SAS questions

[Seth]

Ok I have a few questions for you people. Any input will be appreciated.

Austin - when doing the SAS - is a new driveshaft required?

Tate - what are you doing about your front crossmember? I am going to have to replace mine with something. It has a huge crack.

Can anyone shed some light on the degreed c bushings for me?

Who makes track bars? Austin?

What about track bar mount? Fab it?

How much is a good price on heims DOM inserts for my steering? And what size should i use?

All for now.

[JB]

I've seen some cross members cut to clear the track bar, others have not and it clears , but barely.

I do not think a new driveshaft is required.

What springs are you going to use?

Here's a forum for the swap...Bronco Swaps (http://fullsizebronco.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=29)

[eight]

Yall don't use c-bushings on both sides do you?

[BMFScout]

I hear stuart cox makes a mean track bar mount...ask dougie what you should do about that...:flipoff2:

[Shaggy]

i am building a new crosmember because mine is cracked pretty good

[Doug Krebs]

I have now built 2 track bar mounts. One completly blind, meaning I had no idea on how to build it, I hadn't seen where it was mounted, etc... The second was build very nastily, both were in rush situations, but i can assure you the second one will not bend! It actually maybe used as an anchor.

[BMFScout]

Originally posted by Doug Krebs
I actually maybe used as an anchor.

that whole truck should be used as an anchor for some huge ship or something...:flipoff2:

[Seth]

tate i know you are building a new one - any ideas what out of etc?

[Shaggy]

2x6 box steel

[fbronco86]

just use leaf springs and then you dont need a track bar. plus you can ram the **** outta stuff and not break. so you lose a little flex with leafs but they are strong as **** thats why i went leafs.

cross member how high are you gonna go. i was able to leave mine alone. and the drive shaft i had to shorten mine the dana 60 front high pinion sticks out a ways.

if you have to cut the cross member i would build it up some those things are weak to begin with. mine has not cracked yet and its still stock.

[jerryg79]

mike you are the posterchild for remedial english class!:flipoff2:

[Seth]

Originally posted by fbronco86
just use leaf springs and then you dont need a track bar. plus you can ram the **** outta stuff and not break. so you lose a little flex with leafs but they are strong as **** thats why i went leafs.

cross member how high are you gonna go. i was able to leave mine alone. and the drive shaft i had to shorten mine the dana 60 front high pinion sticks out a ways.

if you have to cut the cross member i would build it up some those things are weak to begin with. mine has not cracked yet and its still stock.

cross member is cracked to hell - gotta replace

coils make it much easier to swap in, not to mention that i lopped 9 inches off the front of my frame.

[Seth]

ok got some more for yall

who is good and cheap to set gears? and how much?

still dont know how the c bushings work.

trying to decide on shocks - bilstein or 9000s - a long time ago a friend of mine put on bilsteins and i was really impressed by them - thats why i am considering them

how much should i pay for heims, inserts, dom, and all for steering

what other washers, etc are needed for steering.

austin do you member what bolt size the rear shackles were?

all for now

[Shaggy]

go to j&p for gears expect to pay about 100$ that is cheap

with the steering austin and i got good heims and they were about 30$ each 120 for 4 (good math) inserts are about 6 each (24 for 4) and dom you can only buy in 24 ft sticks and there is a minimum order so you gonna have to order with other people but it shouldnt take more than 50$ worth of dom to do your steering... i think a minimum order of dom is like 250$ or so though.

as far as shocks go i would say just get some cheapo long travel ones. extreme offroad keeps them 12-14 inch travel ones in stock because it is in the kit for huge gay lifts.. about 30$ each... better than spending big money on shocks... hell they are just shocks

that is all i got

[eight]

Yes, they keep 14" BDS shocks in stock for 8" lifted superdutys and sell them to me for $25 each.

Make sure to order misalignment washers for the steering. I ended up making some but it'd be much easier to spend the $1-2 or whatever they cost. Should be able to get them wherever you get the weld in inserts. You'll need 4, just for the drag link. Not needed on tie rod.

[BigRedFord04]

seth, this is long, but its answers your questions.

how much lift are you planning on using? this will make a difference in the C-bushings you use. i used 7 degree and personally i think the pinion angle is a little extreme. if you're doing the same lift i have i'd use 5 degree, if less lift, use 3 or 4 degree bushings. basically the way they work is that with factory bushings they are the same size top and bottom, front and back. degreed C-bushings are narrower on the front bottom and the back top...which makes them thicker on the front top and back bottom. this rotates up the ears that are cast into the tube which in essence rotates the tube itself up to increase pinion angle to accomodate for more lift. if thats not clear i can draw you a picture. energy suspension makes just about every degree of bushing from 0-7* in polyurethane, some people prefer rubber b.c. it flexes better, but you cant get degreed bushings in rubber that i'm aware of.

I'm using an adjustable track bar from Superlift. the adjustment here makes it a lot easier to not have to get measurements exact when fabbing a track bar mount. this is superlift p/n 1080.

you will have to fab your own track bar mount. when doing so i cannot stress enough that you understand the purpose of the track bar (and mount) and the side to side directional stress it must withstand. i've learned that each fram is different and you will have to work with what you've got on yours. mine uses the 3 bolts that hold the p/s gearbox on and is dropped b.c. of my lack of drop pitman arm. when fabbing this mount you will also have to take into consideration steering geometry. for the best possible flex you will the the track bar itself and the drag link (pitman arm to centerlink) to be as close to parallel as possible. this will keep each from trying to bind the other when flexing.

steering: i like mine A LOT. but realized this weekend how much of a PITA it would be if i were to ever bend my centerlink. it was made exactly how it needed to be though to keep the steering and track bar geometry correct, sacrifices always have to be made somewhere. I would highly suggest the QA1 heims from JEGS. VERY good price on them and they are some of the beefiest heims i've seen. They have everything you need: chromoly, teflon inserts, and are 3/4", not to mention the huge outer wall and lifetime warranty. i've seen smaller chromoly heims (like scotts) which he said he paid $45 each for. Nutz got my inserts and tubing. talk to him about pricing and such, he might even have some tubing left he'd be willing to part with. depending on how you do it, you'll need some misalignment washers, i think i have 2 on my setup.

front suspension: the amount of lift you get will not only depend on the coils you use, but the coil buckets you use. if you keep factory buckets you will gain 1.5"-2" over using the `78-79 buckets, but you might want to lose those 2" also like tate does. If you're building this for mostly street i would suggest stiffer coils (such as the skyjacker 6" coils i have) but if you want the flexy performance off-road i would look into 5.5" wild horses or james duff EB coils. they make them with A LOT of different options for EBs to compensate for engine size, with or w/o winch, etc. get the stiffest versions of these and you will get wonderful flex b.c. they are "progressive rate" coils, which means they give you 5.5" lift, but that is from ~15 coil wraps as opposed to my ~10, which gives you a sh!tload of down travel. if you're wanting to go even more extreme you can look into wristing one of your radius arms. the two SASed big bronco guys in CS made their own w/ 1/4" plate and a hitch pin, not very hard but still beefy.

my factory front driveshaft bolted right up. mike had to have his shortened b.c. the pinion on the 60 is longer than that on the 44. just make sure you measure everything a lot so that it will bolt up right.

what are you going to do about radius arm mounts?

i've heard a lot of good things about bilstein shocks, also consider whether or not you think you'd really use the adjustments on the 9000s, b.c. thats all you're really paying for over 5000s and i hardly ever used mine, which is why i'm running 5000s now.
http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/susp/shockspecs/
that page has all rancho's p/n's and extended and compressed lengths, very useful. procomp actually offers a shock that has more travel than the 9012s, but unless you're custom fabbing shock mounts you wont need them that long. my front ones arent even the longest ranchos made with the pin style upper mount.

rear shackles i believe ended up getting drilled out to accomodate 1/2" bolts.

if you're looking for cheap i'd go with 4WP gears. good price and lifetime warranty. i still dont recommend J&P for anything though per the fact that they didnt put my transmission back together right. i'd check with bryan drivetrain, or somewhere else out of town.

oh, and jimmy :flipoff2: :flipoff2: hopefully soon enough it will be the anchor a trailer is tied to pulling a trail rig around.

[Seth]

Ok - so now i need a place to do this swap at. I know the apts im living in would not be happy about me doing it in the parking lot, not to mention that i need air etc. If anyone has or knows of a place please let me know.

[bigFAWKINranger]

good luck with this seth, and welcome to the "i cut my chitty front susp off club."
its not nearly as hard to do as it sounds. with a few mechanically inclined people you can do it in a weekend. just make sure and have all your supplies there before hand. a lot of time and effort was wasted during austin's SAS bc we had to do a few parts runs, and had to wrestle with things like U JOINTS and lifts, shackle flips, and picking up new tires for 3 hours AUSTIN. mine took half the time and was slightly more complicated, but with a couple volunteers to help run parts for us as necessary, and just waiting to **** with gears later, we made decent time. if you can, i'd recommend avoiding lift and gearset til after. i kinda wish i hadn't lifted mine... it was a PITA trying to figure what to do with the rear, and the steering bc i lifted the front so much. like i said, good luck, and i'll be home in november on the 15th... i was hoping for a trip to gilmer the 21st- 23rd of november. see you there.

[JB]

How long do you think it would take you?

[BigRedFord04]

how soon do you want to do it? you could POSSIBLY do it at the house me, tate and jayson are renting, but we're already gonna have a lotta vehicles there. i wont be back there 'til right before school starts. maybe we can work something out, just gotta clear it w/ the roomies. i'm sure tate would be interested in helping since he's gotta do the same thing to his bronco.

[Chadnutz]

Try a hard swap sissies. This Ford shiat is just bolt on! :flipoff2:

[Seth]

Austin - I will be doing it when i get all the parts together - which will be a little while - i want to do it in a long weekend - and your house would be great, seeing how one of you has done it, and the other wants to do it ***. somewhere i am gonna need to come up with an air compressor and a grinder....torch would be nice too...ah thats all later. See what they think, and we can fig out maybe a non game weekend to do it.

[BigRedFord04]

i have worked out a deal to where i will have a welder and torch @ our house, so i've got that covered. :D :D

[JeepsterJayson]

Hey Seth I have a little 15 gal air compressor at the house and a 3/8 in air ratchet but not a 1/2 in impact. I can get a hold of an angle grinder but I have a bench grinder at the house already. Let us know when your ready for the swap were all down to help.

[Seth]

THANK YOU SO MUCH -- this helps so much you have no idea....i will keep yall posted.