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]

Alright time to get started on the project.

Here is the rig sitting on its factory Suspension at its factory ride height.

Here is the rig after all factory measurements have been taken for height and and is now at my wanted ride height. This should be within 1/2" of where the rig will end up for ride height. Can't wait. It's new ride height will be sitting on its weight at this height which takes the factory suspension at full droop and several inches off the ground to even match.

 

[FROADER]

Awesome! Hope it all goes well for you.

 

[turboexplorer]

Thanks Froader!

 

[turboexplorer]

Now that all the height measurements and things where taken. From the bottom of symmetrical holes in the frame and from body pinch welds, door handles and core support I can now mark axle center lines. I should note that I was VERY happy with the measurements. The frame only had 3/16" of twist in it! That's fantastic for a rig that is 14 years old, 110k miles, and wheeled hard the last 40k. Heck I bet they where that far off when they left the showroom floor. The body however was perfect! Not even 1/16" of twist in the body.

Here I have measured from a level floor with a square to the two outer edges of the brake rotor and marked them on the floor with tape. Next cut the width between them in half and you have your axle CL. I then laid the straightedge down on CL of both sides of the rear axle. Then laid a long piece of tape down for easy reference when the straightedge is moved. I did the exact same thing on the front but with front brakes removed and measured off the edges of the wheel hub. (Yes i know the weight is off the axles which does change where the CL is slightly but its much easier and will work fine. Seeing as how the rear will bolt up in the same spot regardless because of the leaf center bolt and we measured and the front from ride height to full droop only moved 1/32" anyways plus I will be moving the front CL forwards some to clear the 37's)

You can see the tape on the floor where everything was laid out from.

I then used a plumb bob and went straight from the axle CL to the body and placed tape there and marked it for reference. When all the Suspension is out of the rig I will be transferring the CL marks to the frame so they will always be there as reference marks in the future as well. I will mark the CL on the frame with a small center punch so the mark will never leave or change. Next I measured my Wheel Base on both sides and they tell the same story as my frame and body measurements in that this rig is still VERY straight. Both sides where 111 9/16" long. Neither side was even 1/32" different from each other.

 

[turboexplorer]

1st post is now updated with the list of axles and parts I will be using. Along with a little description of how the plan for the truck is laid out.

 

[gmanpaint]

Subscribing

Long list of spanking new parts for this build! Impressive

For never doing anything like this, your doing a great job with all the tedious measurements and so forth.

I like the T-bird calipers. The core charge is dirt cheap on them too! I think I might have to steal that idea for my D44

Oh, next time you need to remove them axle bearings, a 2 or 3 jaw slide hammer pops them right out.

Are you planning on doing any body trimming at all?


Cant wait for the tear down, then the build

 

[jmdirk]

subscribing.

Since I'm planning a similar swap (79 Bronco D44 into a 1st Gen) in the near future. ld50's build thread is a great reference too

 

[turboexplorer]

Subscribing
Long list of spanking new parts for this build! Impressive
For never doing anything like this, your doing a great job with all the tedious measurements and so forth.
I like the T-bird calipers. The core charge is dirt cheap on them too! I think I might have to steal that idea for my D44
Oh, next time you need to remove them axle bearings, a 2 or 3 jaw slide hammer pops them right out.
Are you planning on doing any body trimming at all?
Cant wait for the tear down, then the build

I know the parts list is huge and expensive but it will all be worth it. They are all quality parts. And yeah I am in a custom fabrication class and in class they have gone over an incredible amounts of things that need to be done such as heights center lines etc. One of my instructors has built several Top Fuel funny cars and dragsters. He has also built tons of pro stock chassis and welded for NASA for 18 years. He actually welded 50% or so of all welding done on the Hubble telescope. Talk about a qualified instructor.

T-Bird calipers are a must in my opinion. They are the same price and give 17% more clamping force. Only change you have to make is the brake line going to the caliper is different. But I am making all my own lines anyways.

I know the slide hammer trick and use but i don't own one so I had to make due, lol.

As far as trimming goes yes. But as minimal as possible. I know that on the rear the front of the quarter panel should be okay where the rear doors come down which will be nice not to have to trim. But on the back of the rig where it has the wings that come down. That will have to be trimmed a fair amount which will be fine as they don't even have anything behind them. The front I hope to not touch the rear part of the front fender, if I do it will be small. I am pushing the wheelbase forward a little to help clear there. But on the front bumper/fender area yes there will have to a fair amount of trimming to clear the tires stuffed and turned. But again I plan to build a front bumper so all that will look like it was supposed to be that way. That's the plan anyways. We will see when i finally get the axles and tires under the truck.

 

[turboexplorer]

Got all of the front suspension out of the truck. The diff and things are still in there but that will come out shortly. Looks great not having all the IFS in there. That cross member will be a bear to get out cleanly. I didn't realize that not only on the bottom of the frame but it goes all the way up inside the frame rails as well. Will be hard to get the top all fully cleaned up but it will get done.

 

[turboexplorer]

Rear axle is out of the truck. I am going to try and reuse the sway bar brackets that are off the explorer axle. It will take a steady hand to make the brackets so i don't hardly have to trim them to fit them on the new axle. But it has the sway bar clamp that bolts to the bracket so if I need to I can just make some new ones for the new 8.8. I will get some solid bar stock and extend the links so that it will have the factory angle on the sway bar arms. And I am not sure how I am going to make the anti wrap bars work but we will come up with some way. And the leaf springs still look in good order so they will be staying for now. They would be easy to swap out with new ones if needed at some point.

 

[NHarris]

Subscribing to this build!

 

[mounty71]

Read through the thread and I don't think I saw the answer yet, but what are you doing about the rear wheel bolt pattern with the explorer disc brakes?

 

[explorinitup]

Very nice build!

 

[Bruces expo]

Sweet Build on Your 2nd Gen , lots Of New parts And Great pics So Far Too , Def Subscribing To Check in later , I Really Want A SaS But its Just Not Going To Happen Soon With my Work area And Amount of Tools , Great Build so Far !!

 

[gmanpaint]

Will you be removing those lift shackles?

Doing the F-150 leaf mod (or a 2" lift leaf pack) will net the lift those shackles give, plus more decent angle without hanging up on those shackles. Not to mention the premature leaf inverting death those shackles cause.

Now is a good time to decide so when you weld those perches on for pinion angle, you have it right the first time.

Removing the cross member and shock towers clean from the frame is the fun part of the build! .......

 

[crazyflights]

yea if you can- ditch the shackles. I hated them, got stuck on them at moab, couldnt back up shackles dug into the rock!! LOL Gman might have memories of that...

 

[turboexplorer]

Read through the thread and I don't think I saw the answer yet, but what are you doing about the rear wheel bolt pattern with the explorer disc brakes?

I am boring the center hole bigger for the new axle's bigger center section and I am re-drilling the rotors with the new bolt pattern. I am also going to 45* the edge of the axle flange so that it will sit flat inside the rotor. Pics to come of that shortly.

 

[turboexplorer]

Will you be removing those lift shackles?

Doing the F-150 leaf mod (or a 2" lift leaf pack) will net the lift those shackles give, plus more decent angle without hanging up on those shackles. Not to mention the premature leaf inverting death those shackles cause.

Now is a good time to decide so when you weld those perches on for pinion angle, you have it right the first time.

Removing the cross member and shock towers clean from the frame is the fun part of the build! .......

I haven't looked into anything on that. I didn't know others where having problems with this set up. I know they drag at times but hasn't been to bad so far. And pre mature leaf inverting death? Would like a 2" leaf pack but would like to stay with the same or very similar spring rate as I like the ride and flex of the stock leafs. Also F-150 leaf mod? Lol, I have heard of it but have never looked into it.

 

[turboexplorer]

I got the front cross member done. It turned out great. I used 2X3" .120 wall square tube for this. I didn't have anything to take pictures of the pattern I made and the cuts and metal fitting but o well. There is 1/16" gap so that I could do the butt welds on the miter cuts. It turned out pretty good and I did it lower so that the winch could fit above it. It also is 1" lower than the radiator which will offer some protection and also easy to mount a skid plate to.

Roughly cleaned frame to get a better idea of the medal fit.

This is after it has been tacked together so at this point the cross-members 3 pieces are tacked together. Here I just have it fit up to the frame to double check that the pattern was right.

And here it is held up against the frame before the cross-member is removed and the bumper to make sure the frame stays as square as possible. That is the biggest reason for the cross-member.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here it is tacked up to the trucks frame and is now all metal finished at the miter cuts.

Picture of the frame cleaned and you can see the medal finish that is almost done in this picture. This picture was during the checking stage to make sure the cross-member was still perfectly square after it had been welded up.

Sorry for the bad pictures it wouldn't take clear for some reason. But now here it is all welded up to the truck. Don't let the picture deceive you the frame is fully clean that's just from the argon gas since it was a pretty long weld and I was angled up fairly good to keep the weld from sagging. Was wide and 3" long so it took a bit to weld it all in one pass each side. The short sides where a pain because it is right where there is a hole in the frame and it wanted to melt through but I got it done.