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]

Here is what I did with the tie rod jam nuts that I thinned down.

 

[turboexplorer]

And here is the front end all done. You can see the steering stabilizer on there as well as the front axle shafts are in etc. All done with the front end. If you look close you can also see on the passenger side tie rod how it is rotated all the way forward in the first pic and on the drivers side you can see how it is twisted all the way back in pic 2. Thats what i did to get rid of the slight wander and shimmy.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here is the X up on the alignment rack. This is the Ford dealer I worked at for a month before I left and went to another Ford dealer because this one didn't have enough work coming through. Anyways long story short they have a newer better alignment rack which is why I did it there with my former co worker after hours.

And after the alignment went for a drive and bought the friend a drink for staying late so i could use their alignment rack.

And here it is home at my apartment.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here is the drivers side inner fender all trimmed up and in. I had to cut it a little wide so that I can change the oil filter without having to remove the inner fender.

 

[turboexplorer]

Passenger side all done and installed as well. They turned out great. And will at least help with water in the engine bay. Plus the rig looks better when it doesn't look like things are missing.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

Can never have too many pics on a build like this. As usual, you are making quick and great progress. I really like what you did with the front bumper also, dig the way you followed the fender line. Not sure I have ever seen front bumpers cut like that, looks good. The ONLY thing I dont like that much are those bumflaps. Did you cut that much out of the rear to make room for the tires at flex or for the flaps. Im sure it will look fine once you put the modified tupperware back on though!

 

[turboexplorer]

I had to trim for the tire a little bit as well. Also the flaps have to be as tall as the tire and cover 50% of the tires height to be legal. So being legal is the biggest reason for the mud flaps period. I have no choice. Plus they are very easily removable which is a huge plus since wheeling with any mud flaps will get ripped off in a heartbeat. So for now it serves every purpose that they need to. Plus in the future the rear will be cut straight across and a bumper will come around in the place of the thin sheet medal so it will all fit nicely when its all done. So for now they work perfect are functional and legal.

 

[crazyflights]

So did you get shimmy figured out?

I'm little concerned about Tierod end angle at Pitman arm. In one photo looks like explorer is sitting level on its own weight, now with it on top has alot of angle. If you droop the passengerside I think you're going to bind on the upper TRE at pitman arm. may check that before flexing hard on a trail.... ??

BTW looks awesome!!

 

[turboexplorer]

So far it seams to be gone. I haven't taken it on the freeway yet but it would do it at 50mph before and now it doesn't so for now yes shimmy is gone.

It's the high angle TRE and there really isn't anything I can do about it. It is at the same length and angle of the trac bar and the steering box can't be moved and where it hooks on the tie rod can't be moved. I will watch it close and i don't plan on putting it through its paces the first time out. I drooped that side when I indexed the coils and it was fine then. It really isn't at a whole lot different angle than when it was under the pitman arm. But I did keep that arm in case I do need to move it back to the bottom of the pitman arm but when its there it will hit the tie rod when both sides are compressed, like when in sand woops.

If I need to I can put a bend in the drag link so it gives the pitman arm TRE a better angle.

 

[turboexplorer]

So it drove great all day yesterday and most of that was 40-45 at the fastest and felt really good. This morning on the way to work I decided to try the free way again and see how it did. The shimmy is still there.

I guess the next thing to do is to switch the front and rear tires and see what happens if it gets better or worse or stays the same. this should hopefully tell me if it is a tire issue. If it is I can get it taken care of. If not I will have to start looking other places for it...................:scratch:

 

[gmanpaint]

Static beads for tire balancing? Worked for all my tires.

 

[turboexplorer]

I have never used them. Did you have shake issues that they fixed? That would ne an easy fix. They are static balanced right now on the rim is all.

 

[gmanpaint]

I have never used them. Did you have shake issues that they fixed? That would ne an easy fix. They are static balanced right now on the rim is all.

Yes sir. I have 12 oz in the 35's and 8 oz in the 33's. Solved all the shake/wobble issues. They automatically go where needed each time the tire starts to rotate, balancing them perfectly. There are a few diff brands out there, and some use the plastic soft air BB's, but the smaller ones seem to work better. There is formulas used for oz's/tire size used.

 

[turboexplorer]

Good to know. I will swap these tires around this evening and see what I come up with and then go from there. I have heard mixed reviews on the beads but it seams that as long as you use the right weight for tire size they seam to do really well. Bigger the tire the better they seam to help.

 

[turboexplorer]

I wonder if a front wheel hub could be bent? Never heard of it but I guess there is always a chance. Ill check that this evening as well.

 

[turboexplorer]

I'll tell more of my findings in the morning but for now here is a short dumb clip of the truck. Its just a vid of the truck in my uncles yard going through a small irrigation ditch but this was a test run so here it is. I took a video of the whole 12 mile drive home that included freeway driving but since I don't have the software update for the GoPro I have to flip them in my video editor and it takes forever so. Tomorrow I will update the GoPro and post a vid of the freeway drive. Man its crazy how much the axle moves even in this video just pulling out of the garage driving for 1 min and back.

 

[turboexplorer]

Alright so I did a little on the truck last evening. I first jacked up the front end and checked ball joints, tie rods, trac bar, steering box, wheel bearings, etc. Nothing found. I then spun the tires by hand and watched them near the ground and sure enough the left front looks to be out of round. So I pulled it off and threw the dial indicator on the hub and there is only .004" of runout so that is fine. I then put it on a jack stand and put the rear on jack stands. I then used big wheel chocks on the right front and put the truck in gear so i could watch the rear tires. Both looked great no out of round look and they are straight to. So I rotated front to rear and then did the same thing and now the left rear looks out of round. The right rear looks great. So 3 tires looked perfect and the one does have some out of round to it. And its not any front end parts since it is identical on the rear. So I then finished up and drove it home and did some freeway and it is nice and smooth now, however the rear you can now feel it in. So today I will have to make some phone calls and see what I come up with. Get it thrown on the road force balancer and see what the out of round specs are.

I am also thinking of adding a little caster as well. and possibly toeing it in another 3/32" or so. But First will deal with the tire issue.

 

[james t]

Good deal!

 

[DB_1]

Super Swampers (any style) can be pretty bad to balance at times. When I had 36" IROKS (bias) one took as much as 14 oz. to balance. The worst set of tires I owned were Super Swamper SSR's, one tire got so out of round it developed a bubble in the sidewall then finally gave up. If my truck was strictly an off road rig i'd run swampers but they don't seem to last long with any road driving.

Another wheel balancing option is Centramatic wheel balancers. They aren't cheap but a lot of people swear by them.

 

[turboexplorer]

I have heard all the poor balancing on Interco tires as well. I have a bunch of e mails and phone records of me talking with them about it before I even bought the tires. I think in this case its more of an out of round thing than a balance thing. We will see what they say though.

I wonder if its exaggerated by the tire pressure. I am at 30psi and it seams a bit hard still. You almost cant even tell there is any weight on them. They are an E load range tire. What do others run for their road pressures on 35-37's?