CP's SAS

Have a long running thread on another site but since the number of offroaders there is very limited I thought I could start one here as a clearing house of my work thus far and questions. I'll be kinda breif...

SPECS (SO FAR):
Dana 44
Ford 9"
3.5" wild horses eb coils
Full spool in rear
open in front, will put a lunchbox in it though
5.13 (d44)
5.14 (9")
will be running 35" tires.

A few pics:

9" bolted in, not the final position, still need to set the pinion angle and weld the perches on.

The evil one has been removed

full size bronco buckets, cut down to stock explorer size. And a test fit of the spring...

Test fit of the buckets, with 2" spacer. Also have had to redrill the lower buckets to bolt in. and a couple of plumb bobs

I'll be replacing the stock sterring components with better parts, 1ton chevy TRE's, tie rod flip, etc.

That is all for now. I am going to weld caps on my spacers this week, and do another test fit. If all looks good i'll drill them for the bolts. Next weekend i'm taking some 2x6x.25 (stupid beefy) back to my parents to use the band saw to cut it up. Going to have to go above the drive shaft with my crossmember, it's also doubling as my RA mount....uhhh mounts haha (I have to outboard them for this axle).

 

[SkanlaxJMO]

looks really good so far

 

[CodePoet]

Did a test fit tonight Just need to figure out where I want to drill my holes. Going to go with 4 per piece (2x6 and 2x4), 1/2" grade 8 for a total of eight bolts holding the crossmember in. However, a 3rd in the 2x6 piece wouldn't be difficult. I'll also need to make a sandwich plate for the other side of the frame, put some spacers in there so any deformation of the rect. stock the bolt's will remain tight and cap the ends of the crossmember off. Should be done by the end of the week

Then I just need to do my trac bar mount and the actual swap will be finished. After that just a few axle parts, brakes, shocks, and tires.

Still need to grind down the weld on my slider foot so that it'll sit flush.

Just a touch close lol. I'll have to grind the heatsheild off OR replace that resonator with a straight pipe.

And can i say one more time...this crossmember is SOOOOO much better than the last one lol!

I think once the crossmember is bolted in im' gonna throw a couple ratchet straps around the frame and C's on the front axle and see what the front end is gonna look like with weight on the springs. Fawkin'a man i'm making some progress!!!!!

 

[lifeguard379]

looks good. are you going to put a spacer on the trany mount, or will it sit flat on the cross member?

 

[CodePoet]

I'm going to use a piece of 2x4 i have left over and built a mount for the tranny off of the crossmember which will meet the mount. Once I get the crossmember bolted in i'll get that setup, shouldn't be too hard.

 

[CodePoet]

It's in!

A night building a trac bar mount and it'll be ready to finish all the little details.

One question before the pics. I want to build my trac bar mount so that it's bolt on. Is there any reason I can't use the stock steering box bolts as part of that mount? I WILL be adding a couple of additional bolts so don't worry about that. Two less holes to drill is killer, and the trac bar mount will add some re-enforcement for the steering box area. What do yall think??

I'm happy now and going to enjoy a few cold ones

 

[lifeguard379]

i would think if you plate around the added plate thing for the abs motor, and then weld a plate to the track bar mount it should be good and level, and then bolt it all in.
looks good so far to. any idea how far you pushed the axle forward?

 

[CodePoet]

I was shooting for 2"s. I think it's a touch more. I basically used the drag link and trac bar to locate the axle, once everything was lined up I measured and that's where it sits.

 

[CodePoet]

Ok guys, here's a question. It was brought up on my club board that I may need to re-enforce the area where my crossmember bolts to the frame since it's only bolted to the bottom. What say ye?

I can easily cut out some 2x.25 straps and weld them to the underside and inner portion of the frame. Should I??

 

[zainyD]

Ok guys, here's a question. It was brought up on my club board that I may need to re-enforce the area where my crossmember bolts to the frame since it's only bolted to the bottom. What say ye?

I can easily cut out some 2x.25 straps and weld them to the underside and inner portion of the frame. Should I??

Yes, without a doubt. I bent my frame where the radius arm bracket mounts too it. I had to go back and re-enforce it with extra steel. Do it now when you have everything apart.

What are those radius arm brackets off of? I need a set of those for my truck.

 

[CodePoet]

I THINK they are off of a 77 f150 (can't remember). They are the "low profile" ones, the others go up the sides just a touch I think and hang alot lower.

Ok, i'll cut out some straps and weld to the underside and inner portion of the frame rail. All the extra beef can help and that .25" will help me get the castor dialed in later

I can run my bead along the slider foot so that'll all be tied in together as well...should be nice and strong after all that!

 

[CodePoet]

Well...i didn't do a whole lot tongith but I did start to layout where my trac bar would mount. Lifegaurd...I would like your opinion on this as I think you ran into similar issues with your pitman arm gettin awful close to your trac bar. In these pics the engine crossmember has not been trimmed so that's causing the trac bar to be at least an inch, maybe alittle more closer to the pitman arm. It's at about the right height though.

Oh and yea, the tie rod is sitting on the steering arms...i will be doing a tie rod flip but I don't have the parts yet so i'm doing it like this JUST for mock up.

What do you think?

 

[lifeguard379]

i have mine so that the bend is on the bottom. if you look down the length you can see how that will bring the end in, with out having to cut to much of the cross member. it will also give you more room for the pitman arm.

 

[CodePoet]

You mean the bend where the trac bar mounts to the axle is pointed down? This is the stock 79 trac bar. I did try that out and it seemed like the trac bar mount for the frame would have to hang really low so that the trac bar would be parallel with the drag link. Maybe I should look at your thread some more haha

 

[sn0border88]

if your doing the tie rod flip, i reccomend building your own linkage.

Ive just bent my 3rd stock tierod, now im just waiting on my heims so I can finish my histeer linkage.

 

[lifeguard379]

the bar it self doesn't need to be parallel. just the 2 mounting points should be parallel with the 2 mounting points on the tie rod. hope this helps.
the blue lines show how the mounts are parallel. the read line shows how the bar isn't strait but the mounts are. sorry for the bad drawing lol

 

[CodePoet]

Lifegaurd...yeah i guess your're right.

Snowboarder...i'm planning on using 1 ton chevy TRE's and then make the tie rod and drag link out of tube. What did you use for your tie rods?

 

[zainyD]

CP, if you mount the track bar like it is shown in the picture it will hit your differential. The are bent for a reason.

 

[CodePoet]

Your right! I have it turned the wrong way! hahahahahahaha thanks for catching that. It wasn't one of my more brilliant nights huh.

 

[sn0border88]

ill prolly just use heims, they are cheaper and im not worried about wearing them out any time soon, I hardly ever get to wheel it.

 

[CodePoet]

Well, I got the trac bar mount made up today. I'm not really happy though as the drag link hits the trac bar before it makes it to full left or right lock. Going to have to figure something out, may try to reshape the stock trac bar but i'm not sure yet. Or I may just build one using DOM and heims....didn't want to have to do that though!

No pictures as i'm not happy yet haha.