I was looking on Airbagit.com at lowering components and had a couple of questions? Which is better to lower the front, the ball joint spacers they have on their site or the ball joint flip I read about everyone on here talking about? They also have drop leaf springs on the site. Does anyone have these on there truck? How are they working out for you?
those spacers are nothing more than another b/j bracket that still has to be mounted on top of the control arm, same as the b/j flip, so just flip your b/j's and save the money
I am planning a 5/6 drop. Which options would work best are far as alignment goes to get a 5 " drop in the front? Control arms, ball joint flip, and or dropped coils? Out back it's going to take more than removing the middle leaf or a just a block. That is why I asked about the dropped leafs. What are the other options for a 6" drop in the rear? I keep seeing people say something about "s dad mod" but that doesn't pull anything up in a search.
um im on a pulled leaf and a 3.5 block. overload unhappy and i can go past 6 inches with all the air out of my air shocks, read more...
and to go 5 up front you will need to flip BJ's and probably cut a little off a lowering spring to get a FULL 5 inches up front. control arms would help with neg camber.
pulling the middle leaf nets about 3" in drop + a 3" block = 6"
my eibachs lowered my front MAYBE an 1" then BJ flip is 3" so i cut some of my eibachs and got about another 1.5-2" on top of the already 1" drop the spring itself gave plus bj flip - 2+3 = 5" 5/6
idk what all this new terminology is but an s dad mod is just 4x4 leafs i think still with a leaf or two removed...
and at 6" in back, your gonna want to notch the frame...
im really getting tired of people asking questions then telling me im wrong when i answer them...
if you know the answer yourself, dont post a thread.
the alignment really depends on the shop. i've had trucks in the past where the guy just kinda half-assed it then told me it couldn't be done. i took my Taco to Pep Boys. Cost $80, but the guy spent a good solid 2 hours and the only thing that's not within spec is my caster - I have flipped ball joints and Eibachs up front - and believe me, I scrape like a mother on driveways and speed bumps. I honestly wouldn't wanna be much lower without bigger rims.
VERY true, i had a alignment done once after i lowered my truck, and still had HELLA bad camber/caster (top of the tire was way inset) and was wearing the insides of my tires, i popped my hood and looked, the ****in dude left like 5 shims in per side, i took all of them out, left not a single shim and it brought the tires back out to ALMOST factory.
since then i have been doing my own alignments with a tape measure and some white markers, and trial and error. i dont have any pulling issues at all, drives straight as ever as long as the road is flat...
The CT drop leafs that will fit your 97 will drop you about 4" in the rear once they break in. They should give you better ride then pulling a leaf but pulling a leaf is the cheaper route to go if on a budget. Finding 4x4 leafs that will fit your 97 is like pulling teeth very hard to find and when you find them people want an arm and a leg for them. I know I can find another route to go to save money. Even if you bought the CT drop leafs its only about 270 shipped to your house which is not bad at all in my opinion.
I'm looking to do a 2" front/3" rear drop on my 97 2WD standard cab. Here's a kit that interests me, but I'm unclear what, if anything additional would be needed. The kit is the Belltech 443ND
Any feedback on this particular manufacturer or this kit would be greatly appreciated.
The 443ND kit appears to be front coils (normally part # 4260) , aluminum blocks and u-bolts for the rear, and shocks for $380.60.
I did a Goggle search on Belltech 443ND and it brought up a few different things. The PICTURE on Summit racing is not the 95.5-04 Tacoma kit, (the kit says 96-04, but technically the rare 95.5 trucks are the same because the Tacoma started in 95.5, so the 443ND will fit 95.5-04) so even though the picture on Summit is wrong, what they ship is probably correct. They are a good trustworthy company and will probably have free shipping.
Here's why you won't be happy with it...this kit won't lower your standard cab 2/3. You are only going to get three quarter to one inch of drop from the Belltech springs when installed on your standard cab. The two inch, #4260 coils will drop a extra cab the full two, but not a std cab. You won't be happy with the front drop.
The best way to get a 2" front drop on the front of a standard cab is to cut a little off the top of your stock coils and buy a quality 3" rear kit.
The money you will save by not buying that 443ND kit that is only going to drop the front of your truck one inch at the most, you can put into some good KYB Monomax shocks. They'll be 100 times better than those shocks in the Belltech kit.
You will be spending close to $400 to not be happy with the result. That's a lot of money for a cheap kit, about the only decent part in the kit is the coils. Everything else is low end. The shocks will be too soft and the block kit is junk. Hollow aluminum blocks and low end ubolts. What happens to those hollow aluminum blocks is your steel axle pads are narrower than the width of the block, and the pads sit right on the edge and put stress on the block eventually leading to failure. See the pic below. I see this all the time when I work on trucks with low end blocks. I just saw it three days ago.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Toyota Tacoma Forum
1.9M posts
61.6K members
Since 2001
A forum community dedicated to Toyota Tacoma owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, overlanding, lift kits, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!