scratch (wanted for brakes), and I had to modify the spindles to put the steering arm in the right location.

 

so on the 84+ suspension swap, do the control arms bolt on? or do you need to do trimming, welding, etc.?
are they the same length?
is the main difference in the ball joints?
are the control arm mounting points on the different trucks farther apart, or closer(suspension geometry stuff?)
it would be nice if someone had some side by side comparison pics because im lazy and it would add good details to such a frequently asked question.

i know it's a lot of questions and answers to any of them would be cool if no one has all of them. i just got some 84+ belltech drop spindles, brakes and hubs used on the cheap and love getting google certified on subjects so i can better budget and plan my builds since time and money are usually more tight for stuff like this being an old workin stiff.

thanks, Ben