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.

 

[exploder01sport]

The search button is very helpful. Just a pet peeve of mine but I'm not a fan of seeing good threads get filled with questions that have been answered many many times throughout this forum. Also it seems like you didn't take the time to read 1-MEAN-X's first response to your question as you asked what he answered in his first sentence.

I actually did read the first post, and I'm new to the forum, that post was a repeat that I didn't mean to send once I read the last and did accidentally, but didn't find the need to go back and erase since it was answered but still on topic. Thank you 1-MEAN-X for the repeat response, that was my bad, and ranger-93, I apologize if I "offended" you but that was slightly unnecessary, being it was an accident and I am figuring out how to work this forum with my email still while working my way through a 1k plus project. I won't mess up the forum with repeat responses anymore.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

Well ladies and girls, yesterday was a big day for this project. I finally got my new shoes. It was a long road filled with shotty ebay sellers and a bunch of other crap. Anyhow here they are. I have some wheels spacers that will be here early this week which are only temporary until I get around to recentering the wheels. The wheels are 12 bolt H1's wrapped in 37" BFG Baja's. I was really excited and impatient so I threw them on the front just to get a feel for how they look. Looking at the front you can see the stance, remember that it will be 4" wider with the spacers and closer to 5" wider after I recenter them to 4-1/2"ish backspacing. The truck still has the "explorer detroit lean" which I will take care of later as well. I really dig the wide stance though. Enjoy.

 

[GRNMACHINE]

OH YEeeeeeeeeAHHHHH Kooooool AID! That looks incredible! Especially the front pic with the Beefy Bumper.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Looks good man. Still have a ranger lean though. I think Chad fixed his by adding an extra leaf on the driverside, iirc.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

I think that's the route I'm going to take too. I leveled it out relative to the axle last weekend and it came out to about 1-1/2" to make it level and centered.

 

[Bruces expo]

Wow man Looks Sweet So far , Just went through the Whole thread , I'd love to Sas my Navajo , I would go Simple though , Leaves with D30 front , stock 8.8 with Lockers Front & Rear , Max tire Size like 36"s !

 

[01STrunner]

Holy crap that looks great! I hope my front end can look that good one day. Definitely an awesome job and it'll be even better once you get the rear tires mounted too.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

Yea I'm hoping to get the back in tomorrow sometime.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

Well this weekend has been cold and crappy, but I was able to get a little bit done today. I got the 8.8 out and the D60 put in with the tires mounted. If you have stuff to do and all your friends are "busy" you can do like I did and make a make-shift cart for your axles using some crap parts and a creeper. I also puched the axle back 1" and I think it is going to fit the wheel well better there. You can also see what 7" of back spacing looks like from the inside if you haven't had a chance to check it out. It's crazy deep.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

.

 

[Bruces expo]

Wow that thing looks tough man !!

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Awesome job man, now just add some military badging with some rattle can paint and templates.

 

[01STrunner]

Wow that is 1 mean looking ex. Sorry couldn't resist

But seriously that thing is bada$$. Great work!!

 

[1-MEAN-X]

Thanks guys. Now that I fed you some pictures I need some help brainstorming drive shaft solutions. In order to have 1" exposed slip I am 2" short. I can get that out of the rest of the slip and have a little over 1-1/2" engaged on the output shaft. I know the obvious retube option but I got to thinking and was curious if anyone knew somewhere that sold longer slip yokes for the 5r55e until I get around to the 4x4 swap probably next summer.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

Bueller...
Bueller...
...:scratch:

 

[01STrunner]

You got me there. I was only planning to get a longer driveshaft.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Yeah, you'd have to modify your existing driveshaft, chad modified a Superlift driveshaft for his. Time to do more research in the SAS threads and driveline section. When did you relocate the jack to the hood?

 

[1-MEAN-X]

Yea, I've looked through ALOT of threads in those sections and didn't quite find what I was looking for in way of this longer slip yoke idea. I'll come up with something, just thought if you guys had any bright ideas I'd like to hear them.

As far as the lift goes, I did that a couple months ago maybe. I was sitting around bored (waitint on parts probably) and just moved it. Same mounting just on the hood instead of on the side. I will have to come up with something to fill the holes left from the mounts.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

I also got the wheel spacers in today so I will try and get them thrown on tonight and snap some pictures. They look sweet for what it's worth.

 

[1-MEAN-X]

Well, I got the wheel spacers on Last week and it makes everything fit a whole lot better. I also got around to getting the back brakes setup. They still need to be tied down though.