Bkennedy's SAS and Rebuild Thread

I like it!!!

Very nice!
Also jealous of your proximity to a nice test area!

johnny499 said:

Very nice!
Also jealous of your proximity to a nice test area!

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I had never been up that dirt track before. It doesn't look like it goes anywhere, all rutted and someone a-hole dumped a bunch of rubble at the entrance, but there are several trails.

Took the faulty alternator back to A-zone. They informed me that someone at the manufacture must have labeled a reman as new, cause that's what I got. Warrantied it out for a new, this time really new, alternator. Back in business. Might take a day trip with my brother-in-law Friday since he is in town and the wives have to work.

On another note, my neighbor just brought home a 2000 Wrangler Sport. It was literally owned by the "little old lady". Not a scratch on it. I am going to see if he wants to come with us so I can see how many times I can get him stuck. Okay, maybe I will just take him on some easy trails like Oraflame and Grapevine Canyons.

Today, its raining in Southern Kalifornia. I was going to go out gold panning with my friend Mike, but we canceled. I decided to double shear the axle panhard mount. While looking it over, I noticed power steering fluid all over the panhard and frame mount, and everything else under the power steering pump. Its leaking at the pressure line fitting on the reservoir, not the line. I tightened the bolt head a little, but did not want to break the reservoir. Is it worth replacing the O-ring, or should I just replace the pump and all the lines? Its the original pump and is getting a little noisy. I think I can replace the O-ring without pulling the pump.

I replaced the one on my old ranger because it noisy and the new one was louder! There is some sort of saginaw pump conversion I read about and I think I will do that one next time. Though, I don't know if I would forget its a ford if it didn't whine from the power steering pump!

The Saginaw pumps are nonexistent anymore. You can have one made like Rick did, but it costs too much for me. I am just going to get the seal kit for $7 and save me all the trouble of pulling it. Should hold me over until it goes bad for good.

I just can't help myself. I need help. I think of something that could be better / stronger on the Explorer, and away I go;

All tore apart again. Got the basic shape of the new double shear mount. It is going to go right onto the outside of the current mount. Got the idea from another thread. I am hoping I can pull the radius arm cap and front bushing off so I can finish weld, without moving the arm off the axle. Otherwise, I might have to remove the coil overs to line it back up.

I am glad I started this because the single shear mount was already starting to round out.

The Saginaw pumps are nonexistent anymore. You can have one made like Rick did, but it costs too much for me. I am just going to get the seal kit for $7 and save me all the trouble of pulling it. Should hold me over until it goes bad for good.

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It is the hybrid pump that is no longer made.. The saginaw pump with the non saginaw bolt pattern.

I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to work on my saginaw pump conversion on the X as I have all the parts I need (and some extras). I didn't work on it last weekend or any day after work this week as I've been enjoying the riding weather with my new to me motorcycle.

~Mark

Maniak said:

It is the hybrid pump that is no longer made.. The saginaw pump with the non saginaw bolt pattern.

I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to work on my saginaw pump conversion on the X as I have all the parts I need (and some extras). I didn't work on it last weekend or any day after work this week as I've been enjoying the riding weather with my new to me motorcycle.

~Mark

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Got a build thread on your conversion? It is on my to do list to build brackets to mount a better pump on 4.0.

RockRanger said:

Got a build thread on your conversion? It is on my to do list to build brackets to mount a better pump on 4.0.

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http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=417083

I only got as far as getting all the parts and test fitting the pump into a spare bracket I had lying around.

~Mark

BKennedy said:

The Saginaw pumps are nonexistent anymore. You can have one made like Rick did, but it costs too much for me. I am just going to get the seal kit for $7 and save me all the trouble of pulling it. Should hold me over until it goes bad for good.

I just can't help myself. I need help. I think of something that could be better / stronger on the Explorer, and away I go;

All tore apart again. Got the basic shape of the new double shear mount. It is going to go right onto the outside of the current mount. Got the idea from another thread. I am hoping I can pull the radius arm cap and front bushing off so I can finish weld, without moving the arm off the axle. Otherwise, I might have to remove the coil overs to line it back up.

I am glad I started this because the single shear mount was already starting to round out.

Click to expand...

I would definitely give the seal kit a try. I believe it's just an o-ring on that fitting that seals to the reservoir. If it's getting noisy it is most likely the front shaft seal going bad and it's sucking a little air. It's my understanding that they aren't hard to rebuild, The hard part is getting the pulley off and back on if it's the press on style, it takes a special tool. Good catch on the track bar mount, better to find and fix it now then find it after death wobble starts to be an issue. Hopefully you can get it welded with just pulling the cap. I had all kinds of fun trying to get the second radius arm in the first time, those "c" bushings hold the axle really well.

Wouldn't you think a seal leaking is usually a sign that a bearing is worn out on the front shaft seal which is letting air in? If so the new seal won't last long.

The only place I can find any leakage is at the reservoir mount for the pressure line. The rest seems to be holding fine. It has always made noise, it just seems a little louder lately.

For now, I am going to suck out the fluid so the level is below the pressure line fitting and replace that O-ring. If I don't have any more leaks, I'll call it good.

Today, I made this

Killer turkey soup; after it is ravaged by guests, save the turkey carcass. Throw it, and anything left in the pan in a large pot. Fill with water and simmer for three or four hours. Pour stock through a strainer into another large pot. Discard carcass. Dump in a few pounds of leftover turkey, chopped in chunks. Add 3/4 bag of Kirkland brand frozen stir fry vegetables. Simmer for another 30 minutes. Makes a few gallons of soup. Chow down.

And, while the turkey was simmering, I finished the track bar mount.






Lost a few degrees steering towards passenger side to clear the tie rod over steering, but it was worth it. I did not think I would have to do that, because I only really pushed the bolt head out about 1/8" (1/4" plate minus 1/8" washer). The back of the Duff raise bracket I adapted to fit when I did the SAS is welded all the way around the stock mount, and has several gussets added tying it into the axle. If I was doing the SAS all over again, I would have cut off the original mount and used something like Kirby is doing so it did not push the mount so far forward.

Tomorrow I should be able to get the steering pump seal kit and see if that was all it was.

Edit: I adjusted the steering so the tie rod saddle doesn't rotate towards the rear anymore and got my steering radius back.

Turkey soup looks awesome. We will have to try that. Do you cook the turkey at your house? I cook ours

I actually scavenged that one when we went to my brother in law's for Thanksgiving. He was going to chuck it so I snagged it for soup.

I was sitting at the computer looking at SAS rigs when it occurred to me that having a coil over suspension appears to put much more pressure on the track bar than coils and shocks. You can unbolt the track bar of a coil / shock set up axle without support. So at rest, the track bar is getting little, if any pressure put on the bolts. With a coil over setup, if I pulled the track bar without supporting the body, the suspension would just fold over. The coil over shocks support the weight, but provide no lateral support like coil springs. I am sure this was common knowledge, but it never entered my mind until I was looking at a picture of a stock Bronco. The picture taker was changing out the track bar bushings and just unbolted it without supporting the suspension. Now, I am doubly glad I double sheared that axle mount and made the frame mount so beefy.

The draglink keeps the suspension from folding over with coils. No draglink and it would fold up. Do you think your draglink would keep your from folding over?

You mean the track bar?

I know that the track / panhard bar's function is to center the front axle under the vehicle in a coil type suspension. Radius arms set the front to rear alignment, coils take the weight and set ride height, and the track / panhard bar centers side to side.

Oh, now I think I get what you are saying. If there was no track bar, then the drag link would keep the suspension centered as long as the steering was locked. That's a lot of side load on a steering box. Would be kind of fun to remove a track bar from a junk vehicle, then reach in and unlock the steering column and see what happens.

Mine would stay since I run a hybrid radius arm set up where the upper links are in toward the center of the rig than the lower links. So it may sag a hair to one side or the other but it could not fully fold up.

Also may seam like a lot of side load on the steering box to hold it from folding over at a rest but think of the pressure the box gets when trying to turn twisted up on rocks. If you took the trac bar off I bet you could have one guy easily hold the rig centered from flopping, but one guy cannot even come close to turning the front tires at a stand still even with pushing on the outside of the tires which has WAY more leverage than the steering knuckle. Yet the box can move them with ease at a stand still. Lots of pressure!