Lowering the front diff???

[jay3253]

Aside from the skyjacker kit is there a way to lower the front diff a little (an inch or so) to crank the Torsion bars a little more? This will help with the CV alignment and make it less likely to bind.

 

[jay3253]

No one has done this or even thought about doing it? This is done on Toys and other types of trucks but no one has done this?

 

[Nick26]

i thought about doing it, it looked like you could add a 1 inch spacer and drop it another inch, you jsut have to watch out for hitting the cross member with the diff cap and the control arms with the cv axles. Give it a shot, un bolt it and see how far it will sag.

 

[BenS]

My understanding is the biggest problem with cranking your torsion bars too much is you effectively eliminate any droop your suspension has. That is why you do not want to crank it all the way, in addition to CV binding/ball joint strain.

 

[jay3253]

My understanding is the biggest problem with cranking your torsion bars too much is you effectively eliminate any droop your suspension has. That is why you do not want to crank it all the way, in addition to CV binding/ball joint strain.

I understand this and if the ball joints were bolted on instead of pressed this could be taken care of as well. But if I drop the front diff then it might still add life to the CV joints so I still might try it. Maybe I can find some Poly offset bushings or have them made.

 

[huntersteve61]

This would be nice for anyone doing a body lift and tt/shackle setup to get their 4-5 inchs of lift... If the extra couple hours proved to be effective I'd sure do it

 

[jay3253]

I'm just trying to get 2+ inches don't want to go too much but at the same time I don't want to wreck my CV joints those things get expensive when you change them 3 or 4 times... get to 1 or 2 billion dollars and then we start to talk about some real money...

 

[JohnnyO]

Dropping the diff might help a little, but with the stock control arms and knuckles suspension travel and geometry is still suspension travel and geometry. I can see how what you are proposing will help the CV angle but it won't increase the suspension travel at all.

 

[jay3253]

I know it will not increase travel but it will help with CV angle and really all I want is less damage to my CV joints. Still working on the ball joint situation.

 

[kert0307]

You might have to add some sort of slip yoke to the half shafts if you start moving the axle around too much, the a arms are not a parallel linkage, so lowering the diff may screw with the geometry of the angle/distance the steering knuckle is from the diff when the suspension moves.

Custom upper arms may fix the ball joint issue too, but again, the half shafts might not work afterwords. Seems to me your doing a lot of work with little reward. If you don't have the money for a SAS or a lift kit you may be better off just cutting the fenders. You can fit 35's with a 3" body lift, tt/shackles, and a sawzall.

 

[jay3253]

You might have to add some sort of slip yoke to the half shafts if you start moving the axle around too much, the a arms are not a parallel linkage, so lowering the diff may screw with the geometry of the angle/distance the steering knuckle is from the diff when the suspension moves.

You are totally right I never thought about the half shafts geometry I thought I had thought of everything. I was only going to move the axle about 1/2"-1" but even that can cause them to go out. I had a VW Passat thats pass half shaft was an 1/8" too short and we didn't realize it until I was replacing it for the six time in one year thank God it was under warranty.

Did a few calculations and down would not be a problem but bottoming out the suspension would shoot the tire off or the axle out the other side... moves by nearly an inch when the suspension bottoms out with just a 1/2" of axle lowering. If I could lower the lower ball joint the same as the axle I would be fine. Back to the drawing board.

No body lift for me just going for 2" no more and beefer for larger capacity. (New axles etc. making a expo rig)