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]

Now since the link bars are so thick I had to angle all the edges of the tube so that when they are TIG welded you can really get the penetration in there. Here are a few more pictures of the notches.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here is some fitting pictures of the tube to the bushing retainer rings. No light through there what so ever.

And here they are with the mill scale cleaned off and the tubes tack welded to the rings. You have got to love TIG tack welds. So small and they are very pliable unlike MIG tack welds. So you can easily break them with one stiff hit from your hand or rubber mallet and then you can retack them without any grinding or re fitting.

 

[turboexplorer]

You remember in a previous post that HUGE TIG welder I used for the steering ends. I used that same machine for these. It was set to 190 amps for these welds. Man they turned out great!!!!!!

 

[Stang5lgt]

Today I got the remote oil filter block adapter on today. Had to take the old oil cooler off and also take the left engine mount off in order to spin on the 90* block adapter. I had to get a filter bung to thread into the block so the threads would be switched to match the block adapter. The bung was for a mustang.
View attachment 68800
View attachment 68801

Here is the plugs on the side that I wont be using. I spun on the adapter so I could tighten it and see which ones I didn't need pulled it off Tefon taped it up having NO Tefon on the first 3 threads so they don't migrate into the adapter and eventually into the engine.
View attachment 68802

They make oil and gas Teflon tape I ended up having to switch mine to that cause it kept leaking. Whatever you do make sure you tighten the crap out of those plugs cause it is a royal PITA to get to them and tighten them up later. LOL I know this from experience. I would tighten them up and few weeks later they would leak. So I used the oil and gas Teflon and it fixed the problem. The tape is yellow colored and they sell it at Home Depot.

 

[turboexplorer]

Not that they are going anywhere by any means but heck why not throw some braces on there? Heck lets do it.

First plan the braces on paper and then bought some 1X1" square tube so I could cut it and use as a brace to the retainer rings. If I am going to hit rocks with these then I'm going to make sure they don't go anywhere.

Rough cut outs being test fitted, guess my pattern was right on.

And here are the cut outs for the links. I am going to put one on top and bottom of the axle side of the links.

 

[turboexplorer]

They make oil and gas Teflon tape I ended up having to switch mine to that cause it kept leaking. Whatever you do make sure you tighten the crap out of those plugs cause it is a royal PITA to get to them and tighten them up later. LOL I know this from experience. I would tighten them up and few weeks later they would leak. So I used the oil and gas Teflon and it fixed the problem. The tape is yellow colored and they sell it at Home Depot.

Good to know. The plugs are VERY tight. and I know what you mean I will have to pull the engine mount to ever get to them again.

 

[turboexplorer]

I got the braces welded on and I dare say they aren't going to go anywhere!

 

[turboexplorer]

A few more pictures of the braces.

Today I pressed the bushings into the lower links.

 

[turboexplorer]

Now to prep the tube for the weld in bungs. First thing I had to do was to slightly taper the inside of the tube so the weld in bung fit nice and snug to the tube. Next I had to give the tube a slight taper on the outside so I could get the Tungsten nice and low in the valley to get a good hot weld. Next I took all the mill scale off to prep the tubes for the weld. Then the last thing was to drill 3/8" plug weld holes in the tube so that I can do a plug weld to the bung. This does two things one it ties the tube to the bung in a few more spots = stronger, and two when its welded to the bung then out to the tube and out it creates a shear spot. Well 2 shear spots because there is 2 holes in each tube 180* apart. This way in order for that bung to come out it would literally have to shear a 3/8" weld in order to slide out of the tube. Not going to happen so plug welds it is.

So I got the links set up in the mills vise and ready to drill the holes.

Again using a center drill in order to start the holes so that the bit doesn't wonder while starting the holes on the tube.

And here it is all set up dead center so the holes will be exactly 180* apart. I drilled through one side of the tube and on through the other side. I set the holes so that there is still 3/16" of the bung below where the edge of the hole is. To make sure that the bung doesn't melt and fall in making threading the joint in a nightmare.

Holes drilled

 

[turboexplorer]

Now to double check all I did and do the final clean so its ready to weld and they will be welded up tomorrow. Man they look good!

 

[gmanpaint]

Can I come over and let you & your instructors do my SAS for me?

I will clean the shop at nights, for as long as it takes to pay it off.



Seriously, your doing one heck of a job. Those welds are the cats ass.

 

[turboexplorer]

It would be worth it to. They do great work!!! Very glad I got these three. I have learned SO much from them and will forever help me in projects and or work!

 

[sector9]

I can't wait to play with this thing! Its turning out great! Cant wait till we do mine!

 

[turboexplorer]

Sector9 is my little brother that has a 1991 Explorer. Just put a new 4.0L in his last year.

I can't wait to play with this thing! Its turning out great! Cant wait till we do mine!

I know I will be moving to Lindon it looks like which is only 190 miles from Moab!!!!

 

[turboexplorer]

Well didn't get the lower link bungs welded in today. But I did get the upper links mostly done. These uppers are 1.5"X.250 wall DOM same bushings will be used in these links. They will get a small Johnny joint on the lower link side of the uppers.

 

[turboexplorer]

I did get these all welded up today though Also I will be making the same gusset on the top of each of these links as I did on the lower. But only on the top, bottom isn't needed for uppers and it will help clear the truss as well.

 

[RockRanger]

Couple things I see.

Keep an eye on the lowers depending on how hard you wheel that materiel has been known to start to bend when they make contact with rocks.

Do you have a link on the lower bushing you are using. I like those better then the leaf spring bushings I used.

If you limit the up travel to less then 6" it is going to suck to go fast in the washes. I trimmed over 3" out of my fenders. and my tires will just kiss the metal inner fenders. The plastic ones got ripped out long ago.

You are doing a very nice job. Hopefully someday I will get to see it in person.

 

[turboexplorer]

I will watch the lowers I wheel very hard but wheel smart and not with my right foot. No fun to me. So the lowers really should live a very long and useful life! Plus I they are roughly 36" from eye to eye so the actual tube is like 32-33" so not to crazy long and they are dead straight to which keeps strength way up.

Here is the link to the bushings I am using at the axle sides of both lowers and both uppers.
RE3701
If you look at the writing on the bottom of that link they list the part number for the cold cut rings to get along with the bushings. I went with these 1 for road noise isolation, 2 for there known durability when flexed, 3 cheap and easy to find $15 each I think for the bushing, 4 I plan to leave both uppers connected while wheeling so it with let everything flex some and not break bolts and rip tabs off.

We will see how much up travel I will need If I need to create more is not to crazy difficult. Also I have room and may run a hydro/air bump stops as well to help with the wash running. A lot of that I won't be able to tell until I get it out and about. I am going off of my drawings and measurements and yes what works on paper usually doesn't work perfect in the real world. But hey it should be close. I would rather have the ability to flex and keep CG low than run whoops hard. Just personal preference and again hydro/air bumps would help a ton for that.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here is the pictures of the upper brace for the upper links. I had just a hair more to trim to get the one to fit but they turned out great. Again I used 1X1" square tubing for these.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here they are TIG welded in place. Also I pressed in the bushings as well. Same ones used as the lowers.