Installed! Cranked lower control arms from Wild West Fab

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

When I took the FZJ80 to Wild West Fab for the Kaymar bumper hoops mod I asked them to look into some cranked control arms because we are doing Marlin’s Rubicon run next weekend. We were using Man-A-Fre/4+Plus HD arms, which are insanely thick. No complaints there. But we wanted to replace the MAF drop brackets (which have also been great) after two years of wheeling them and try a cranked style for more clearance.

Tim came up with a killer set of arms! They are made of 3/8 thick seamless DOM tubing, all powder coated. The diameter of the tubing is 1-3/4 inches. The bushing ends are also beefed up—massively. They are a 2.9-inch overall diameter, with a 3/8-inch wall thickness, almost double the stock thickness. For these prototypes, Wild West is using genuine OEM Toyota bushings, although Tim told me Old Man Emu poly bushings or flexy spherical bearing joints will be an option on production units. My arms are made to work with my four-inch lift, and Wild West Fab will be making a version stock to 3-inch lifted trucks as well.

Clearance: you can see right away how much additional clearance these give you over a set of standard straight arms. From the forward mount point to where the bend starts, which is about 20 inches, on my truck the distance from control arm to ground is 15.5 inches—a little less than 4 inches more clearance than a straight link. Note the dropped rear sway bar; even with straight arms they hung lower than the arms. I will be taking the sway bar off when I do the Marlin run next weekend for the test trip. I can’t think of a better trail to test these prototypes than on the Rubicon!

Cost looks to be about $329 for a pair with Old Man Emu poly bushings installed, $475 with genuine OEM Toyota bushings, which is how I ordered mine. Spherical bearing joints will available, call Tim and ask on pricing, I don’t know what it will be. Base color is powder coated black, for an extra charge they can powder coat almost any color. Cool guy, small shop and he’s got some other 80 and 40 parts in R&D right now, too. www.wildwestfab.com

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

more pics

More pics!

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

One more

Final pic

 

[-Spike-]

That's pretty much what my stock ones look like.

-Spike

 

[locrwln1]

Nice, I like those. Are you going to remove your upper arm drop brackets?

Jack

 

[TiredIronGRB]

That's pretty much what my stock ones look like.

-Spike

Mine as well

 

[dogcatch'n]

hey, looks nice.......


knuckle bender.......

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Nice, I like those. Are you going to remove your upper arm drop brackets?

Jack

For now, no. We installed Man-A-Fre adjustable uppers (with heim joints) and the drops are staying for the time being. But it's on the radar screen for future action.

 

[Nay]

For now, no. We installed Man-A-Fre adjustable uppers (with heim joints) and the drops are staying for the time being.

I'd take the uppers off, because now your upper/lower arms are no longer parallel and that might introduce some unanticpated motion/stresses you don't want to be finding out about on the Rubicon.

Just a question - is your driveshaft now the lowest hanging "link" in the rear? In looking at these bent arm designs, it has struck me that you lose some "ledge slider" protection for the driveshaft.

 

[fjfar80]

Will the ones for the less extreme lifts be made using the same materials?

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Thanks Nay.

The driveshaft is now the lowest point in the rear (unless the sway bar stays on) not counting the pumpkin. We're bringing a spare rear driveshaft; hopefully good spotting and driving will save it too much abuse.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Will the ones for the less extreme lifts be made using the same materials?

Yes, exact same materials.

 

[Nay]

Thanks Nay.

The driveshaft is now the lowest point in the rear (unless the sway bar stays on) not counting the pumpkin. We're bringing a spare rear driveshaft; hopefully good spotting and driving will save it too much abuse.

Let us know if you notice a difference in driveshaft contact, and of course enjoy the trip

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Let us know if you notice a difference in driveshaft contact, and of course enjoy the trip

Will do [spoken a little nervously]

I really oughta post a pic of what's in the truck for the Con, spares-wise: steering box, axles, birfs, driveshaft, tools, etc etc... Of course, whatever you don't bring, you need, right?

 

[CappyKD]

Will do [spoken a little nervously]

I really oughta post a pic of what's in the truck for the Con, spares-wise: steering box, axles, birfs, driveshaft, tools, etc etc... Of course, whatever you don't bring, you need, right?

Yes you oughta!

 

[-Spike-]

Thanks Nay.

The driveshaft is now the lowest point in the rear (unless the sway bar stays on) not counting the pumpkin. We're bringing a spare rear driveshaft; hopefully good spotting and driving will save it too much abuse.

Have you considered rotating your rear pinion upwards? You have the adjustable uppers, it should be easy to do. I did it and got the driveshaft a good amount of extra clearance. I bent my driveshaft, so when i had it re-tubed I had the guy put it back together out of phase, hoping that was correct for the broken-back driveshaft configuration I would be running with the rotated pinion. No trouble so far.

-Spike

 

[IBCRUSN]

Didn't that truck have the 4+Plus rear lowers from MAF installed?

If so why go from one HD control arm with a high misalignment spherical joint back to HD bent control arms with bushings?

 

[TiredIronGRB]

Didn't that truck have the 4+Plus rear lowers from MAF installed?

If so why go from one HD control arm with a high misalignment spherical joint back to HD bent control arms with bushings?

So he can review them for the rag

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Have you considered rotating your rear pinion upwards? You have the adjustable uppers, it should be easy to do. I did it and got the driveshaft a good amount of extra clearance. I bent my driveshaft, so when i had it re-tubed I had the guy put it back together out of phase, hoping that was correct for the broken-back driveshaft configuration I would be running with the rotated pinion. No trouble so far.

-Spike

Hi Spike,

No, we're going to keep the T-case and pinion flanges parallel.

 

[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

Didn't that truck have the 4+Plus rear lowers from MAF installed?

If so why go from one HD control arm with a high misalignment spherical joint back to HD bent control arms with bushings?

good question, I loved the heim joints in the MAF arms but they didn't fit in the bushing ends Wild West built, so we went OEM Toyota. I do know similar spherical bearing joints will be an option for these arms. The MAF uppers have them, FWIW.