Levelling alternatives to spacers

[DanielNodel]

Has anyone found adjustable shocks that fit without modifications such as Bilstein 5100s? I've seen usage of the rancho quick lifts but it seems they arent made anymore. Looking to remove the spacers as they cause CV stress and the BTF UCAs are pretty much just preserving the upper ball joints, nothing else.

 

[Fbird]

spacers, coils, or modifed shocks are ALL going to do the same exact thing to your cv joints. If you change the ride height with anything other than TIRES you are going to change the angle between the hub and axle causing your "stress"

 

[Bazz270]

spacers, coils, or modifed shocks are ALL going to do the same exact thing to your cv joints. If you change the ride height with anything other than TIRES you are going to change the angle between the hub and axle causing your "stress"

Agree

 

[DanielNodel]

Yeah that makes sense, an oversight on my part. I just don't want to a diff drop and decrease the ground clearance i got from the initial lift, the CV binds ever so slightly at full droop which isn't going to be happening 98% of the time but i've had full droop on trails before and I'm worried they'll prematurely wear especially since i often have to thrash the ex for momentum due to mud and snow

 

[Bazz270]

From my experience , 2.5" spacer lift wont hurt CV joints.at least mine are still ok for five years ( they are OEM ,not aftermarket trash)

Replaced the upper control arms to BTF and forgot about any suspension damage.

The OEM lower balljoint are massive ,no way do destroy them.

Again,i am talking about oem parts ,nor the chinese aftermarket crap

 

[DanielNodel]

Have you tried spinning the wheel at full droop? I get the slightest amount of binding when doing so but so far the CVs haven't actually been damaged or anything, they seem to be rather beefy on the explorer although I've done passenger side axle seal 3 damn times already and had to get a new inner shaft (2 before the lift and 1 after) but I doubt that the lift actually contributes to it at all. So far I pretty much will stick with the truxxx kit as there is absolutely nothing else available for purchase unless you want to fabricate coilovers like Ronin.

Also @Bazz270 it's nice to see an Israeli in here, I was born in Holon!

 

[Bazz270]

Nice to meet you too!

So i am traveling here at Carmel forest mostly with suspension fully dropped down from time to time.


Done the shaft seals and needle bearings ( ranger or gen3 needle bearings nor the plastic gen 4 ones) once prior to traxda kit installed.

By the way,the reason for the seals to leak might be the plastic stub shaft bushings. Replace em and forget about it

Before the BTF UCA installed ,my upper control arm balljoints was totally destroyed once a half year.

 

[DanielNodel]

Nice to meet you too!

So i am traveling here at Carmel forest mostly with suspension fully dropped down from time to time.


Done the shaft seals and needle bearings ( ranger or gen3 needle bearings nor the plastic gen 4 ones) once prior to traxda kit installed.

By the way,the reason for the seals to leak might be the plastic stub shaft bushings. Replace em and forget about it

Before the BTF UCA installed ,my upper control arm balljoints was totally destroyed once a half year.

I've checked the bushings to my best ability on all three occasions and they seemed fine, the inner shaft has no excessive play and they don't seem to have any cracks. I'm really not sure why the seal keeps leaking, the axle really shouldn't be getting that much trauma while driving to justify the seal breaking over and over so I've just been replacing them as they go, matter of fact, I'm leaking diff fluid from the passenger side again... And yeah the BTF arms are great but pricey, hopefully they are going to be worth it long-term and I won't regret not just doing the ball joint every 6 months. For the record I'm also using SKF seals and only the passenger side has gone bad in all of the 240k on this vehicle

 

[Bazz270]

I've checked the bushings to my best ability on all three occasions and they seemed fine, the inner shaft has no excessive play and they don't seem to have any cracks. I'm really not sure why the seal keeps leaking, the axle really shouldn't be getting that much trauma while driving to justify the seal breaking over and over so I've just been replacing them as they go, matter of fact, I'm leaking diff fluid from the passenger side again... And yeah the BTF arms are great but pricey, hopefully they are going to be worth it long-term and I won't regret not just doing the ball joint every 6 months. For the record I'm also using SKF seals and only the passenger side has gone bad in all of the 240k on this vehicle

Ive used OEM seals (Timken).

Bought Yukon axle rebuild kit ,with Yukon shaft seals included ,going to stay with the timken old seals

Passenger side dana30 super axle shaft has two parts ,inner and outer axle shaft

Because of two axle shaft construction the axle runout play developed in this side will be always more problematic

Plastic bushing may be degraded of the temperature or you cant feel the runout play at static condition