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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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Here are some more pictures.

Curious but how hard is it to remove the front inner fenders? Also really like that front bumper that's awesome.
 



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Thanks. The inner fenders were pretty easy. I think it was mostly just plastic clips that I had to take out for it to come out. I hung on to them for a while in case I decided to put them back, but it is a lot easier to change spark plugs and access other areas of the engine bay so I chucked them.
 






Have you wheeled those military BFG's is some slick mud? I'm looking for a cheap upgrade to the crap goodyears I have now. Was wondering if the BFG's were at all decent.

Even grooved, the goodyear OZ tires are garbage.
 






Not yet. I'm still putting it back together after putting in the transfer cases and stuff. I would think that they would be better than the OZs though because it doesn't have the center strip running around the center of the tire, but I don't know that for sure. I'll be sure and report back when I do though.
 






I've been able to get some work done the last few weekends.

Here is the final plumbing of the fuel cell.

IMG_0532_zpscce6b49e.jpg


IMG_0533_zpsd3e9421d.jpg


Here are the shift knobs and levers.

IMG_0597_zps0c0309e7.jpg


Underneath looking at the links.

IMG_0600_zps15e8918f.jpg


Today was a little bitter-sweet. I topped off all the fluids in the transmission and transfer cases and was ready to get this thing out. It fired right up, and that was about as far as I got. The shifters didn't want to shift as smoothly as they had when I was dry fitting everything. At times they were just locked up almost. Also, I need to look into an issue with the transmission shifting. It would shift into gear, but only when I really gave it some gas. It would then stop like something was grabbing. It is the first time since I rebuilt it this summer that I have been able to run it. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. I'm also going to look into an easier way to shift into the various 2wd/4wd.
 






Also, I need to look into an issue with the transmission shifting. It would shift into gear, but only when I really gave it some gas. It would then stop like something was grabbing. It is the first time since I rebuilt it this summer that I have been able to run it. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Other than an obvious low fluid level, I have no good ideas. :)
I just read through your whole thread today & gotta give you a big thumbs-up!:thumbsup: This is a cool build, thanks for sharing your progress.
 












Not too many. I got the transmission shifting worked out. I decided one day to just throw in another quart or two and see what happened since I added the drain plug it wouldn't be hard to take it out if need be, which it didn't. So that was good.

After that I took it around the block, or tried to. There was a pretty rough shake like something was off center or something. I was doing a little more digging and I'm beginning to think there is some truth to the 4wd/2wd engine balance shaft. For the time being, I have parked it until I can get some time to really dig in and figure it out or swap engines.

I have worked on adding a different front stinger bar and off road lights. I will take a couple more pictures in the next few days. It turned out really well and bright as hell.

Day time:

IMG_0731_zpskg5nkji4.jpg


Switches with in cab winch switch:

IMG_0746_zpsbmz1kj2s.jpg


Night time:

IMG_0747_zpsutfszaf2.jpg
 












And the switch setup.
 












I got them from Amazon. They are the laser blue rocker switches. They had several different images for whatever you wanted them for. I also bought a Rugged Ridge Rocker Switch Mount which is a 4 piece modular setup so you can mount your switches to a piece of stainless or whatever you want to use to mount them.
 






Decided to go back and read up on your t-case section and saw you're in Cooke ille. Do you work at ATC by chance?
 












Thought so haha. Between the machine skills and that's about the only thing around there lol. I work at Robert Bosch in Anderson SC and we go to you guys a good bit. I don't know if you remember the line yall built about 3 years ago to make TCMs for 8spd transmissions but that's the main line I worked with.

Small world
 






So this project has come to a little bit of a crawl because of this shaking issue. I'm thinking it's because of the balance shaft in the 4wd engines for the time being because I have no other idea what it could be. I'm thinking about adding the balance shaft with a timing chain update but my question is should I spend a little more and get a good rebuild kit and go the extra mile. The engine has 145k and runs good otherwise.

What's your thoughts?
 












Awesome setup i'm currently starting my build. got the rear end SOA last week, IFS all cut out, and a dana 30 prepped to be hung. This forum has helped me immensely! Thanks! You get this thing muddy yet?
 






I'm curious how those military tires are working out for you. The 36" goodyears are garbage. I was hoping the 37" BF goodrich ones would be a decent upgrade.
 



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Sorry, I may have missed it somewhere, but what Rancho leaf springs are your running with your SOA D44?
 






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