How To Do A Ball Joint Flip (by SD Yota)

Discussion in 'Suspension/Chassis' started by SD YOTA, Mar 22, 2010.

  1. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    ok so its been asked frequent enough on the site and is one of the easiest, cheapest ways to get an additional 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches worth of drop out of the truck that i decided to do a step by step write up on this.

    ill cut it short, sweet, and to the point. you all know (or should know at least) how to jack the truck up, support it on stands and take the wheels off right? if not thennn.....i dont think you need to proceed much further.... :looney:

    here's where your starting point in the process will be.

    Tools require for the job;
    -17mm wrench
    -17mm socket
    -ratchet
    -pry bar (may be needed to move stuff around but not necessary)
    -liquid wrench penetrating oil (this may be needed to pre-soak the bolts if they seem to be rusty or otherwise in bad shape to help the process along)

    Hardware;
    - no hardware is really needed to do the B/J flip since all you are really doing is relocating your B/J. however, in order to gain the most out of this mod you might consider using a set of 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick washers/spacers in order to gain that extra bit of drop. the less you have to crank on your torsions the better but i would not suggest using any washer/spacer thicker than 1/2 inch thick. a simple pack of 1/2 inch washers will do the trick to space out your B/J far enough. i used a total of 3 washers per bolt stacked in this case to get the extra 1/2 inch of drop.

    1-
    locate your lower strut rod support. from there locate the two 17mm arm bolts attached to the lower portion of the LCA.
    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    2-
    remove the two 17mm bolts. since they are under some tension it will be tricky to remove them so you will need to find a way to pull on them as you loosen them.
    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    3-
    there is a small bracket on top of the control arm that will free up once you remove the two bolts. remove this bracket once bolts are out.
    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    4-
    next, you will be removing the 3 17mm bolts that hold the lower Ball Joint in place to the LCA. Remove them. NOTE- you may need to move the spindle from left to right in order to reach the top of the bolts.
    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    5-
    once removed, you can pry the ball joint away from the LCA. this may take some effort where you may want to swing out the spindle away from the control arm. once its free, you will just need to lift on the spindle till you get the ball joint mounting surface on top of the control arm.
    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    6-
    at this point, your ball joint now sits on top of the LCA. if you opted to use a few washers to gain the extra bit of drop, now is the time to place them in between the B/J and LCA as shown.
    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    7-
    once the washers/spacers are in place, reinsert the 17mm bolts through the top and snug them down to torque specs.
    [​IMG]
    Shot at 2010-03-21

    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    8-
    once the B/J is tightened down to spec, you will now insert the two long 17mm bolts that hold the strut rod in place. you will want to at least place on in to start threading to the upper bracket.
    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    9-
    once the bolt is in place, grab the long bracket that threads into those two bolts..... flip it upside down as shown, and start threading the bolt through BUT DO NOT TIGHTEN DOWN. this is necessary to clear the B/J since the mounting surface for the B/J is now in the place the bracket ran through.
    [​IMG]
    Shot at 2010-03-21

    [​IMG]
    Shot at 2010-03-21

    10-
    thread the second bolt in place and start snugging down both bolts. once snug, torque down to specs. once done, this is how your flipped B/J mod should look like.
    [​IMG]
    Shot at 2010-03-21

    [​IMG]
    Shot with X400,D580Z,C460Z at 2010-03-21

    congrats! you are now done with the B/J flip and that much closer to the ground makin your driveway scrapin', speed bump annihilatin', crossmember denting dreams come true :waytogo:

    hope this has been a helpful writeup to all who find use for it. :drunk:
     
    lekuwhoaridez671 likes this.
  2. nxrunner

    nxrunner Member

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    awesome pics and great details, nice write up!!:waytogo:
     
  3. yogo

    yogo Member

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    wow that is one sweet write! u got any more keeper comin?
     
  4. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    i should have the rear fender bed flare mod for the 89-95 written up by tonight as well.
     
    John g likes this.
  5. moneyhungry

    moneyhungry Enthusiast

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    kick ass write up. will be doing this shortly when i install my spindles. thanks.
     
  6. skahide

    skahide Member

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    awesome, makes a world of difference to see it.
     
  7. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    your welcome guys. glad it was useful. :waytogo:
     
  8. Badlux

    Badlux Enthusiast

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    What about the upper ball joint???
     
  9. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    from what ive seen with the past few trucks ive lowered, the top does not have to be flipped. these trucks dont seem to have the serious camber issues the tacomas and newer trucks have. they have a high tollerance for drop :D

    even on mine as low as it is i do not get any bump steer or camber wear issues....
     
  10. Beefed Taco

    Beefed Taco Addict

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    It's not so much a camber issue when you don't flip the upper arm on a Taco, the camber is about the same with the upper flipped or not, but it's more of the fact there is too much of a gap between the upper arm and the drop out bump stop when not flipped. I did a few w/o doing the top, and even ran around for a year on mine like that, but realized by flipping it, you get the distance between the upper arm and the bump back to normal, which is better for the b/j's and in the Taco's case, a short dropped coil can't become dislodged if one were to hit a unexpected bump suddenly.

    I'm sure it's the same case for the pretaco. It's going to push the top up the same amount that everything went up, so the gap is going to increase. A spacer would get it back to normal. Not doing isn't something youd really notice when driving a street truck, but I don't like having too much dropout on the b/j's and shocks. But it's not like were going to go mosh the desert and catch air with a b/j flip. :eyecrazy:
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2010
  11. ShoNuff

    ShoNuff Toyotaholic

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    excellent write up :clapping:


    pics answered some questions i had about it, never owned a torsion bar truck yet.






    but i see one flaw. not in your method or discription. but in the tool list.

    jack n jack stands.


    this is very important, you must support the lower arm with a jack (not bumper jack) or your dealing with some dangerous spring pressure.


    in your defense, in just about every pic you can see the jack supporting the arm. but there will be people attempting this while very new at the game. not all of us grew up playing in a catch pan instead of a crib.
     
  12. 81SR5Al

    81SR5Al Addict

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    Think I'll do this mod. I'll leave out the spacers though, I'll do the rest of the drop with the torsions. between this and the larger sway bar it might not handle half bad.

    Now, if only my control arms and spindles were that clean.... :p
     
  13. familytoyboy

    familytoyboy Newbie

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    79 Lowering

    I'v got 3" blocks in the rear, and I reset my torsion bars one tooth. Giving me all the front lowering I could want, however my 17's rub on the inner fenders. Can I cut them out? Also I need my rear lower too. Can I fab shackles, flip leafs? Please help. Im lookin for a cheep route.
     
  14. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    yea..... the taco front end is fairly similar to the pre taco ones but theyre just different enough to need different setups witht he camber issues. fortunately the hilux trucks dont need to worry about dropping a coil in a bump. :D

    yup, i did miss a couple tools required but on the jack and support stands i think i covered a little too quick to save some time and length to the already lengthy writeup......... \/ \/ \/ \/

    :D


    yea....... i dont mud it much these days so it stays fairly clean under there :evil:

    you can cut the inner fender wells out but that might make your engine bay dirty since its open to road debris and other such.... i took a mallet to mine and cleared them just enough to stop rubbing.

    the rear you can do a few things. you can find a set of 4x4 leafs and swap them out since they have less arch but the same preload, possibly take out 1 or 2 leafs out of the pack. you can try and make shorter shackles but since they are already fairly short, i dont think you'll gain much before you run into binding issues from being so short. also you could try to redrill the front perches higher in order to drop the mounting level of the leafs. beefed taco has done this on the tacos but im not sure if the hilux's have enough room for that particular mod....
     
  15. twizted1

    twizted1 Addict

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    doing the BJ Flip...how much of a drop does this give you?
     
  16. smctoy

    smctoy Toyotaholic

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    When I did this mod on my 91 extra-cab I did both top/bottom balljoints & I want to say I got about an 1-inch drop with it. Yea might not seem like alot but its 1-inch closer to the ground!! Oh & I didnt use any washers like SD YOTA did so Im sure if you use those then you can get more.
     
  17. mnasholm

    mnasholm Enthusiast

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    Easy Job. I just did the bottom one and no spacers and it dropped about 1in

    Stock Height

    [​IMG]

    After B/J Flip

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  18. SD YOTA

    SD YOTA Grand Toyotaholic

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    the cool thing about this is that you also get to keep the suspension preload you would normally lose trying to go down that extra inch...... :waytogo:
     
  19. mrwizard

    mrwizard Member

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    i'm intrigued about this mod. thanks for the write up. i'm new to 2wd mini trucks, but have spent many an hour working on and building 4wd yotas. just picked up a 70 hilux (yeah, i know, not the same beast as torsion bar sprung hilux...). just curious what your camber issues ended up being? did you get the front aligned afterward and if so, do the stock adjustments have enough adjustability to get things back into stockish form? thanks again for the write up.

    r
     
  20. Migotse

    Migotse Member

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    winderful write up. i look forward to more!
     

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