1995 - Dora the explorer SAS

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

june is better but the later the better. its about 8-9 hour drive for me. i hope to have posi front end by then.

 

[JoshC]

Hey Gabe, you used your stock sway bar on the front right? Could you show us some pictures of how you got that to work and what links you used? I'm probably going to put mine on for traveling purposes.

Also, you got any more updates for us?

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

dont have any pics (camera is full from vacation still) ill have to take some tommorrow or the next day... but here is a little diagram that i whupped up while "working"

obviosusly not to scale... i can enhance anything thats not clear.

pretty simple really. mounted sway bar to frame with angle iron brackets then connector to angle iron bracket bolted to spring plate with ubolts.

i was goign to use the jeep sway bar but the explorer on eis twice as thick and with big tires and all that i was concerned about onroad handling (i commute about 70 miles a day in explorer)

 

[JoshC]

Sounds good. I'd still like to see a picture though. Did you use the stock explorer sway bar link, or did you go with some kind of a quick connect?

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

stock for now.. its pretty easy to get to to be honest, so it might be there for a while.

pics coming.

 

[SeXpLoReR820]

YOUR EXPO IS SICK! I HAVE A 96 V8 XLT AND I JUST BOUGHT MY DANA44 BUT I NEED SOME HELP. DID YOU JUST DO A FLIP KIT IN THE REAR? IF NOT HOW DID YOU LIFT THE REAR AND ALSO COULD YOU TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO GO BUY TO MAKE THE STEERING WORK? DO I NEED THE STEERING BOX FROM LIKE A 94 EXPO? ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED. IF YOU WOULDNT MIND GIVING ME A LITTLE SHOPPING LIST THAT WOULD KICK ASS! THANKS

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

- steering gear box (early explorer or ranger)
- pitman arm (same vehicle)

things you will need to fab or have fabbed ( http://crlcustoms.com/ )
- steering shaft (box to colum)
- drag link
- spring hanger

what kind of d44 did you get? waggy? EB? i cna help you with leaf sprung but coil over you will have to talk to JoshC or CoryL and Jefe - Jeff Seal was going to do the same thing he may have some parts or info on coil set up if thats what you are going with.

rear lift i remounted the springs over the axle this is known as SOA lift. You can do a search on how to do this as it has been covered many times on the boards. Basically you are remounting you springs from under the axle to over the axle.

 

[Heath]

Originally posted by SeXpLoReR820
YOUR EXPO IS SICK! I HAVE A 96 V8 XLT AND I JUST BOUGHT MY DANA44 BUT I NEED SOME HELP. DID YOU JUST DO A FLIP KIT IN THE REAR? IF NOT HOW DID YOU LIFT THE REAR AND ALSO COULD YOU TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO GO BUY TO MAKE THE STEERING WORK? DO I NEED THE STEERING BOX FROM LIKE A 94 EXPO? ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED. IF YOU WOULDNT MIND GIVING ME A LITTLE SHOPPING LIST THAT WOULD KICK ASS! THANKS

SeXpLoReR820, please do not post in all caps on this board, we don't allow it...

Thank you...

 

[SeXpLoReR820]

My friend had a chevy half ton Dana44 with disc brakes and custom high lift steering on hiem joints on his cherokee but he is building the cherokee for the jeep speed and decided to go back to the coil suspension. I picked it up for $400 complete and it was just fully rebuilt. So I think I made out ok. How hard is that steering shaft to make? Did you make yours? Any help with this stuff would be great! I cant have my expo down for to long because its my only vehicle. Also my main ? is about the front springs? I am going leaf not coil but what should I rob the springs off of to use for the front? Keep in mind I have the 5.0 V8 and I want to clear those 35's. Also how does that S0A lift for the rear ride because the ass end on my expo is pretty damn soft. Thanks again for all your help, if it wasnt for this website I would go nuts! Thanks

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

first question - are you sure that the pumpkin is on the driver's side? if it is on the passenger side then you are gogin to hve to change the tcase to something like a divorced 205 with a passenger side front output. this is more work than any sane person would go through for a SAS.

rear rides the same - really soft. add a full length spring or go dual shocks to firm it up... ill have dual shock set up in a month or so. need to figure out my mounts is all.

okay your going leaf - i would go with what i know works - Wagoneer springs. They came with 360 v8 and some had snow plow options so the springs are stout. the full size 70s cherokee use the same springs as well.

the steering shaft is not that bad to make. you need a welder and a bench grinder. you need stock explorer shaft and stock ranger shaft. basically when you mount your steering box you will need to take your messurements then. you are goinh to take the ranger shaft apart and save the fitting that slides on the gear box. cut the end of the explorer shaft off and grind it down to match the ranger end. when you get the parts you will know what i mean - the ranger end is crimped on so you have to either sawzall the inside apart or press it out. you will have to shorten the collapsable explorer piece but that is not bad. i had some pics floating around here somehwere of the steering stuff. you could may be get coryl to fab you a steering shaft or you could come up with your own.

i sujjest that you read thouroughly through thread named "Robb's SAS." we discussed these issues to no end and i think that if you have the patience to read through it all you will see everythign i am talking about and more.

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

that was right after i cut the end off the explorer steering shaft. ialso had to cut out quite a bit of the top tube. i wanted it to still be colspsible in case of an accident.

this the ranger end on the explorer shaft.

i was trying to show in this pic that i had to use the bench grinder to machine the end of the explorer shaft to fit in the ranger yoke.

thats some of it to give you an idea

 

[SeXpLoReR820]

Thanks for all the info, I really appreciate it! What I am about to say might make me look like a fool but my expo is 2wd and I plan on keeping it that way. I am doing this all for looks. Well I hope you guys arent laughing to hard and thanks again!

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

not that im mad or humoured - i guess just disappointed.

posers blow. you got the balls to try and pull off this swap then grow some more and slap a tcase under there.

you want a trick looking 2wd ex then slam it or spend that money and build a cool prerunner setup like SCEXPLORER (do a search he has a sweet 2wd ex)

with that being said I am willing to help you with the complete confidence that IF you ever do this swap you WILL be bitten by the bug and feel so ashamed that you will make you ex 4x4 and it will be the bomb diggitty ride.

get a divorced tcase. basically it bolts between the tranny and the tcase with a small driveshaft. new driveshafts and a hole inthe floor for the shifter and you are good to go.

 

[Muskrat]

if you don't plan on going 4wd, and using the truck offroad, don't bother. If you want a tall truck, just to cruise the mall, get a BL, and lift spindles. The SFA will not handle like a stock explorer. the only reason to swap an axle in IMO is to have a sick trail capable 4X4, not some street queen. there is another rig on here that swapped in a D30, just to run 37 or something, and never see dirt, I don't see a piont. It's not worth the hassle to make your truck real stiff up front, top heavy, and potentially unreliable. It can be very easy to mess the truck up if you don't know what you are doing, and there is no going back to IFS if you don't like the SFA.

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

muskrat is totally right.

3" bl, 3" spindles and you can still turn the torsion bars right? you could potentially end up with 7+" of lift. you can run 35s on 8" rims and be set.

 

[SeXpLoReR820]

Every truck I have owned before this has been on king shocks and I do go offroading. One of my good friends builds prerunners and stuff in that nature, so the work would be done by him. I do go offroading everyday but not like rock crawling or anything like that. I would build a prerunner out of the truck but it is way to damn nice to have a cage going through it or have shocks coming through that rear floor board! So I figure go Straight axle. My truck see's offroad every day and that rack and pinion feels weak as hell and the torsions are starting to make noises and the upper control arms look weak as hell! Adding a spindle fixes none of this crap! The way I drive I dont need 4wd. I hate body lifts they look like hell. But we will see what happens. I wish I wouldnt have said anything about the 4wd now.

 

[Muskrat]

a solid axle on a 2wd truck is pointless. SFA creates flex, and if you don't rockcrawl, you don't need insane flex. it will only hold you back by swapping in that axle, and D30s are weaker than the D35 IFS you have now. how many solid axle prerunners do you see running, not too many. that is the one area of offroading where IFS works better, going fast. Why not look into what seperated the Ranger RCD lift that Desertspive is running from the Explorer IFS, coilovers, with TRAVEL, not flex, are the way to go in that situation

 

[NOTAJP]

Originally posted by SeXpLoReR820
Every truck I have owned before this has been on king shocks...blah blah blah... I wish I wouldnt have said anything about the 4wd now.

I wish you wouldn't whine like a spoiled 18 yr old. Don't make me sic Robb on you.

You should take a little constructive criticism as what it is, constructive.

 

[Doug]

Im confused in one post you say you're doing it all for looks and in the next you say you 4wheel all the time? so which is it? Like every one else has said a solid axle is not good for a prerunner. most prerunners are ifs with the exception with the jeepspeeed cherokees and im not all that impressed with how they handle in comparision to an ifs vehicle. As for the ifs parts being weak they are suprisingly strong. you can run 35s on the ifs components with little problems, parts are more prone to breaking but thats a given whenever you modify a vehicle. I'm running 35s on a stock front end, a friend of mine ran 35s for a year and only busted a knuckle, there are a couple of other members of the board run 35s on a 2nd gen with little problem. do a search you'll come up with alot of info.

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

what kind of wheeling do you do "everyday" that you wouldnt want 4x4 or a prerunner? mud, sand, hills, ? you already said not rocks - im just curious here.

btw - of all the components of the ex front end that rack and pinion is bullet proof in comparrison to cv axles, ball joints, and wheel bearings (all of which i have broken or wore out)