I have a 2wd Tacoma. Internet tells me that you can flip the ball joints and lower the front end 2-3". I'm bored and this seems like a fairly inexpensive way to change things up. Hoping maybe it helps highway mpgs a bit, lowers the cg, and mostly just for kicks and giggles. I would drop the rear with blocks. So we're talking about a reversible mod that costs about $100... not a major commitment if it doesn't work out.
From a handling, safety, and drivability standpoint is this a bad idea? Thoughts?
I don't know how the Tacoma suspension works, but a couple of years back when I rebuilt and raised the suspension back to stock on my REPU I noticed something amiss with the upper ball joints. It turns out whoever lowered the truck before I got it, not only cut the front springs, but also mounted the ball joints differently. I forget exactly, but I made note that they were mounted on the upper side of the control arm, when in fact they should have been the other way. I'm not sure if this is what they mean by flipping the ball joints, but I did notice it allowed the truck to sit lower. Good luck with the conversion. I lived with the repu for 10 years plus riding in the weeds and bottoming out on acorns. I had enough of that. I did like the look though.
http://www.toyotaminis.com/forum/suspension-chassis-40/how-do-ball-joint-flip-sd-yota-5272/
You're not so much flipping the ball joint as flipping which side of the control arm you mount it on. Very cheesy approach, and I wouldn't bet much money against the mounting bolts tearing out of the control arm when mounted this way.
Yeah, I think the issue here is that in compression, the balljoint is now transmitting all vertical forces from the wheel through the bolts. In the original configuration, the bolts were only eliminating rotational moments and locating the joint and compression forces were transmitted through direct contact of the balljoint assembly and control arm. If you hit a big bump and have a high compression load, those bolts will be stressed more severely than in the original configuration. Might still be OK, but it's not ideal.
You're also changing which bolts will handle most of that load. In the OE configuration the inboard bolt will be in tension when driving over a big bump. In the lowered configuration the two outboard bolts will be in tension. Are all three bolts the same size? The moment arm is a different length on the bolts in tension in each case too, and this will amplify the forces on the bolts more in the lowered configuration.
Thanks for the input and explanation. Very helpful.
Flipping the ball joint is a misnomer, the procedure is exactly as explained by Mazdax605 and foxtrapper from what I can gather. JohnyHachi6's explanation was very helpful for me to understand why the "flip" could be a bad idea.
Now comes the difficult part of determining whether or not it's worth the risk. Seems there are quite a few "flipped" trucks out there. So maybe the empirical evidence suggests that it would be okay under normal circumstances. This greatly helps me to go in with my eyes wide open. Thanks.
