ok i have made up my mond and i'm going with a 5.0 in to aa old ford courier but the problem is i want it to be a 4x4 the transmission is not the problem i can do all of that myself but what i need is a place that can do the solid axle swap or sas. So my question is does anybody here know where this can be done in the oregon washington area? Or does anybody have any advice to through in on this. I'll take andy help i can get so through in your 2 cents worth i have a thick skin. thanks for all the help.

 

Dude that is going to cost ALOT of $$$$$$$$$$$ to have a shop fab up a solid front axle. Good luck though.

 

see i want to just use a jeep axle ( front and rear ) all i want them to do is the front end hell i'll do the leaf springs to put the axle on i just dont trust my self to do the streering stuff.

 

Steering is liability, liability cost money!

 

Gresham 4 Wheel Drive(Gresham, OR), Precision 4 Wheel Drive(Clackamas, OR) both do SAS's.....but on toyotas where there's kits avaliable. Just like Zach has said, Steering is liability. RJS Fabrication in Clackamas did a SAS on his '03 ranger......and is willing to do mine for me. I gotta find his card, i know i have it somewhere.

Since you are working on a curier, however it's spelled, well......since you are working on a Courier, i believe those are pitman arm rigs....meaning has a steering box, which makes it very easy to do the swap. On the newer rangers, that have a steering rack, a box must be added, and modding the steering shaft must be made.

 

you cant go very big with jeep axles either, 35s are about the limit

 

.

 

^^Why not matching set of D44's from a waggy?

 

A grand waggy from the 80s... not the 74-79 Waggy... those are passenger drop.

 

I'm using a full size F-150 axle. Did the swap myself using the original suspension parts/brackets and modified or fabbed the steering and trackbar stuff.

I used 4" lift coils from an F-150 also and they are a very nice ride. If you're going to drive this thing a lot, take the time/trouble/money to do coils for sure and not leaves in the front.

My approach is on my cardomain site on page 25 -- link in my signature below.

I went through a lot of hassle on steering though -- from bad used steering boxes to bump steer from excessive angle with unequal length drag link and trackbar. It's all good now, but the comments about steering are right on.

 

ok then so i sould use coils. i was just going to go with leaf because i thought it would be easyer. when you did your swap n3elz was it on a ranger or what? and do you have a v8 in it? i'm just hoping i can get this hole thingg off the ground in the next like 6 months, put i have to find all the parts i'm going to need oh crap i need a weld, anybody have one for sale that can handle frame welding? I'm also going with a stick shift want a 5 speed is there any sertan one out there that you guys recomend

 

here we go again with bashing leaves

 

They are much stiffer in the front. I've ridden in both and frankly coils are much more comfortable for daily driving. If you're crawling I doubt you can tell the difference -- but how much time do you spend doing that with your truck.

It's not bashing: it's reality is all. Leaves are easier, coils are far more comforatable.

And no, Joseph, I have a 3.0 V6. But that's no big deal -- you're pretty much independent of that. The coil buckets, steering box and all mount OUTSIDE the frame (check my site to see) so you don't take up valuable between-the-framerail space with anything.

You will probably want to get the brackets welded though if you keep the exisiting engine mount location. They are in the way of a bolt-through scheme to mount the upper buckets. You can get various Ford upper coil buckets at www.broncograveyard.com (Jeff's Bronco Graveyard). I used salvaged 1979 F-150 stuff for my SAS but there's a lot of possibilities including useing uppers from later model F-150 and full size Bronco's. The advantage for me was using radius arms from that era and having shock locations and so forth all match up.

And it certainly was a Ranger -- just check my avatar in this post, lol. The flex is okay for stock parts -- nothing in particular was done to improve it. Again, full pics on my cardomain site.

 

yeah looked at you site after i was done typing i guess i should have done that first it would have saved me alot writing. Any ways i'm still not sure i want to go with coils or not. i'm not planning on driving this thing to much on the road just a hunting rig. so if its going to be cheaper and easyer to go with leafs then i just might do it that way. although i do like the way you have your set up. i have a good friend of mond that has redone the hole suspetion on his 71 bronco him self so i think he can help. he is also a millwright so i have the welding stuff out of the way. I'm just not to sure on what i;m going to do yet. hell i dont even have the pickup i'm going to do this to.

 

i'm used to a rough ride

when i'm home i drive an RX8.. when im at school i drive my truck with 750# (i think?) coils... and before that i had the t-bars cranked...


besides my friends yoda on leaves, the ones im going to use, rides pretty smooth

 

lol.....leaf bashers.....jeeeze.

My buddy is running 6" All Pro leafs, and bilstein 5125's on his '86 toyota.....and it rides a hell of a lot better than my truck right now! That's the set up i'm going with.

 

thats exactly what im doing, probably 5" leaves but still

he's got a 94, FJ80 rear axle, and some other FJ front axle, 1/4" diff armor, trussed front, detroit rear, ARB front, 4.56s, long field chromoly axle shafts, 35's, bobbed, dove tailed, custom rear bumper from hell... nearly as beefy as mine just not so damn bulky, square front DS.


... its a beast

 

do you think a a landcruiser axle would be better then a jeep. I think it would be more expensive but i did own one at one point in time, and those axles are beefy. but would they be wourth the extra cash? I think they would hold bigger tires. you have any idea how to do the 5.0 swap into a ford courier. just throughing tht out there trying to get a bit, i would go with a big v6 six as well like a 3.8 or a 4.2 somthing along those lines

 

aren't they passenger drop?

and some of the rears are offset too...

 

Joeseph......

From what your first post is saying...looks like your converting a Courier to 4x4. Your front axle will solely depend on what Tcase you are running.......i'm talking about the location of the front drop on the case. If it's a passenger drop, you'll need a passenger drop axle. Fords have pretty much always been driver side drop, and that has limited options......but still ALOT of options. I just wanted to put that out there.

Are you going full width, or ranger width? FJ40's are about ranger width.

 

are you talking about the differential. Like witch side its off set to. Maybe your right i'll just stick to the cherokke axle i know thell hold the tires and there cheap to rebuild. so what year are you doing you swap in?

 

you could be the first to have a drive shaft that looks like this /

haha

 

well fx4 it depends on how big of fender flears i can get. I plan on using som from a range and i think the biggest the make is 6" but if i do that then i think i'm going to lose a little turn radius. so i think i might try to stay with somthing a little narrower. i dont know what do you think?

 

Leaf springs have advantages -- just not on the street lol. That "soft riding" front leaf truck is by far the exception and not the rule.

Most leaf sprung trucks would ride a LOT better with trailing rather than leading shackles. Leading shackles cause the axle to move forward during compression dramatically increasing the impact on the suspension when hitting bumps at higher speeds. That can actually be GOOD for climbing in rocks and so forth as flexing up pushes the wheels forward as the spring flattens and pivots on the rear hanger and wheels move further from that rear spring hanger.

In a trailing shackle design that matches the rear, the bumps are smoothed by the wheels moving BACK as the move up on bumps.

Independent of spring rate, independent on damping, this is the main reason that most front leaf setups are rough.

If you've got jacked t-bars -- anything would ride smoother than that, lol.

Joseph, is your millwright friend a steelworker by any chance? I work at a steel mill and those guys are my mentors on the fabrication stuff.

 

yeah my millwright buddy works at the same mill iused to work at befor i joined the army. He is quit the fab worker. he has redone all the suspention on his old school broncho by him self out of stain less steel and hinez joint, it looks and drives great. plus he can put on and remove his complete front end in about 15 min. Wich i guess is a good thing. i'm just hoping that some how he can find me an old welder. by the way anybody know where to get a 5.0 that runs for real cheap. I'm getting the harnes from MAS FLO its a stand alone piece and its only like 550 bucks and it runs the efi, i just think efi is the way to go for complete response and altittude changes. so i have all of that coverd trans and axle are coming straight out of the local junk yard you pull it. i have never had a problem with trans and i will have the axles rebuilt plus i'm going with full disc brake conversions. so while its apart i'm going to have it rebuilt. Hew what do you guys think sould i go auto or stick shift? Hey by the way you guys have been a great help! i appriciate it.