Jefe's SAS

[Rx4phun]

Yeah and you had a poll about dropping it down the 33s and not wheeling it much, ha. Looks really neato man, If it wheels at least half as good as it looks you are going to be sitting pretty
Gary

 

[Premier]

Lookin really good Jefe. If you dont mind my asking,about how many man hours do you have on actual work into this? And what is the total cost going to be near? I love your setup

 

[Jefe]

I easily have 150 hours of actual work in this, not to mention the months of research and brainstorming.

As for price, I don't want to know
I'll end up totaling it up sooner or later, but I'm guessing ~$8000, but the axle alone was $4200

As an afterthought, I think I'm trying for the most expensive SAS

 

[Premier]

Well its definately one of the nicest I have seen if not thee. If you dont go big then go home right..?

 

[Heath]

HOLY COW, thats an expensive axle... WOW...

 

[Jefe]

Its back on the road with the D44. I changed my springs to 250/300 and the ride height is perfect. Got my custom steering working well. Need to make some adjustments to the trackbar since right now the upper mount is going to destroy the ElecTrac acuator. For now I have the acuator out, and I'll do a trail test Saturday with just the L/S up front. I also think I'm going to stiffen up the shocks to see if I can't get rid of some of my onroad body-roll, hopefully without sacrificing too much off-road ride, since this is still my daily driver.

I'll get a better pic of the underside when I've got some better light.

 

[BUCHVILLEMAN]

too awesome! youve accomplished my dream setup.

BTW- i ended up putting sway bars front and rear back on - i hauled a trailer across the county and almost couldnt make it. driving down the road shouldnt have a pucker factor.

 

[Trckmagik]

Very Very nice Jefe.

 

[GJarrett]

Excellent work, congratulations. Please post a performance update as soon as you get to test it out for real.

 

[Heath]

Wow... That thing looks GREAT...

 

[Jefe]

My axle is no longer "Pritty"

Unfortunatly John has all the pics of the test run, and I'm out of town 'till Wednesday. Hopefully he can post a few.

The trail was much harder than usual, due to a bulldozer pushing soft dirt over a few of the rockier sections (in an attempt to control rain runoff), making it interesting for testing.

IT FLEXES
Not that I didn't know that, but actually experiencing it while on the trail is priceless.

First thing I noticed is that I was taking lines that would keep me from lifting a tire with IFS and many times put me offcamber. Well, now I could care less about that line since even when trying to lift a tire i can't, and those offcamber situations have a much larger pucker factor with 4-5" more lift and soft springs. Once I got the hang of my "new" rig, it was

Got one big thing to figure out, and a few other things left to tinker with, but otherwise I couldn't be happier.

The big thing is that when I hit 50-55 mph I get a wobble, that when left unchecked occilates out of hand. The body starts to roll back and forth and without sway bars there is nothing to stop it. It mostly does it while making a banking turn and almost always under acceleration while in a turn. It feels and looks like it is caused by the rear end, and I'm not feeling the steering wander or anything like that. It also happened with the D30, but I had thought it was because I had some play in the steering, but its still happening. So I haven't gotten it up past 60 mph, being affraid that it will get out of control. As for right now I've learned to steer in a way that opposes the body roll, and null it out.

I wanna go play some more.

 

[Rick]

I can't wait to see your "new" truck at T-haven It sure looks great in the photos.

Rancho 9000s in the rear cured my wobble. I used to experience the same conditions almost exactly as you described. A swaybar would certainly help as well.

 

[Digger196]

what's up with the rear bumper? getting a new one?

 

[Robb]

Jefe,

Any adverse effects of the "S" style draglink? How is the bumb-steer?

Once again, GREAT job!!! The truck looks incredible!!

 

[Jefe]

Originally posted by Rick
I can't wait to see your "new" truck at T-haven It sure looks great in the photos.

Rancho 9000s in the rear cured my wobble. I used to experience the same conditions almost exactly as you described. A swaybar would certainly help as well.

Ranchos 9000X's are at 5 of 9, which is pretty stiff. I don't know that I could stand them any stiffer.

Originally posted by Digger196
what's up with the rear bumper? getting a new one?

I was thinkin rollpan j/k

I'm workin on my tire carrier rear bumper mod.

Originally posted by Robb
Jefe,

Any adverse effects of the "S" style draglink? How is the bumb-steer?

Once again, GREAT job!!! The truck looks incredible!!

Draglink seems fine. No bumpsteer that I've noticed.

 

[Rick]

Is the valving in your coil overs too soft? I had to increase mine several hundred percent over the factory settings before they worked really well.

 

[Stic-o]

Hey jefe

...just an Idea. On my old Ranger I had it set up pre-runner (2WD) and I 86th the sway bar for more travel but then it was scary as hell on the street So I ended up double shocking her in the front and gained 90% of my control back. I know you have those coil overs now but just an idea to help ya think.

 

[Jefe]

Originally posted by Rick
Is the valving in your coil overs too soft? I had to increase mine several hundred percent over the factory settings before they worked really well.

I am going to revalve the coil-overs so we'll see how that helps. That could very well be the problem.

Your shocks have the mechanical disadvantage of being mounted up on your control arm though.

 

[Jefe]

I got my locker working correctly. I was doing the ol' unlock a hub to turn when we did Rowher last weekend because it wouldn't unlock. Its interesting how Tractech desided to make 'locked' the default position on the Elec-trac. Any other locker leaves you with an open diff if the accuator dies on you.

I replaced my used steering box for a rebuilt since It had some play in it. While I was doing that I noticed that one of the mounting tubes weld had cracked on the inside of the frame, and ended up bending the outside of the frame a bit, so I fixed that one, along with checking and beefing up all the other welds holding the steering box.

Now that I have all the play out of the steering system I can feel a bit of bump-steer. I figured I'd have some since my custom steering isn't at the exact same angle as the stock TJ links. I need to move the track bar bracket, so I'll rework it and fix both problems at the same time.

Took it on a fireroad today and put it in 2Lo-front to break in the gears, and then test out the locker. On the way home I turned up the rear shocks another couple notches, and that got rid of most of my wobble symtomes, although it'll knock your teeth out. I've got valve shims coming Monday to stiffen up the front shocks, so that should completely fix the problem. I then got daring and took the freeway home, and it actually wasn't that bad at 65-70. . .not that I'd let someone else drive it over 35 mph yet. . .but I think it'll be nice once the front is revalved.

 

[JoshC]

That's kind of nice to know that you'll be locked up front is something goes wrong in the middle of know where off road.

Do you think you're going to need a sway bar up front after you get your revalving done?