Completed Project Turboexplorer's Full Width SAS Build Thread

Hello everybody! It's time to start the SAS on my Explorer. It will be an awesome project and the first project of this type and size that I have ever undertaken. Up to this point the sliders where the hardest thing that I have made myself. I am open to any suggestions and or insights from anyone as the project gets underway. I have bought every last part for the build minus the hard brake lines (axles, and from master to the frame) and the flexible lines that go down to the axles. Those are all easy to make so I am not worried about it for now until I get the axles put together and can see what i want to do with those.

Now for a list of things I will be doing with the project:
1995 F-150 8.8 - I bought this used rear axle that I will strip, lock with a Detroit, convert to Explorer Disc brakes, and mount to the truck. Factory rear sway bar will be used. I will be doing a spring over conversion and will also be remaking the rear V8 anti axle wrap bars to help the leaf springs out with the leverage and TQ the V8 37's and 5.13's will put on them.
1976 F-150 HP Dana 44 - I bought this used axle and will be stripping it of the Ford factory wedges, trussing, and building custom glorified radius arms. Like DB_1 runs and like Rubicon Expresses makes. Front will also have a Detroit Truetrac LSD in it as well. This Dana 44 has 1/2" thick axle tubes.
Fox 14" Remote reservoir coil-overs - I will be building shock hoops for these coil-overs, bracing them, and tying them together across the top of the engine with removable double lock tube clamps.
1995 F-150 Steering box - This will be mounted inside the frame rail and used with the factory PS pump and will build a custom steering link from the box to the column. I picked this 1 to keep it ALL Ford and 2 because they are fairly cheap and easy and can be tapped for hydro assist at some point if I want or need it. In order to fit this steering gear I also have to remote mount my oil filter so that it has room. I will be getting rid of the factory oil cooler and have a Trans Dapt remote filter relocation kit.

Project Parts Section:
-37X13.50 R17 Interco M-16's
-Fox 14" Remote reservoir coil-overs with Eibach Springs.
-Detroit Locker for the 8.8
-Detroit Truetrac for the Dana 44
-Yukon 5.13 gears for both front and rear.
-Both axles will receive ALL new bearings races and seals u-joints etc.
-All wheel studs front and rear and spindle studs have been replaced for safety reasons. To cheap not to.
-Already had EBC brakes on it so those pads on rear will be reused and new EBC 7000 series pads for the front have been purchased.
-New front rotors wheel bearings and new Spicer ball joints, going to reuse the warn locking hubs as they work great and are in good order and easily changed later if i wanted.
-1978 Ford T-Bird calipers have been bought in place of the factory F-150 ones. They are 17% bigger in piston size so will give me a little more brake up front to help stop those 37's.
-Trans Dapt Oil filter relocation Kit and addition mount to hook to the block at a 90*.
-Currie Johnny Joints and Rubicon Express Clevite bushings for the all the link ends.
-GM 1 ton tre's for the steering with a high angle tre at the pitman arm.
-Front axle truss. (wasn't impressed with it at all so will be making some changes)
-Extending current Expedition rear drive shaft and will have a custom double cardon one made for the front.
-Metal used: 2"X.250 wall DOM for lower links, 1 1/2"X.250 wall DOM used for upper links, 1 1/2"X.375 wall DOM used for trac bar, and ALL tabs and brackets will be made out of 1/4" Flat plate by me.
-Double lock tube clamps for the shock hoop cross brace that uses 2 3/8" bolts on each. These are so It can be removed.
-All Grade 8 hardware will be used.
-All flexible brake lines will be braided stainless steel Teflon lined hoses.

I like to follow others projects and often find myself wanting more pictures so bare with me there will be A LOT of pictures of the build. I hope you enjoy lots of pictures as much as I do.


First some pictures of what the truck was! Then onto some parts pictures. Build will start shortly.
1998 XLT Explorer. 5.0L with the 4R70W trans. I have the 4406 T-Case. 3.73 gears with rear LSD. Goodyear 31's. Rock sliders and front skid plate. Links to those builds are in my signature.

And here is some video links! There are a few videos of me wheeling in CO with nssj2!

 

[turboexplorer]

Tubes all metal finished and smooth. Again I used a 9" air sander. They are really nice because you lay them flat and sand across the tube. (Perpendicular)
That way as the welds are ground down you don't ever take off any parent material.

All clean!!!

 

[turboexplorer]

Now on to the more interesting things like the front axle truss. I got it from TnT customs and it needed some work. But that's kind of whatever really since its easy to modify it. I got it to help save a little time instead of building my own. The whole truss is made of 3/16" steel and for the most part fit the axle pretty well. It sticks out front of the inner C's of the axle so it looked ugly to me so I made a change that will look great.

First picture here is using an end mill on the mill to drill and elongate a hole for the diff breather tube to come up through the truss.

Next pictures are of the V's I cut on the ends of the truss. The plan is when the truss is fully welded on I will bend the front plate over to the center section of the truss. Lay it over so to speak. This will bring it to where the truss ends will match the inner C's better. Won't be this nasty thing jutting out into thin air looking like it doesn't belong there. Will look much better.

And for one of the truss all trimmed to fit sitting on the axle ready to get some weld through primer on the top of the axle and the inside of the truss. I will make the best attempt to do rust prevention. After it is all done I will spray more paint in from the top through the holes and things to try my best to get it all painted. I don't want rust streaks running down the axle all the time.

 

[turboexplorer]

I got the spindles hubs rotors etc all on the axle now. This will be nice it allowed me to set toes and measure the distance I needed to cut the tube for my tie rod. The tie rod that you saw in the lathe a few posts back. This will be very nice to have done since it will keep the very heavy rotors and things from flopping around and shifting weight all the time. I did have a small mishap when that happened. I thought I had the spindle nut a few turns on when the opposite side rotor flopped and almost took the whole axle to the ground with it. Luckily it didn't. But it did tip to where it still might. So I left the side I was working on to go and flip the axle back up and when i did that rotor I was just putting on fell to the ground and bent the front part of the hub pretty good. I set it on the frame bench and started bending it back but it then broke. So now the outer edge of the passenger hub is broke where the c lip goes to hold locking hub parts. O well will straighten out and TIG weld it back up. No big deal since it isn't a structural part just hole the c clip that hols the springs back and things.

This thing will be very big! I will need the camper adjusting bushings that thread in though. Both sides are cambered out. Those are on order. The tires looked like a V when mounted. You can see the rear axle in the background of the last picture its all done but will post on that tomorrow hopefully.

 

[turboexplorer]

And now the truss has been painted on the inside and top of the axle has been done. You can see the gray inside it all. Turned out good. I'm still not convinced of this weld through primer so I taped off the axle where the truss would be sitting and cleaned all surfaces of the truss that will touch the axle. That way I have nice clean surfaces to weld to. The primer is supposed to hold up to the heat of welding it on the inside better and if there is a little bit its not supposed to contaminate the welds like other paints. So will see what happens. I hope to start the final weld process tomorrow. Will take a day or two to do because of having to let it cool between each 2" weld to help prevent it from pulling on the axle. In class we went over how heat affects axle tubes and its amazing how little heat will warp a tube. When they back brace axle here for drag racing they have a jig that holds the axle housings and actually bends the axle at each end roughly 1/8" and holds them there. Then you fit the back brace and weld it. Then when its let out of the jig the axle is now straight. You bent it but the welds bend it back. Interesting. Anyways so I will take my time and do as instructed to avoid that as best as possible.

Truss all painted inside and on top of axle as well as TIG tacked into place. Should be fully welding it up tomorrow. Will be MIG welding it since there is less heat put into the tubes since its faster. Plus it needs a fair amount of fill to do it so MIG is the best option. Also in the first picture you can see where the vent tube comes up through the truss on top of the pumpkin.

 

[mounty71]

So you'll have to do the machining to the rotors again when they need replacing, correct?

 

[turboexplorer]

The rotors are far from replacing though which is why I just machined these ones. But whenever I need new ones I can just order them from currie with the bigger center new bolt pattern etc. That is what stic-o and njss2 did on their rears. They where just $70 a rotor so I saved a little money by just doing these. But there are options when new ones are needed.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here is the pictures of the steering tie rod bar. I used a HUGE TIG machine to weld the threaded bungs onto the 1 1/2" X .250 wall DOM. First I did a good deep very hot root pass to make sure there was penetration all the way down the 1/4" wall DOM. With the TIG I can get VERY close to the weld and concentrate it right down at the very bottom. Even the root pass I was set at 150 amps.

Picture of the big TIG machine. Look at the plug on that thing! Its a very nice water cooled torch!

Here is the root passes on the first end I welded on. I did one side of the hex threaded bung then flipped it to the other side and welded that. Then let it cool for 20 min or so and welded two more hex sections. Again letting it cool then welded the last two hex sections. The beauty of TIG is if done correctly starting and stopping are very easy very clean and you can't hardly tell where you started and stopped. Root pass I used 1/16" fill rod.

Now a picture of the final TIG pass to fill in the rest. I was at 165 amps for this pass. Very hot using 3/32nds rod. Again had to do in sections. If you didn't do it in sections one it would be SO hot you couldn't touch it half way down the tube and second it gets SO hot that mill scale forms on it again. So you let it cool use the post flow gas right and there is no mill scale forming on it. Also it keeps the total heat down so there is less distortion in the threads in the bung. Do opposite side to eliminate the pulling affect welds have as they cool.

 

[turboexplorer]

And here is the root pass on the second side of the tie rod bar. It really turned out great I am very happy with it and would trust these welds for safety any day! Also since this is what they can critical suspension component welding a instructor had to watch me weld the first side to make sure it was strong done right etc. The instructor that watches all critical component welding welded for NASA forever and welded a ton on the Hubble telescope. Plus many other things Top fuel dragsters etc, needless to say he is very qualified and he was very happy with the welds.

Root pass on the second weld in bung.

And the final pass on the second side.

 

[turboexplorer]

Now for the 8.8 info. Here is the pictures of the axle tube ends all cleaned and painted. That way I could assemble everything and not have to pull axles and backing plates to finish the axle after the spring perches and sway bar mounts are welded on.

 

[turboexplorer]

Now to tear down the old Explorer 8.8. 110K on it and still looked great in every way. I needed to pull the cover and axles to get the disc brake backing plates off for the new axle. I will be keeping the D35 gears and the 8.8 gears (3.73) to throw in my brothers 91 Explorer since his has 3.55's and open diffs right now.

 

[turboexplorer]

Brake backing plates all cleaned and sanded. And then painted ready for new e brake shoes and to be installed.

I think there is a BIG difference between the 5.13 pinion and the 3.31 pinion! Small gears driving big gears, I like the sound of that.

And I think the Detroit carrier is a wee bit bigger and stronger than the open OEM carrier that I pulled out of the full width 8.8.

 

[turboexplorer]

Got the old bearings races driven out and the pumpkin all cleaned. Took a bit to get all the nasty sludge/gear oil out of all the pores in the casting. Then drove in the new pinion races.

 

[turboexplorer]

Now to repaint the axle flanges where we machined them to fit flush inside the rotors. These pictures show the machined edge really well.

 

[turboexplorer]

I didn't take any pics of getting the pinion in because I had a friend over that wanted to learn how to do it and so we just got to work on it. Had to grind the inner race of the old outer bearings so that we could use it as a set up bearing. I bought the very nice differential bearing puller to do any pulling on the new inner pinion bearing while setting pinion depth. It worked great, but it should for what it costs. I also bought a $110 harbor freight shop press to press the pinion bearing on each time we changed the pinion shims. Its very cheesy but it worked real well for pressing bearings.

Anyways here is the Detroit in there and getting set up so there is no play side to side on the bearings but not tight yet until pattern is figured out. After that I will set the pinion preload and the carrier bearing preload.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here is the first pattern we got using the pinion shim that came from the factory out of the full width 8.8. It was .023" if I remember right. But it wasn't enough as you can tell. It touches to high up on the teeth. But before we checked that we set the backlash to .012" so that it was in spec before we looked at the pattern. And so this is the pattern for the first time, more or less factory shims with the new gears and carrier.

Drive side. Its a little high and not centered as good as I wanted it.

Coast side.

 

[turboexplorer]

So this is the next pattern we got. I added .010" to the pinion and left the carrier shims alone. When all back together it gave me .009" backlash. It is close to spec so for checking the pattern I left those there. So the pattern isn't bad at all and could be run but heck I had the time working on it at night so I though I'll play around and see what I can get out of it.

Drive side Pattern 2

Coast side Pattern 2

 

[turboexplorer]

So I pulled the pinion and put .015" more in it. And it changed the pattern to far. But is always good practice to see and get familiar with what does what to change the pattern. So this was another .015" added which makes the pinion at .048" of shim thickness. It made the backlash way to tight of course so we shifted .010" from the left side to the right and that made backlash back to .013"

Drive side pattern 3. You can see that now its a hair to low and pushed the pattern back to the inside of the ring gear a hair more than needed.

Coast side pattern 3. It is good and centered but is to low.

 

[turboexplorer]

And so for the next pattern I pulled .005" out of the pinion to make it a total of .043" In doing this it made the backlash a little big so pulled .005" out of the right and put it in the left to move the ring gear back closer to the pinion. Backlash ended at .012" This pattern turned out great! I am VERY happy with it. This is the pattern I am going with.

Drive side pattern 4. It is centered from face to flank (top to bottom) and from heel to toe (side to side). And it touches the majority of the width as well. It turned out great. I am SO glad ford uses outer shims for the carrier. I didn't ever have to pull the carrier bearings.

Coast side pattern 4. Same thing, centered and touching the majority of each tooth. Can't really ask for better!

 

[turboexplorer]

And here is a few more pictures of the final pattern.

Drive side.

Coast

And these pictures are taken of teeth that I didn't paint so the pinion more or lass transferred the gear marking compound to the ring gear teeth. Little less compound so can see the pattern good on these as well.

Drive

Coast

 

[turboexplorer]

Now to set pinion preload. My impact gun rated at 400 ft-lbs tightening couldn't crush the crush collar so I had to make a tool to hold the yoke. I made it to slide in a tube to hold the yoke and put it against the ground and used the socket and ratchet and a pipe to turn the pinion nut. I set the preload with seal in bearings oiled and new outer bearing used, to 19 in-lbs. I'm always paranoid so i set it to the high end of spec for the preload.

Tool and how I used it to set the preload.