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91 XLT Solid Axle Swap

My 91 Xlt Explained in detail

Ok, I posted in the SAS thread but i figured i would go into a little more detail about my truck just incase anybody finds it interesting.

I did a full paint job on my truck about a year ago. I left it the original color because i liked it. I shaved the holes that hold on the emblems and didnt put any of those or the moldings back on the truck.
To the engine, I did the air box mod and dropped in a K&N. Put on a set of 'nascar' plug wires. I installed Jba headers, a high flow cat, and a flowmaster exaust . We tucked the exaust up as high as you can and put a turned down pipe coming right out of the muffler. I also took the fan clutch off the motor and installed a 'Black magic 150' Primary cooling fan along with an aluminum four core radiator. This fan flows 2800 cfm which was the best I could find and works excellent.
As for the Rear suspension, I have a track-Lock in the rear. I bought the Soft ride springs from National I believe at $210.00 a Piece. These work excellent. No one can ever believe how smooth my truck rides. They only have four leaves to the pack. I believe they are for a four inch suspension lift for a jeep. Then I had them put these new springs Over the Axle(welded leaf mounts), No blocks. The rear shocks mount way up high on the leaf mounts.
As for the Front suspension, here came the Fun part.
I was working on a limited budget so I called a friend who owns a junkyard and got a Dana 30 Front axle out of an '89 Jeep wrangler. I checked the gears by removing the diff cover and to my amazement they were like brand new. They already had the 4.10 gear ratio that i wanted. $375.00 and i was out of the door with my new front end.
After "mocking up" the front end probably 30 times the plan was ready. The springs decided upon use were from a jeep, With some really high arch. Once everything was clamped into place, they made some really strong gusset type brackets to hold the new leaves. Shackles, from a jeep were mounted in the rear of the front springs, like they are designed to be used. After all of the new custom steering compenents were made the front end was almost done. They made me a nice hoop bend for the Dual shocks, and reinforced it to be super strong.The First lower shock mount was in the same stock location. The second lower shock mount was mounted right in place of the sway bar. Bye bye sway bar. Dual 12" Fox shocks were mounted. New Stainless Braided brake lines were installed.
Both axles Are telescopic. Drive line angles are great.
The tires of choice were 37X12.50 R15 Super swamper SSr's. These tires are great. They ride smooth with a Tiny bit of vibe very Tiny. They are not loud at all. About the same as the 31 Bfg all terains I used to run. They are mounted on 15X10 amercan eagles. Cheap, nice looking and very easy to clean.
To get the four wheel drive to work all i had to do was install a manual engagement in place of the "vaccum engagement" that is normally on the dana from the jeep. this was only $200.00 bucks and the handle goes up into the cab conveniently so i dont have to get out to lock into four wheel drive. It is made by '4X4 Posi-Lok' Just push my dash button and turn the engagement handle , and it's ready 'on the fly'.

Future mods include, Alarm, Supercharged 302 Cobra motor Probably strocked to a 347 Ci with the T-5 Manual Tranny and computer. 38.5 Super swampers. Fox shocks in the rear. Air Lockers Front and Rear. Possibly fiberglass fenders and hood in front. keeping the 1st gen look though:) . Warn winch. And A Sick Stereo.
Thanks for checking my truck out guys hope you like it. Sorry about being long winded, Late!
 



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You need to get some photos on here :D
 






Chief,
How are the 37"s with 4.10s? That seems a bit high.

Also, how hard have you offroaded with the D30? 37"s with a D30 with stock shafts and Ujoints seems like quite a strain. And I saw in your other post that you are looking at 38.5"s, that is even more stress. I am putting the same D30 under the front of my X with 35"s and Warn shafts and X297s, and I am a bit worried about the strain with that setup. If you have really "'wheeled" your setup, it would make me feel a lot better about mine.

BTW: It is a helluva nice looking truck!!!
13247clean_lifted_passenger_side_view.jpg

Robb
 






Yeah very very nice work Chief, i myself would like to see some shots of your steering setup. Did you use the same links or make your own? I'm with Robb, isn't 4.10s a bit of a strain. How are the shafts holding up so far? How about the front ujoints. I'm have a D30 put under mine, but i'm going with coil springs, but the steering is what i'm curious about. What did you do for a steering box and where did you mount it. Any picture you could provide would be great because there are alot of us who are curious and you seem to be a good source of info!:D

Happy trails!!
 






Originally posted by JoshC
What did you do for a steering box and where did you mount it.

Probly the stock one. If not on 91-94's you can use the stock box, as it'll work fine with SAS. It's from then on w/ rack and pinion, or whatever it is the 2nd gen and on sploders got that need modification.
Pete
 






Josh,
Cory and I are looking onto using a box off a Scout II right now. We were trying to use a box from a 91-94, but it is near impossible to fit. Rerard from ORR used a Scout box, and we are going to try to duplicate what he did.

Robb

ps: here is a link with Rerard's setup, altho the last couple of times I have looked, the pics haven't worked, but maybe they will soon.....http://www.offroadrangers.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10106&highlight=scout
 






First of all, thanks alot for the compliments guys.

1) The steering box is stock.
2) Actually the truth be known, i have 3.73 gear ratio in the rear right now. The front is already a 4.10 This is what i need to work on to be able to go to truck haven next weekend. I need to change the rear to a 4.10 gear. So I can use my 4X4. Right now I only use the 4X4 if i am in mud or snow when evrything is spinning and it wont hurt.
The truck actually does great with the 3.73. Only im in Drive instead of OD reading about 27 or 2800 rpm, doing 78 Mph. When im on Overdrive i read about 18 or 1900 doing 78Mph. I am curently getting about 11MPG in the city and about 14 on the highway. Not too bad considering. IT will handle overdrive fine unless i start to go up a grade or something. It doesent have quite enough torque or power to go up hills in od. So I am going to change it to 4.10 to match the front. Then my truck will be able to go into overdrive and not have to downshift anytime. This will also make it take off quiker and it will overall lower my Rpm's making me get a little better gas mileage too.
3) As far as wheeling. I have climbed abunch of stuff at my jobsites ( I am a heavy equipment operator) Wheeled a little a Mammoth when i went skiing, but I haven't Done any real serious wheeling since i lifted it. It has only been about 3 Months. I think it will be ok as long as i dont hop i probably wont break anything. I am definately going to beef up sometime though and go with a dana 44. When i get some extra cash. Until then i will ride it till it breaks.

Oh yeah, The picks are in my gallery check them out. If one isnt showing up just click on it to enlarge. Then it will show. Not sure why it does that but you should be able to see them all.
 






Here is the front end. I know it doesent show the mounts for the leaves but it shows the steering. Ill get some of the leaf mounts. Late!

-Tim.

lifted x front solid axle view.jpg
 






Thanks for the picture Tim, so i guess that the steering links are stock jeep links. How well does it turn? I will be anxious to see how it holds up for you at truckhaven. I really don't plan on up grading my shafts for a while, so you'll be my lead! I'll just be running 35's, so if yours will hold 37's, then i know i'm in tall cotten!

RFR2212--i didn't know that, but now i do, thanks!;)

Robb--cory did finally get back to me and told me he was having trouble with that and he recommened the return to center hydro setup, but man, that was some major $$. I'll be doing to good to get the rest of it paid off. Do you have anymore updated pics of your truck?

Sorry to change the subject of your thread there Tim!

Happy trails!!
 






Lol, Ok i will be the Guinnie(?) pig. Anyway It turns awesome. The turning radius is almost as much as stock.
The only thing that stops me is at full lock the tire will rub on the leaf. Other than that no rubbing and great turning radius! oh yeah and you wont believe this.. No bumpsteer! even with that little shock stabilizer on there.
 






Nobody has asked about wheel travel. It sure doesn't look like there can be much compression with the stock fenders.
 






In my case, I'm not really concerned about up travel.
Bottom line is in rock crawling you dont want very much up-travel. The sooner you can stop the wheel from traveling up it forces the opposite wheel down and keeps it in contact with the rocks. More traction and better stability. Most people mount bumpstops a few o inches above their leaves on jeeps. This allows them to keep their tires in contact with the rocks entirely better.
That is what ive been told by the jeep guys that i know anyway.
 






If you only have down travel you are losing half of your potential travel. Tires don't just need to drop into holes they are also forced upwards. This is what keeps the body level during articulation.

I want bigger tires on my Ex, but in order to utilize all of my travel I need to do a lot of cutting, or raise the trucks suspension which I'm not going to do.

I think the Jeeps limit up travel to keep from hitting their flat fenders :D
 






Heh that might be why. Mine is set about 60% down travel and 40% up travel if i had to specualate. I just cant wait and get to the trails to see how well it performs.
 






Hay that is one nice looking rig I will give you that but the thing really sounds and looks like its a truck show trailer queen!! I'm sure everyone will agree that the tranny a4ld must really love those tires especially with 3:73 gears I had 33's and 4:10s and mine was a DOG ! Not to mention it would destroy a tranny every year. The dana 30 is a real P.O.S. after you put anything bigger than 33's on it. Also the fact that there is a difference in your gears must make your transfer case real happy too. Looks to me like you had some nice sparkly rims and didnt want to give them up for a real axle like a d44 and a 9in. Sorry to sound a little harsh but this truck looks great but wouldn't be worth a crap as far as what it looks like it was built for
 






There is nothing wrong with a D30 and 35s. Sure someone will jump in and say, "well my friend knew someone who had a cousine who snapped their axle shafts while climbing a rock wall with a welded spool" or something like that. Same thing for the 8.8. Just as tough as nails.

I do agree with the gear ratio thing. I would change that ASAP, but i know he knows that already. 37's are some monster tires, i'm anxious to see some wheeling pictures.

Happy trails!!
 






Well,
Looks like you open your mouth before reading about everything. First of all my gear ratio is going to be 4.10
That is plenty my truck has never dogged and it has never been "bogged down" trying to climb something.
Second, I am not using four wheel drive right now because of the axle ratio differences, so my transfer case doesen't give a S___.
Also i will see you at the AZ run right? I hope so. Then you take a look at how beefy and clean my suspension is and tell me it is just for show.
Oh yeah, one more thing Josh is right. There is nothing wrong with these axles. When something breaks it is usually driver error. Like wheel hopping or pushing it too hard.
 






I like it! I have been tossing the idea of running a Dana30 on leafs for a while now. I only want to go with 34"-35" tires max though. Instead of "upgrading " to a dana 44, have you considered thw Warn hub conversion kit for the d30? It replaces the axles (with hardened ones) the drive flange (wheel bearing) uses servicable wheel bearings and is topped off with manual hubs (same as used on the Explorer). The kit costs around $850, but when intalled is supposed to be as strong as a d44. Also, I have seen hundred's of Jeep's running 35"-38" tires on the d30 with very little problems. Most axle breakage I have seen on Jeeps is in the rear d35.
 






Two of the guys that do fab work on my ex had Jeeps with Dana 30s. One had an ARB and the other had a lockright. Both split their carriers in half one took both axle shafts with it.

As far as "pushing too hard" well... If you want to make the obstacle then you push until you either make it or break :D I guess giving up could be an option too, but isn't that why we build the crap out of our trucks? To be able to "conquer" obstacles on the trail?
 



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Just curious as to why you're going with a 4.10? You really need atleast a 4.88.......

Also, your tranny does not overheat when the O/D is on?
 






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