Caddy Kit Help Please...

[NorCal_Prerunner]

So after attaching the spindle to the upper and lower arms, I cycled the suspension. 9.5 inches of travel. On full bump, the lower arm didn't even come close to hitting the factory bump stop bushings. I slid down the boot on the upper balljoint, and that is where the binding is happening. My droop seems fine, its just the up travel that has the problem.

For my previous suspension, I had notched the upper balljoint cups on one side almost to the edge to achive more down travel. (like the Downey Mega travel balljoints) They have held up fine for the last 30K miles. Am I stuck notching the other side of the balljoint cups to relieve the binding?

Is there a good high angle upper balljoint for a Toyota that doesn't run 350.00+?

Can anyone who has installed this kit shed some light as to what they did? How much travel you got when cycled.

An no, the steering linkage isn't even connected yet. I'm going to call Chaos tomorrow and see what they say.

Most likely I will notch the existing balljoints on the other side. No big deal, but kinda sucks for a bolt-on kit claiming 13"s with no 4x4. like I said, I only have 9.5 "s of travel right now. Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance...

It's never too late to be what you might have been....

 

[fishd00d]

Something is wrong with your upper ball joint...because it will cycle beyond the factory bumps on up travel without a problem....I would suggest getting a new upper balljoint.

I have the kit and mine cycles 13" and I am using stock upper balljoint and a moog lower.....


Go Big Or Go Home
United Jumping Truck Society

 

[YotaWhoopRunner]

Did you just install brand new ball joints? I had the same problem and was told to run in the desert and a groove will form in the ball joint and will eventually cycle fully. They are cycling fully now so... looks like the ball joints just needed to be broken in i guess.

 

[Curtis Guise]

My guess is the shoulder on the balljoints could be different if they are aftermarket causing it to bottom out sooner. I haved used factory ones and currently new ones from Napa with no problems. When they say "breaking in" all its really doing is bottoming out the balljoint and mushrooming out the edge of the case of the balljoint. I had that happen on my old suspension on my 2wd race truck years ago. Although they never failed on mine I can see them failing sooner by them getting beat to death mushrooming them out, rather than spending some time grinding out the housing.

 

[billymanfroy]

C'mon guys say it.... I know you want to.






Ahem...

"That's odd, I never have problems like that with my FORD!" HA HA HA!!!!!

Sorry, Josh - feeling juvenile today. Take your shots guys while I'm still in a good mood.

Billy

 

[NorCal_Prerunner]

Billy,

All that new travel on your Ranger isn't going to help you too much, since you have so much trouble keeping that Ranger of yours running. :O)

It's never too late to be what you might have been....

 

[NorCal_Prerunner]

Spoke to Chaos regarding the issue. Matt said this is normal and I am not the only customer with this issue. He said go ahead and run it like it is. Take is to the desert and run it a few days. Then recycle the suspension. It should then get 13"s of travel.

The upper and lower balljoints need to get broken in. ie: the shaft needs to wear/mushroom out the balljoint cup to achieve more angle. OK, so that's fine, but I feel that notching the balljoint cup is a better solution. I would rather die gring out the cup rather than have it repeditally smashed by the balljoint shaft until it has been deformed enough to allow proper angle. Deformation of the cup could also lead to premature balljoint failure. If anyone has a better solution, lets hear it. And no Billy, I don't want to run a Ranger. :O)

It's never too late to be what you might have been....

 

[Waldo]

Personally, I don't like the sound of "premature balljoint failure"!

 

[Curtis Guise]

I know you are taking your time with this so I would go for the die grinder route....

 

[orvacian]

Welcome to the world of IFS Toyota long travel! I got the same story when I got my kit from another manufacturer. You don't really have much choice but to run it till it "breaks in". The problem is that it's like a Ford guy saying "I got some bent beams and they were not bent enough so they told me to drive through some big whoops and they will bend more and it will be fine and I will get full travel". The real issue is that custom ball joints are needed to achieve the angles needed for 12+" of travel and no one has taken the time to design and build some. Spericals are probably cheaper, easier and stronger anyway. My balljoints have held up fine for several years but that doesn't mean that I am happy with the way it is. I put in limit straps to keep it from binding at full droop and it gets about 12" travel with the 2" longer arms and 930 cv front axles. Don't forget the steering is gonna max out at some point too.

 

[YotaWhoopRunner]

I don't know if Pete is till in the sport, but I remember he made some custom ball joints when he used to race his toyota.
www.thisendup.net[\url]

 

[YotaWhoopRunner]

whoops lemem try again.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.thisendup.net/new_designs.htm>http://www.thisendup.net/new_designs.htm</A>

 

[Kbach66]

I completely agree with the "premature ball joing failure" being a bad thing!!
I had an upper ball joint fail on my old S-10 going south on the 405 at 70 on the way home from the dez. After a couple unintentional lane changes becuase I touched the brakes thinking I had a flat...I got it pulled over with no nerfing of traffic.
The die grinder route or a mill would be the ticket....a little time here is worth a lot more than being on your roof out in the dez or on the road.

 

[NorCal_Prerunner]

I'll post some before and after shots of the stock ones after I notch them, also the ones I am currently using, mushroomed by the ball joint shaft when I do the swap.


It's never too late to be what you might have been....

 

[WFODAN]

I think balljoints falling out on S-10s is just a daily occurance kind of thing . You're lucky it made it to the freeway at all .


Dan Vance

 

[NorCal_Prerunner]

I woder how much and how much angle?

It's never too late to be what you might have been....

 

[orvacian]

I forgot to mention that I notched some new stock upper ball joints when I put mine together. The stock Toyota units seem to be the best quality. The units in the picture above cost several hundred dollars each, if I remember right. They sure look real purty though, I should e-mail them and get the info.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by orvacian on 02/11/03 00:17 AM (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[hoeker]

the only "breaking in" you can do, or need to do on a ball joint is cycle the thing by hand. if you need to "break in" the thing to get enuf travel you will have problems. i've broken many ball joints, but only when they run out of travel because the suspension wasn't engineered properly. i can't believe they told you to run it, that's gat a lawsuit written all over it when that thing breaks on the highway after a day in the dez.

if it doesn't cycle enuf, just take your time and relieve the joint until it does. it takes very little grinding to get a lot more travel out of a factory joint.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rosshoek.com>www.rosshoek.com</A>

Some are born great, some achieve greatness,
and some have greatness thrust upon them.

 

[YotaWhoopRunner]

This alittle bit off topic, but does anybody know the specs on the new uniball caddy kit? Is the geometry the same? I was wondering if the upper arm can just be swapped to get uniballs?

 

[ACID_RAIN28]

There is a ball joint kit on a truck that is in my shop, stock ball joints, and never run the kit yet, or the truck, needs rear end to be finished, any way, we cycled it, junk. The upper joint need an angle change, I am sure the "jig" was just an extended arm with no geometry calc. ON this truck I am going to make a shim for the upper joint so It will cycle more down then up and make it so the ball joint doesn't bind so easily.

"There are a lot of people hoping I fail. But I like that. I need to be hated."