Ball Joint Spacers

[SmokeyJoe]

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with ball joint spacers to gain some extra clearance on the upper control arm.

I installed the Cognito UCA and new shocks. It seems that when I drive over a speed bump the UCA is bottoming out. Its my guess anyway is that is what is happening. Its a thud type sound, that I am hearing.

[SmokeyJoe]

TTT

[Hellz]

i doubt it is your UCA that is bottoming out.

there is basically no stopper for the UCA going upwards.
if you disconenct teh UCA from teh spindle, you can raise the UCA all the way up.

downward wise, there is a bump stop there. so your travel is limited.

but if you are going over a speedbump, your UCA will be traveling upwards.

Now, there should have been a plastic bumpstop that should have been installed on the UCA when it was put in. this is a little plastic circle that will prevent the UCA from bumping on the frame.

first thing i would do is check to see if it is there.

[SmokeyJoe]

It botoms out as I am coming off the speed bump or going into a large dip. I am pretty sure it is htting bump stop (its there), which is making the noise.

I just think there is not enough downward travel, for the uca.

your thoughts?

[Hellz]

i would prolly be looking then at your shocks if it is hitting that hard that it is noticable to you.

anothing thing would be your T bars. have you made adjustments recently?
maybe they need to be cranked a little bit higher.

im running the same UCA on my rig, and im not gentle going over speed bumps. if you need to slow down to go over a speed bump, you shouldnt be driving a 4x4 SUV. anyways, i have no issues that i have noticed with noises from my UCA, or my front end really other than a steering pull issue ( another story)

as for the original question, i have never heard of a ball joint spacer. i wont say there is no such thing, as there might be....
i dont know if i would trust something like that tho on our trucks.
i know our ball joints are HD ones, but even still they fit in there snug with just enough room to fit a nut on the end of the spindle. so adding a spacer in there i think would compromise stability some.i wont even go into throwing off the dynamics of steering with them installed.

maybe someone here has experience with them will chime in... /shrug

personally, i would be looking elsewhere for the cause as that is what i think is going on. to me sounds like too soft of front end shocks. if they are original shocks, with the UCA installed, they are prolly shot.

keep us posted on the outcome tho

[SmokeyJoe]

I think a picture is worth a 1000 words.

http://www.patrickconrad.net/forsale-BJSpacers.htm

Of course these are for an S-10 but you get the idea.