Bkennedy's SAS and Rebuild Thread

As some of you know, I am working on building a parts list for a shortened Dana 44, long radius arm with coil overs SAS. 5:13 gears to match my rear axle and an ARB, maybe an electric locker. I have a pretty good list so far. At the same time, I am going to swap out the rear drum brakes for discs off of a 99 Explorer.

Please note: The plan is to keep this project as simple as possible with mostly off the shelf parts. I am not a fabricator, just a decent welder with a what I would consider the minimum required tools (chop saw, cut off wheels, air tools, welder, etc.), who likes doing his own work. Your opinions are welcome, but what I really need is technical advice. I have been thinking about this for several years and now have the time and cash to make it happen. Please keep on topic with your advice and don't go off on a side track about how you would do it as a four-link, or caged arms, or leave the axle full-width because that is not what I want. I want a simple-ish set up that works.

 

[BKennedy]

Thanks, Kirby.

Anybody know how to get in touch with cmhaah06?

I need to get in touch with him by tomorrow. If someone knows him, ask him to check his PM's.

 

[BKennedy]

Warn sent me two complete bolt/axle clip sets, along with about 10 stickers, so I can't complain about their customer service. Anybody want a Warn sticker?? I just wish I did not need them every time I have purchased a new product.

 

[Rick]

Great job on the frame reinforcements. They look excellent.

Looks great Brian. Nice work

 

[gmanpaint]

How important are those frame supports? I wasn't planning on doing anything like that myself. Honestly, I never thought about doing that on the 1St gen. . Only thought it was something to do on the 2nd Gens with the crumple zones.

 

[BKennedy]

First Gen's have crumple zones also, but they are all ahead of where I did my reinforcements. You have to reinforce the area around the steering box as that is where the track bar frame mount will go and if you don't, you stand a good chance of it ripping out of the frame. I did not want any future problems. I felt I weakened the frame by taking out the coil buckets, and leaving all those unfilled holes where the rivets were. Since I am also going with coil over shocks, I wanted to stiffen the frame at the engine cross member.

 

[gmanpaint]

Gotcha!

 

[BKennedy]

So today I got the track bar frame mount tacked in, nice and tight up under the driver side frame rail. I was going to drop it a little more, but was concerned the track bar would contact the pitman arm. I was checking for track bar clearance and I need to trim more off the passenger side corner of the engine cross member as the track bar contacts it at about 4" of up travel on passenger side. I think I am just going to cut off the entire front lip. I loosened the axle mount and pushed the track bar forward to check clearance on the pitman arm nut. No thanks to me (I did not check beforehand), it clears by less than 1/2", at about 6" up, where the radius arm contacts the frame, so my best guess on up travel seems to be about right at 5". All kinds of room on the driver side. Trimmed 1/4" off the track bar and it bolted right up. So my track bar is 2-3/4" longer than a stock early Bronco. It appears the pitman arm will clear the track bar lock to lock. It also appears that if I get the drag link the same length as the track bar (30.5"), they will be on nearly the same plane.

Also put a tire on the passenger side and it sits a few inches below the fender lip at 5" of up travel. The other side is hanging because there is no weight on it.

NEXT comes coil over shock mounts.......

 

[Rick]

Looking good Brian

 

[BKennedy]

More coilover schooling please:

I am mocking up the shock mounts and..........
Is it better to have the top mount of the shocks 1" towards the rear then the bottom mount on a radius arm setup?
Or.......is there another number?
Or.......should the shock be level front to rear?
The reason I am asking is I know as the suspension cycles up or down, the radius arm pulls the axle towards the rear. With approximately 45" long radius arms, it could be several inches.
Or........am I overthinking a relatively simple way to mount coilover shocks due to inexperience?

There will be a slight angle inward towards the top, but not much due to the master cylinder.

A master cylinder question:
I have a 1994 F-150 master cylinder on the work bench. It is supposed to have the same brake booster mounts as the stock Explorer unit. The brake lines mount to the inside and its a little bit longer than the stock unit.. I was told it would help with brake pedal feel due to the much larger calipers on the Dana 44 axle.
Now to the question; will it work?

 

[BKennedy]

I think option "B" for my lower shock mounts is the one I need to go with.
Option "A" did not allow the shocks to "lean in".
Option "B" seems to be clearing the tire with 6" up and 8" down, which is one inch more up than my target but 1" less on the down (ran out of jack). Was not to crazy about the idea of welding to the "C", but the mounts also act as a gusset which in theory should make the "C" stronger.

Need to do some trimming on the front fender if I want to steer

No clearance issues. Okay, I had one. Why would Ford mount the guard for the fuel filter with studs through the bottom of the frame? Radius arm contacts the studs, need to trim the studs.

As much flex as I could get until I ran out of jack. Still have approximately 2" of down travel to go (5" up 9" down).

Think I will just mount the shock to the master cylinder and forget the hoop....

I think the 1.75" diameter hoops will fit if I cut out some of the center part of the hoop then sleeve them back together. Will also allow me to "turn" the down part of the hoops to make it easier to line up.
Thanks to Rock Ranger for coming over, picking up all those parts and giving me a nudge in a different direction.

 

[BKennedy]

I was also thinking of leaving the shock tab mounting plates I made up on top of the radius arms and using them for bump stop plates. I was on Daves Off Road Supply web site today and saw these.....
http://www.davesoffroadsupply.com/FOA-Bumpstop-20_p_880.html

 

[mounty71]

The shocks ideally would be mounted so that at full compression they are 90* or less to the radius arm.

 

[BKennedy]

The shocks ideally would be mounted so that at full compression they are 90* or less to the radius arm.

Thanks. I will have to push the axle back up and get out the plum-bob.

 

[Stic-o]

It did come out pretty easy........

After I posted this, I went to install the new T-Bird caliper kit I got from BC Broncos. Its missing both banjo bolts, two of the four washers, and the caliper support keys. WTH????

Looking good Brian

 

[james t]

The shocks ideally would be mounted so that at full compression they are 90* or less to the radius arm.

This.

Just keep in mind small upper mount changes aren't going to have a huge effect... you've got some wiggle room. In other words, if you cant get it exactly perpendicular to your arms at full stuff and need to move the upper back an inch or two, it wont hurt a thing.

Good job on the lower mounts.

 

[BKennedy]

Thanks fella's

Because of the master cylinder location (again), it looks like I can only go 1-2" back from straight up at ride height. I have an idea that should give me a little more room. A light bulb appeared over my head this morning, partly based upon looking at DB1's shock hoops, and partly from RockRanger's input. Basically a half hoop in the front with a straight piece taking the place of the rear of the hoop. It will give me more room to work around the brake booster/master cylinder. Off to get supplies.

 

[Xeek]

went back a few pages to check. man we're FOA buddies now haha

 

[BKennedy]

You had any problems with your F-O-A shocks?
I had the shocks in the truck yesterday and think I should have bought the 90* reservoir line fittings. I emailed Dave's Off Road Supply, where I got the shocks, and they replied;

"On FOA shocks the only way to change that fitting out is to buy a complete new reservoir and hose with the 90 degree fitting on it already. They are $50/each and it would be $15 shipping for a pair for a pair. So your total would be $115.

Here is a link to the tech section on FOA's site. http://f-o-a.com/rebuildinstructions.html
Using portions of the rebuild instructions it will explain how to remove the reservoir, reinstall the new ones and everything else you have to do to complete this."

That smelled to me like BS, so I called FOA. They did not answer the phone, and requested that I leave a message. I sent them an email, and got this:

"Our fittings are crimped to the hoses, not and extra piece. You'd need to buy the entire hose assembly to use them.
You should be able to get 90* adaptors locally. They are 3/8" NPT thread."

Now, this last email seems like good customer service. Told me how to take care of it in an inexpensive manner. Dave's I am not so sure about. The fittings are crimped to the hoses, but are threaded into the reservoir. Now, why would I need an entire new reservoir??

I am editing this post because;
I contacted Dave's Off Road Supply and told them what F-O-A said about the 90* fittings and not needing a complete new reservoir. Dave replied in an hour stating F-O-A was who he asked when I contacted him about the fittings. I also wanted to ask about one of the hiem's on the shocks that seemed to have too much side to side wiggle, and some scratches that were on the reservoir when it was received (I did not want them replaced, just thought he should know). Dave offered to replace the reservoirs at no cost to me, and is sending me two new hiems on his dime. Pretty cool customer service if you ask me. I am going to live with the scratches, they are no big deal and I am sure I will make more

 

[mounty71]

It's hard to tell from the picture, but if you're using high-misalignment spacers, do they allow enough movement so that you can just turn the shock bodies 90* from how they're positioned now? So the bolt would be perpendicular to the frame.

 

[Xeek]

Haven't finished building the truck yet lol. What spring rates did you get?

Hows your fitting fit? Mine are 90* off the shock and straight off the Res. I'm sure they can be easily modded to make it work how you need to.
And about calling them, I think they're CST and he's like the only guy on the phone, I got the same guy every time I called. so sometimes he may not answer. But they're good helpful people