Kinserin's SAS

[Kinserin]

Well, I finally got started on my SAS and so far it hasnt been that daunting of a task. The hardest part was mounting the drivers side coil bucket o.o

While this isnt an actual buildup thread, I'll post some pics in here until its done.. Which is going to be awhile still since the only part slowing down progress now is the money for my carriers since I refuse to do my R&P twice with open carriers and then again with my locker and truetrac.


Heres the mandatory flip-off-the-ttb pic that Im glad I could finally take

This is roughly how tall its going to be in comparison to my self, and I'm 6'3. I think it ended up being lifted 7" over stock and with my bodylift that Im keeping I'll be sitting at close to 10" of overall lift. The roof of the truck I think is 77" from the ground iirc.

Here it is up on jacks to level the back to see roughly how much I need to work out in the rear to match the front. With my 2" AAL and a SOA I should be pretty close. Might need a 1" block.

Heres the Drivers Side Coil Bucket (doing that purely for search results.. When I looked I found I think 5 posts, and iirc 3 of'em were asking what to do with the bucket lol)

Heres the last pic for now. I have a few others but there nothing special imo. At this point I pretty much just need my shock towers stuck on, and then pull the diff back out and rebuild it with a truetrac 4.88s and make my steering then its time to SOA the rear with a 60 and detroit.

I might do a better buildup thread when I do the SAS a second time on the truck.. Because I wont be keeping the bushings on the radius arms to frame. When I do it again I'll be doing heims on the frame with extended arms with a possibility of trying out a 'quarter-liptical' leaf setup in the rear (thats what my brother in law calls it I think, its pretty much the half leaf flipped upside down setup), and the third time will be 4 linked front and rear.

I think I'll be pulling the engine & tranny/tcase today to get ready for the 302, but that also needs a rebuild.

 

[Yomie]

Is this a DD?

If you run 1/4 Elliptical, you have to link the rear so why not link it and run whatever type of spring you want to end up with and not change it again.

If you 1/4 the rear i would not DD it..


Other than that, looking good

 

[lifeguard379]

how far forward it the axle moved?

 

[mounty71]

I have never even heard of 1/4 elliptical springs until now. If you have to link the axle anyway, what is the benefit of using half a leaf pack instead of coils or coilovers? I saw 3/4 elliptical, which i can see allows more articulation than a normally leaf sprung axle.

 

[IZwack]

I have never even heard of 1/4 elliptical springs until now. If you have to link the axle anyway, what is the benefit of using half a leaf pack instead of coils or coilovers? I saw 3/4 elliptical, which i can see allows more articulation than a normally leaf sprung axle.

Check out 034x4's SAS -- he did something close to a quarter eliptical.

 

[RockRanger]

Or search really far back for CoryL and his explorer. It had quarter eliptical.

 

[Yomie]

Or search really far back for CoryL and his explorer. It had quarter eliptical.

Yes i remember seeing this rig in person

 

[Yomie]

Check out 034x4's SAS -- he did something close to a quarter eliptical.

i don't know if i would go that far, more like Buggy spring setup

 

[Yomie]

 

[Kinserin]

For the most part no, it wont be a DD since I have my TDI Jetta now. But the main reason for doing it so many different times is just to see what I like. Around here we don't have offroad parks or anything to spectacular. I mean I went most places with my 2" lifted TTB, its more of driver skill than anything around here from what I've experienced. The only reason I went with the 44 was because I feel they're easier to work on and maintain, they produce better articulation, and bragging rights in the group of people I go with since Ford sucks amongst them.

But yeah, I'm doing it for the knowledge and experience of pulling stuff apart really, Im a gear head and rarely get to do this stuff hehe.

Today I pulled the engine/tranny/tcase in preperation for the 302 that still needs a rebuild but hopefully that'll come just before, or a little after Christmas.

 

[Kinserin]

how far forward it the axle moved?

I moved it forward a lot more than I originally wanted too, and that was a mistake on my part from the get go and said ####it. It ended up getting moved 3.75" forward, and I still have to move the rear back so I can fit a 38" comfortably.

 

[IZwack]

i don't know if i would go that far, more like Buggy spring setup

Oh you're right! His was more of a 3/4" elliptical, except the 1/4" was just a bar. My fault.

 

[Yomie]

Thats alright, you IZwack

 

[mounty71]

After reading 034x4's ENTIRE thread (there wasn't even any mention of it until page 30), the 3/4 makes perfect sense to me, it's kinda like a shackle for the shackle, letting the pivot point...well, pivot. But still, i just don't see the point of the 1/4 elliptical. How is it better than an entire leaf pack? Doesn't a "2/4" elliptical (for lack of a better term), allow twice as much movement for the axle as a 1/4. And again, why do you need links to the axle? And if you have links, why not just use coilovers or coils?

Sorry for all the questions, please educate me!

 

[mounty71]

Doesn't a "2/4" elliptical (for lack of a better term), allow twice as much movement for the axle as a 1/4.

Sorry, let me clarify...

Now that i think about it, it probably wouldn't allow twice as much, but wouldn't it allow more? Because the 1/4 leaf is so short in the length from the spring eye to its mounting point, there is only so much articulation that it could provide.

 

[IZwack]

That is the dilema. 1/4" ellipticals were popular back then, but now its popularity has dwindled and you hardly ever see it anymore.

But one advantage it has over a coil is that it allows the rear axle to extend beyond the chassis or the frame -- because its links and the half-leaf is mounted all in front of the axle. Okay I'm not sure if this is an advantage, so we'll just call it an "attribute" of quarter ellipticals

A quarter elliptical will actually allow for less "flex" upwards (when compared to just coils) because , as with any spring, the shorter it becomes, the stiffer it becomes. Past this point and the spring becomes damaged and will not return back to its original shape. This is why quarter elipticals are often made of more individual leaves -- to fight overarching the spring.

 

[Yomie]

its alright, with 1/4 elliptical you have basically an unlimited range of droop depending on how you setup your frame side mount, basically the leaf only holds the vehicle at ride height and is pretty flexy for uptravel

whereas coilovers and coils only have a certain amount of droop

The links hold the axle in place since the leaf is shackled to the axle

 

[mounty71]

Ok i think i am starting to understand. Still don't completely see how downtravel is so plentiful with such a short spring, but i do understand at least how it works. And now i can see how the links are required to run this setup...it's an interesting/clever setup i never would have thought about. Thanks for bearing with me.

 

[Yomie]

The leaves aren't clammped together, so the bazillion springs in the pic are for holding the rig at ride height, when the axle droops, it only pulls down the 1 main spring which is very thin and very flexible, so don't picture all the springs drooping, only the 1 main spring

 

[mounty71]

OOOOOO, that changes EVERYTHING! That makes perfect sense, because normal leaf springs are only attached at the centerbolt, i just didn't consider that in this situation.