Here we go. Everyone put on your ' thinking caps ' children and lets talk about some simple physics.

I will use MY OWN EXAMPLE OF STUPIDITY to demonstrate as apparently, some people have THICKER skulls then I did ( at that time ).

When one lowers or raises a vehical, the angle of the balljoints changes. This will cause less travel upwards or downwards ( depending which way you go ) before the Balljoint runs out of movement room and the pin hits the edges of the cup.

Ranger balljoints do NOT have much movement room compared to others.

The examples used here are from a lowering application. Lifting is the same but the reverse is performed to the lower balljoint.



Note the pin to spindle. Its NOT straight.



This is whats left of a balljoint after it bottoms out or the pin hits the cup in a solid mannor. NOTE : The arm itself is twisted!

Theres 2 ways to correct such and NEITHER can be done with a ' Key '. The key is the problem to begin with and not part of the solution.

You can fabricate control arms that compensate for the ball joint angles.. Like this :



The same method used im my pic's can be reversed for a lift WITHOUT causing any excessive wear. A spindle solves everything in one event without future issues to the balljoints or drivability. CV shaft wear I don;t have a clue about as I don't have 4wd. Someone else can comment on it.

I've seen green munkies tossing torque wrenches around in the same dream as your having.

There are those of us whom have fabircated whole front ends that are sick and tired of people giving others bad advice or the ' cheap fix ', then being called by others saying ' Can I use your garage, I need to fix my truck '...

Please, be done offering people advise about ' keys ' as they :

1 - put undo stress on the torsion bars
2 - kill balljoinnts
3 - hurt ride comfort
4 - will cause undo cv shaft wear

Folks, stay away from the less then 100$ torsion keys on Ebay and offered elsewhere. If you have a show vehical, fine, buy them and put your ride on a trailor.. but for a daily driver, leave the factory geometry in place or find a reliable and proven form of lift ( spindles/control arms ).

 

Well, You dun there rekoned wrong!

IMO, putting the factory T-Bars out of spec is a bad move. This applies equally for lifting OR lowering. I've done both and had the same miserable results.

When using dropped keys, your eating upper joinnts and control arm bushings on the bottom. When lifting, your eating lower balljoints and T-bars.

Torsion bar suspensions work on na ' floating ' or a ' Balanced ' enviornment. When a variable in that enviornment is changed and a constannt force hits either the lowest or highest rate of twist on the bars, excessive wear/damage is caused.

 

So, instead, you would have them buy a 100$ set of keys and damage everything else?

Theres a REASON things cost what they do. The aftermarket for our trucks is very limited.