D30 SAS progress

[91Sploder]

Heres some pictures of the progress that has been made using a '91 Xj High Pinion D30:

The steering will have to be changed since you can see that its at a pretty severe angle right now but since I'm poor I'll deal with the steering for a few months till I can purchase a Rusty's D30 crossover steering upgrade.

I'm using Skyjacker 4"-6" lift extended brake lines and they bolted up fine to the stock D30 brake caliper

Heres how the coils are sitting right now on the stock coil bucket. Jason (93LiftedXLT) and I modified the bucket to fit the coils in, but I'm still throwing around the idea to add a tube into the center of the coil bucket like a Jeep coil bucket. Any other ideas on what I should do to modify the bucket would be appreciated!!

Tomorrow Jeremy and I are gonna get the transmission crossmember into place and measure the control arm links. Hopefully by next weekend we might be able to have this thing rolling!

 

[91Sploder]

I'm using 1.25" heim joints, Blue torch thread inserts, and 4140 Chromoly tubing for the lower and upper control arms on the long arm kit which should end up looking like this:

Since the XJ D30s use an offset 4 link system and I didn't wanna run a traditional radius arm system I'm gonna fab up something similar to a Rusty's long arm kit for an XJ.
Heres some pictures of the Heim joints and the Blue Torch thread inserts:
The jam nuts with zinc cadium plating are left hand threaded, and the plain steel ones are right hand threaded.

 

[RangerX]

Looks good so far. What coils are those, XJs?

 

[91Sploder]

Wild Horse 3 1/2" coils for an Early Bronco

 

[93liftedXLT]

maybe ill make it up there next weekend, did you finish the tranny mount?

 

[95offroadx]

looking good, but why did you go to the d30? instead of the d44?

 

[bitchinexplorer]

looks pretty good so far. what size of tires are you gonna end up running?

 

[dreamr]

Nice the build up thread I have been waiting for.
Teach me how to do the swap with that very axle, too bad you're not a 2nd gen

 

[bmxking5]

Only thing wrong I see is that it's a d30 Seriously though, it looks like it'll be a pretty nice setup. Nice job so far. What size tires are you gonna be running?

 

[91Sploder]

I went with a D30 because its the perfect fit for an Explorer, the lift will be the same in the front as the rear (5.5" lift w/ the 3 1/2" Wild Horse coils) and I didn't want something like a full width D44 since I dont need the extra strength and I didnt wanna swap out the rear for a 9" since it would cost more money for this project. I'm gonna be running my 32x11.5 BFGs and once those are done I'm gonna get some 33s and use those for awhile. This is my daily driver and I wanted it be able to perform off-road as well as handle similar or better with the solid axle. So far I've spent about $400 for the heims, Blue Torch Thread inserts, Wild horse coil springs, and the D30 itself so I'd say this is a pretty good budget build since I get all the metal for free from the welding program I'm taking. I sold my D35, Superlift brackets, 5.5" coils, and the radius arms so I'm making all my money back!
Heres some pictures of the mounts I fabbed up the other day for the heims:

 

[91Sploder]

Nice the build up thread I have been waiting for.
Teach me how to do the swap with that very axle, too bad you're not a 2nd gen

Any questions you have just PM me or post them so we can make this a better build up thread for anyone doing this same swap.

 

[95offroadx]

well even if it has a its gonna look pretty damn *****in

 

[91Sploder]

Talk about not a good night for measuring tubing... with all the fog outside and the limited lights I have in my barn its pretty amazing I was able to get some measurements done! So I got the brackets bolted on and I was trying to line the heim mounts with the mounts on the axle to get an accurate reading when the stupid tack I had holding the heim mount broke loose and I don't have anywhere to plug in my 220 welder at my house so I'm stuck with trying to measure while holding the heim mount in place and also holding the heim on the axle while trying to measure with a tiny tape measure... arghhhh! Well, the driver side bracket stayed together and I got 2'2" heim - heim. The passenger side came out to be around 2'1" so average it out and it'll be 2'1.5" long lower control arms. The crossmember width came out to be 2'1" but I'm not sure on the angle of the heim mounts so Jeremy and I will only be able to cut the control arm tubing tomorrow, I'll have to wait till I have the heim mount tacked back onto the L bracket to get an accurate reading on the angle for the crossmember.

 

[93liftedXLT]

Sound like you have really been working hard on getting this project going, cant wait untill you get dora on the road

 

[91Sploder]

Here's the lower control arms almost finished! -

The lower control arms were 3 pass TIG welded and the almost finished transmission mounts here flux core welded. Next I'm gonna run a tube from the two tranny heim mounts and put a piece of angle in the middle for the transmission mount. Tonight I am gonna measure the length for the upper links and get those fabbed up tomorrow in class. My due date for this project is now zero'd in on next Friday :bananadance:

 

[FROADER]

Sweet, and if those are your welds, you got skills!

 

[CodePoet]

Agree with Froader there man!

Are you going to keep the tie rod setup like that? Seems like your doing some *****in fab work there why not it and fab a tie rod/drag link setup out of DOM, and flip it? On my d44 it's as easy as reaming out the steering arms on the knuckles abit and using cheby tre's. Just wondering

 

[91Sploder]

Thanks Froader! I've been oxy welding for a few years and its pretty similar to TIG. Think of TIG welding as a more focused type of Oxy welding and it comes pretty easy.

 

[IZwack]

hey those arms looks great!! i wish my welds were as good as those im so sad now, im going to go cry.

 

[91Sploder]

hey those arms looks great!! i wish my welds were as good as those im so sad now, im going to go cry.

I hope you're not serious cause I'd feel pretty bad if I made someone cry because of my welds...