Pickle 2.0 - Full Width SAS/SOA 4406 swap

Well.. once again I've caved in to peer pressure.. you guys are a bad influence!!!

I've decided that this summer will see me do an Electric shift 4406 conversion aswell as a full width SAS/SOA conversion.

Now, I've been offered the entire front end from a 79 bronco for $400 or the entire from end from an 89 Ramcharger for $100...

My intentions are to use coil springs and RAs up front not leaf springs,

So which Dana 44 will be best? Can I put the spring seats on the Dodge axle? The Dodge set up comes with the vacuum set up, but I'll be switching to an elec locker at a later date anyway.

The cost is not the issue, I want to use the correct stuff first off,

Si

 

[rickybobby]

ok, so I was talking to another forum member last night... and it maybe the case that my 4406 won't work with the explorer GEM like I was planning ( was planning on plugging it in, with the 4x4 gem and having it work)

So, I've taken some more pics of the 4406 in the hope that someone shed some light on the subject.. thanks

Si

My concern there is weather or not that case has the electromagnetic clutch. The vehicle it came from did not have a control-trac system. From the angles of these pics, it appears I was wrong in Chat. the wire that goes into the case next to the VSS is most likely the "brown wire"

 

[blueka]

so it'll plug n play? or it won't?

Si

 

[rickybobby]

It will plug and play, I missed the wire in the 1st set of pics

 

[ahodges]

They do have the brown wire with the electromagnet clutch. No problem, plug and play.

 

[blueka]

Well, I'm lucky that it'll work then, cos I nearly sold it yesterday... money would've come in handy to get some parts, and I've still got the manual one to fall back on if I can't make the electronic one work..

Si

 

[blueka]

Yesterday was the day from hell.. went to pick up an axle from a 96 F150..an Explorer sport to part out and some other stuff... was 3hrs late leaving the house, encountered an accident on the way, (2 drunk indians lost control of their F350, ended up going into the lake at the side of the highway backwards)

That put us a further 2hrs behind schedule, anyway, I got the axle home

Anyone notice the stupid $100 mistake?

Yeah, that's correct.. no sensor in the pumpkin...

So... is it possible to cut the axle tubes off this one, and put them on an explorer 8.8, or cut my losses and go find another one... ?

Si

 

[blueka]

I was bored, so I thought I'd mock up the axle I have with 2 of the tires to see how wide/stupid it'll look...

I'm thinking about ditching the rear axle, keeping the stock one, but putting spacers and a truss on it instead... thoughts/concerns/suggestions would be great...


Si

 

[jmdirk]

If you're still using the Bronco axle for the front it's going to be just as wide. One of your problems is there doesn't appear to be much backspacing on those rims. At least based on the pics.

there's going to be very little difference in strength etc between the F150 8.8 and the Explorer 8.8, mainly just the width.

You're doing very similar to what I'm doing on my 1st gen. 79 Bronco front end and the Explorer 8.8 from a '99 for the disk brakes. I'm going with 2" 4.5 to 5.5 lug spacers on the back to get the extra width. The back will still be narrower by about 1" on each side. Won't be very noticeable though...I hope

 

[blueka]

The wheels have a 4" backspace on them, where did you get your spacers from? I may have to go down that route if I can't find a suitable rear axle... I just missed out on one by a few hours yesterday...

Si

 

[blueka]

The guy I got the D44 from said that it was a dual shock set up, but I can't for the life of me work out how they would mount on the arms...

Here is the arm I have

I need to order the shock/coil towers from JD and I'm confused over what I need...

Si

 

[rickybobby]

the only way that arm could be used with dual shocks is if one were mounted in front of the axle

 

[blueka]

####.. didn't want that to be the case...

Si

 

[blueka]

well... it's been a while since I updated this... I had toyed with the idea of scrapping the SAS/SOA project and selling everything off, spending the money on the mustang... but... I changed my mind again...

So, we're back at it...

I've been slowly gathering parts for this build... I picked up the correct axle (finally) and a spare explorer lsd to combine with it to make it discs and lsd...
Also got a winch.. and a manual transfer case with all the shafts and everything else... however, I then sold the case... and bought another truck with the same case, only less miles on it...

I also grabbed some extra leaf springs from a 98 F150 4x4.. they're 2.5" wide, so should be good, also pictured are my BDS shocks n springs..

Si

 

[delexploder]

So are you giving up on the electric case?

 

[blueka]

probably.. another member discovered that there is a different bracket for the gas tank, which does away with the need to modify the stock one, the other reasoning is that, I don't wanna move the tank back and when I put the front diff on, I will no longer have ABS and the ATOD won't work anyway...

Si

 

[delexploder]

Dam I was hoping I wasn't gonna be the only one to try

 

[blueka]

I'm gonna see if I can make it work.. I prefer the idea of a switch,without the hole in the floor... I dunno.. last time, it didn't like the GEM swap and all sorts of crazy things started happening...

Si

 

[delexploder]

Thats what scares me, im sure I can make it fit, and I know the case is wired the same ,I just dont know what the deal is with the GEM,

 

[ahodges]

get a GEM out of a 4X4 explorer made the same month yours was made. If it was a V6 4X4 factory then your factory GEM will work. However it will function just like it did with the V6 where if it is a 97 or later it will be 4auto all the time. I don't know of an easy way to disable that without using the brown wire mod.

 

[delexploder]

I have my oe GEM ( it was a 97 sohc) and all my v8 stuff is 97 including the 4406 ,I already have a BWM in place from before, ldk maybe I'll get lucky, I still gotta swap out my tranny cause I got a bad one when I did my swap, I guess I'll give it a shot, im just waiting for my turn on the lift.