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).

 

[CodePoet]

I didn't even think about the fact that a longer pitman arm will turn more, geometry gets me again lol. I may be ok once I build a better track bar though, just wondering since I saw a pic on pbb of two different length pitman arms that would fit one box.

 

[Mud Bug 94]

the pitman arm stock or dropped have the same stroke...its just a lower pivot point...

 

[CodePoet]

yeah, but some stock pitman arms are longer than others which would push my drag link out away from my trac bar. I think i'm just trying to figure out a way to not build a new trac bar though haha. May as well just jump into that as well

 

[colindo94]

I'm interested in this also. I would like to find a longer pitman arm that has the same drop as my stock one. I need the drag link puched toward the front of the truck

 

[CodePoet]

That's what i'm needing too. For now though...i've moved my trac bar mount back as far a possible and am planning on building a new, straight trac bar

Should be ok though for a few runs though

 

[manaen]

what about this one?

 

[colindo94]

That just is a drop pitman arm. It doesn't get any longer. Yea my bracket is against the coil bucket and I already have a streight track bar.

 

[CodePoet]

Ya know what sucks?

I spent about 4 hours in the garage building, and it seem like I have more work to do NOW than I did when I first went out there! LOL

I got the tranny mount finished, welded my trac bar mount up some more, started welding in the sleeves for my bucket spacers. Doesn't sound like much does it, but it sure felt like it took forever! haha

 

[CodePoet]

Well I finally got it finished up. I need to run a couple more beads on the tranny mount but that's it! Here's what I was trying to describe in words in a previous post...now I don't have to take apart my suspension to service the tranny

 

[SkanlaxJMO]

sweet

 

[DB_1]

Before I went solid axle, I had 4" Superlift and then went to a 6" Skyjacker lift.
I was going to remove the dropped pitman that came with the Superlift kit and put on the new pitman that comes with the Skyjacker lift. I compared the 2 pitman arms and they had the same amount of drop but the Skyjacker is longer or should I say it pushes the drag link out about an inch further. I'm still running the Superlift pitman on my SAS FWIW.

 

[CodePoet]

Been sick for a couple days so no progress. However I do have a question. I'm nearing (haha i've been saying that for awhile and I keep finding things that need to be done) the completing of the actual swap. Next on the list is brakes, bearings, and ball joints. I'm going to go buy a double flare tool, have some new flex lines made up (probably rubber...but if I find a good deal on braided i'll go with those), and some hard line. Question is since i'm not upgrading any of the lines that come out of the MC, is 3/16" good enough for the d44 and a set of gm calipers in the rear 9"?

I'm going to try to adjust the stock MC and not put a new one in. Doesn't matter, more of a challenge to see if I can do it. If not I have a box of new MC's on the shelf

 

[IZwack]

Yeah the line size doesnt really matter because no matter what, the same volume of fluid will be pushed through it. The only thing that matters is the size ratio between the master cyl and the calipers/pistons/salve cylinders.

 

[CodePoet]

Well, I made some progress yesterday with the swap, got the buckets welded to the spacers and everything for that finalized. I went to work today on the trac-bar mount...didn't go well. I can run a pretty decent bead when i've got the part on the floor and i'm kneeling over it. However...i SUCK at welding vertically while under the truck. I mean it was BAD! So, i've decided to bolt the trac-bar mount to the frame instead of welding, maybe have a buddy weld it in at a later date. I currently have two steering box bolts and one abs bracket bolt holding the mount on. This is not enough. I'm going to cut my mount down in order to access the factory cut outs in the frame (currently I have a 7" long plate which covers everything). I will then drill a couple of new holes for bolts. I'm hoping to get 4 1/2 bolts in there. My steering box will not allow me to through bolt the entire mount though.

See any problem with this?

 

[CodePoet]

Well I don't have any pictures up yet as my club site where I store my pics seems to be down. But for the first time in a year and a half the explorer is sitting on it's own springs! The front axle is in!!!! Just have to weld the trac-bar mount and a frame re-enforcement for the crossmember and it'll be 100% finished, right now i'd say it's more like 95% haha. I was stoked to see it rise off the jack stands tonight!

I think it look pretty good, may need a few tweaks here and there but all in all it's looking like a rig again

 

[lifeguard379]

cant wait to see it.

 

[CodePoet]

The club site is still down? I created a photobucket account so here yall go!

I usually don't look this grizzled. I was very VERY tired and i haven't had a hair cut in a few months lol.

If you look really close between the crossmember and the frame you will see a plate. That's my frame re-enforcement that needs to be welded in

Drivers Side:

Passenger Side:

 

[FROADER]

Truck is looking good. Dude, how tall are you?

 

[CodePoet]

I look like a giant in that picture don't I LOL

I'm about 6'4"

 

[IZwack]

I look like a giant in that picture don't I LOL

I'm about 6'4"

you ARE a giant