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Project Green Hornet '01 Sport SAS

I have been at this for a little while now. I haven't really taken any pictures of the steps leading up until now. I am bad about blogging as I do things, so I will take pictures when I think to and if any of you guys have questions or input I will snap pictures along the way. I fabbed the outriggers from scratch. I used the boomerang shackles to give me more clearance around the body mount and give me a littler better ride. The front cross member was made from a 2"x3" rectangle tubing with hangers from ruffstuffspecialties.com. I then bolted it to the frame in a few places as well as used it as a back mounting support for the winch. I made a dimple die to press the clearance holes and add some more strength and make them look better. I opted to use heims instead of using tie rods. I got the teflon lined 5/8 holes with 3/4" shank both for the tie rod as well as the drag link. I plan to use a pitman arm from either an astro van or a jeep wagoneer. The gear box is from a jeep cherokee which is what I got the Dana 30 from. I bought a crossover steering bracket from bluetorchfab.com made specifically for the jeep dana 30/44 axles. This is a great setup which I will transfer over when I find myself a good dana 44 to swap for the dana 30 I got now. The steering shaft is a hybrid of the stock explorer shaft and cherokee shaft. It had to be shortened by about 13-1/2 inches and reinforced for peace of mind. The gear box will be drilled and tapped later for hydro assist when I find a new 44. I am still in the process of re-plumbing the box, but all my fittings should be here this week. When I do the setup for the hydro-assist I will be adding an adjustable relief valve to upgrade the steering pump pressure that I read about somewhere on this site recently. The pitman arm right now is facing to the back and is looking all kinds of hell, but don't worry I plan to flip it to the front. You can see it's got a little of that explorer detroit lean to the driver side that I will have to address at some point. I'm sure there is more to cover that I haven't covered, so just let me know what you think. Be gentle this is my first major project like this. I’m all for constructive criticism, but don’t be a dick. I will grab a bunch more pictures tomorrow in the daylight, but here is a couple teaser pics.
 

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Subscribin' !! Nice Work. This is going to look even Meaner with some big meats.
 






A new set of 35's or 36's will be coming along soon. My wife and I just bought a house so it may be a little while before that happens, but I can definitly see the light at the end of this tunnel at least.
 






Congratz, a new house always takes precedence! Is that herculiner you used? I dig the color scheme.
 






The outside is just taped off flat black spray paint, but the inside got a thick coat of diy bedliner throughout.

Edit: Thank you for the congrats also.
 






I got a little bored yesterday, so I decided to make a sweet mount for my hi-lift jack. I tried to play with the body lines. I thought about sticking it on the hood, but I thought that would make it look too "Jeepy" so this is what I came up with. I am probably going to make a rain cover and drill out one of the bolts and stick a pad-lock on it to keep it safe.

I also took a look at the steering clearance and am pretty happy with it. It is going to get tight at lock out with bigger tires with it getting close to the leafs but I think there is enough room. I did however, stumble across a leak in the steering box at the input shaft seal area. So I am thinking now is a good time to tear it down and drill and tap it for hydro-assist steering in the future, then rebuild it with new seals etc.
 

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That doesn't look too bad, but what happens when a tree grabs it?
 






I thought about that, and decided to chance it. It doesn't stick out any further than the side mirror so I'm going to use it as a "curb feeler" of sorts. We'll see how I feel when I rip a gaping hole in the side.
 






Here is a small update. I found a cheap set of 35's that will work for a little while until I can make up my mind what wheel/tire setup I want to go with. I think they look alot better than the 31's that it had. I am going to be rebuilding the stearing gear and tapping it for hydro-assist while I have it apart.
 

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That hi-lift mounted there probably won't last too long on the trails. I think anywhere on the front, top or back would have been a better choice. I must say it's very nicely done though. :)

The 35s look much better and it looks like you definitely have room for 37s.

Keep it up!
 






I agree on the 37's. My plan right now is to scrounge up a set of 16.5 wheels and mount some 37" military goodyears. The lift will probably move once I start fabbing up a 5th wheel mount on the back bumper or roll cage or something. So for now it's out of my way and easily accessable for the time being.
 






Well, just when I thought I was out of the woods and ready to start wheeling I picked these up in a trade for my old KM2's. :D Luckily the leafs fell in the right place so that wont be a problem, but now i need to tweak my steering and get new wheels and tires (which I needed anyway).
 

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Its so nice to see another 01-03 sport being sas'd out there. I just finished mine last week....
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That looks really good. Mine is set up almost the exact same right now, but now that I have the 3/4 ton axles im going to be a little wider and feel a little tougher. Hopefully I can get mine buttoned up and on the road by the end of the month.
 






This is making me think more and more about going leafs. I have wanted to jump straight to linked, but I think I'd be happy with a setup like that...very, very happy. I have a D60 and D70 in the garage but they need new knuckles among other pricey goodies.

[Edit: just found your bumper thread. Disregard, sorry]

Incredible build.:thumbsup:
 






Thanks. I've got both axles tore down and in the process of being cleaned/machined etc. I'll try and take pictures as I start to get things together and put back on. I would like to go to a linked setup some time down the road, but for the time being I feel this is a very capable setup and will get me to where I want to go.
 






Here is a teaser picture of the front axle cleaned and ready for install. I still need to finish cleaning/painting the rear and finish the disc brake conversion then it will also be ready to go. I'm hoping that one will go much faster than the front.
 

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So, I have the rear nearly complete. I still need to finish putting on the disc brake conversion parts, but it is basically done. Something that I came across that doesn't really get mentioned in the SAS threads I've read is the ABS/VSS on the 8.8. I guess this is because most guys run the 8.8 and only swap the front. My question is because I have the rear 60, can I just swap the carrier to accept a tone ring and use the stock sensor or is there going to be more to it?
 






Well, I did some research and it looks like the newer dana 60 rears had a tone ring and sensor in the rear housing just not the earlier axles. I have seen guys add the tone ring and make arrangements to add the sensor after the fact. It appears that the sensors in the newer dana 60's are the same exact sensor that are on our 8.8's. So I bought a tone ring and a new ABS/VSS sensor and am going to attempt to make this work. Here are some pictures of the bracket I made as well as how I plan on doing this for those of you who run across this in the future. The first picture is the bracket I came up with. I drilled a 13/16" hole for the sensor with a 5/16"-18 tapped hole for the bolt. I will drill into the housing once I get the tone ring on and can measure it correctly. The second picture is a rough idea of where the bracket will go. The third picture shows the sensor mounted to the new bracket and the final picture is the under side to show how it fits. I plan on tapping the 4 corners on the housing to mount the bracket and drill clearance holes for the bolt and sensor so that all of the location is based on the bracket. I may also need to shim/shave the bracket accordingly to get the sensor close enough to read the ring without interference. I will be adding silicone in strategic places to help prevent leaks as well.

For those of you with a little more experience, does this sound right to you or have I missed something? Seeing as how the sensors are the same between 60/8.8 I assume the tone rings won't matter if they are different because they should read the same output signals, is that right?
 

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Here is just an update:
I got the rear basically wrapped up. I need to get new brake lines made up for front and back and then they will be ready to go.

I assume based on the overwhelming lack of input about the speed sensor, that I am the smartest man alive :D and this is the correct route.
 

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