Dif drop kit

Hey everyone, I have a 98 tacome 4x4 with a 6 inch fabtech lift. Will the lift kit get in the way of a dif drop kit?

 

Why would you need a diff drop with the Fabtech 6" lift? That must be a drop bracket lift which would keep the 4x4 driveline in the stock location - aka no need for a diff drop

diff drops are useless anyway IMO...they don't drop anything, they just rotate the diff forward 1" or so.

 

The point of the diff drop kits was to lower the front diff to reduce the angle on the CV axles.. if you have the Fabtech 6" sub frame lift, your diff has already been relocated. I don't know if stacking an additional drop would be possible, or whether it would provide any benefits. It might just make your front axle shaft angle worse.

 

Pointless on your kit, and just as pointless in general.

Don't bother, you're good to go.

Any way you could skip getting the Fabtech lift kit?

 

You should see my cv angle, I haven't looked if there is a drop but it doesn't look like there is one

 

No they are at a horrible angle right now and have had to replace them twice already I just want to know if it would get in the way of the drop kit

 

How much total lift do you have? Is it the 6" drop bracket lift plus suspension lift?

The 6" drop bracket shouldn't effect your CV angles at all to my knowledge, since the purpose of the drop bracket is to keep the 4x4 drivetrain in the stock location.

But if a suspension lift were added to the drop bracket lift then I could see that happening. Or a big spacer lift.

I guess really what we need are pics at this point

 

You need to take pictures of your entire setup versus trying to describe it.

As mentioned by @eon_blue the kit simply lowers the entire suspension assembly as a whole, keeping everything in line with each other so you should have stock angles.

 

Jinx

 

Yeah I see what you guys are saying, I'll upload some later

 

Part of that kit literally is a "diff drop". That's the drop bracket that lowers the lower control arms and relocates the diff itself. You don't need a regular diff drop.

That said, as I'm sure you've no doubt noticed, there isn't a lot of love for 6" lift kits 'round these parts. And for good reason. They honestly don't provide any performance benefits (despite the manufacturers' claims). Even the Fabtech (arguably the nicest quality 6" kit) uses 3" blocks in the back to lift it, and the shocks included are just glorified ranchos, if that... God forbid you get a Rough Country lift...

If your concern is offroading, I would take a good hard look at reverting to a <3" lift. A well thought out 3" (or less) coilover suspension setup costs about the same, and will run circles around any 6" lift kit, and can still easily run 33's.

 

and just fyi if the boot angles are so severe that the boots are tearing as often as your said, a diff drop won't do anything to help with that. Even if (and that's a debatable "if") they do help, it is hardly noticeable. It sounds like in your case you probably need to lower your total lift height down to where the boots no longer rub/the axles aren't so steeply angled.

 

Possible?

Sure.

Recommended?

No.

 

Okay that helps, I've had this truck for a few years and don't know much about the lift. I know for sure it sucks and it's hated on but I just don't have the time or money to convert it to a better kit. And never rough country‍♂️ thank you for the help

 

40s n tons

 

Idk why that emoji popped up

 

What's up with the pictogram

We don't want to get into any debates about our trucks gender...

 

It's been many, many years since I have seen one of those Fabtech lifts, so I was leaving open the possibility that I might be wrong- should have stuck to my gut.

 

The main thing is having the cross member that was cut out to install the lift replaced. That's not that hard of a job, there are some threads floating around of people who've done it. Probably easiest to have a fabricator make one, or maybe cut one out from a junkyard, and get some spindles while you're there. Other than that, the rest of the parts are bolt-on.

A full OME 3" lift kit (all new springs/shocks) runs like $1200, which would get you most of the way there. You can go cheaper by re-using your springs, if you're really on a budget.

Anyhoo, if it runs and drives for you now, I wouldn't worry too much about it. But it's just something to think about down the road... It's not like it's going to fall apart on you, but if you start doing harder trails or beating on it more, it may start being a limiting factor.

 

Oh yeah, it's totally possible, just that it's generally not recommended (by me anyway, lol) to mess with mixing/matching lift kit components unless you really know what you're doing. That's why kits are so popular vs. individual components to "build your own" - it's easy to screw up.

I'll fight @Kwikvette on this , but we somewhat disagree on the efficacy of diff drops. I think they're slightly more useful than he does, but in the case of an existing lift kit, it's best to leave it alone, or better yet, light a match and start over.