Well I finally got underway with the SAS project. It's a dana 44/ford 9" swap with leaf springs.

I've been dreaming of doing an SAS since I got this truck 3 years ago. I've spent the last year in the "planning and gathering parts stage". Two weeks ago I finally got tired of waiting and pulled the truck in the shop and started on the swap.

heres some "before" pics

 

How much higher are you going to make the truck?

 

First a little history on the truck. It's a 95 supercab 4x4 that I bought 3 years ago from a high school kid for $600- so cheap because the kid ran it out of oil and it wouldn't start (obviously) so the truck sat in the yard for 6 months till I got around to rebuilding the 4.0.

I really liked the looks of the prerunner rangers with fiberglass fenders and such so I started building it to look like that. I bought some 'glass fenders and pulled out the rear fenders about as far as they would stretch. I built some bumpers and a roll bar and drove it around for about a year like that (with white fenders even)

Then the M50d 5-speed started acting up, I replaced the clutch, but it never did shift right so I looked into doing a tranny swap. I wanted an auto, but heard bad things about the al4d's so i went the c-5 route. I bought a b2 c-5 and bw1350 setup off e-bay foy $250 shipped. Then I started seeing articles about doublers for rangers, and since I already had 2 transfer cases....

I got the D.D. machine kit and did the c-5/doubler swap of course i had all this gearing and was still running basically stock suspension with 31's-pathetic, I know.

I got tired of all the "your truck looks cool, but it needs bigger tires" comments. Actually, I was waiting for a good deal to come by on some axles because I decided long ago I wasn't going to spend any mony on the ttb axls or lifting it. I'm glad I waited.

Then I found a guy in town who had a waggy d44/ford 9 set with 5.13's and spools in both diffs. I traded some 38" super swampers I had plus $500, so it ended up costing me about $800 for the axles



I got the axles, a high steer arm, a heim jointed drag link and a set of ford 5-5-1/2" pattern rims for the deal. The guy had them on a cherokee, but was looking for some 1-ton axles. It turned out not to be that great of a deal as the axles needed some work-a broken u-joint, spindle bearings, a rear axle bearing, and someone really messed up the front gear setup, so that needs to be redone.

 

This SAS project is very budget minded. I wish I could do a 4-link/coilover setup running some 37's, but that's not gonna be possible on my budget.

So I'm doing a leaf setup, I'm even going to a foreward shackle setup for now because it's the cheapest way to go.

I want to run some 35's, but right now I have some 33's on the truck because I had those tires already.

I built all of my own leaf, shackle and shock mounts. I'm a high school drafting and metals teacher so I did most of the work after school and weekends in the shop.

I went with some toyota truck leaf springs for the front springs and I'm using stock rears right now. I added a leaf to the toyota springs, but it still needs more. I only got about 5" of lift initially, which might be a contender for the lowest SAS here, but it's actually about right for the 33's I have on there now. here's one "after" pic

 

i want closer pictures!

looks good though

 

That looks like a fun build. I'm a front leaf spring bigot though -- especially when you have a truck that already had coils, lol. I also don't like front mounted shackles as they further stiffen the ride. I told you I was a bigot!

But to be more encouraging: it's a great project and the results are worth it.

To quote Lewis Carroll from the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter":

And thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more...

Which about describes the flood of Ranger SAS projects the last couple of years!

 

Here's some pics of the front axle



Caster setup


Leaf mount


My front diff guard



Leaf and shock mounts


The extra piece under the axle here is because I went with a square u-bolt setup

Cleaned up and ready to go

 

I dont have many pics of the ford 9", somehow half the pics I took ended up too blurry to post.

anyway, on to the fun stuff

Front end stripped







I never did like that ttb. never could get it aligned right- it always pulled to the right even after two alignments, the spindle nuts always came loose, harsh ride, not much travel....rant.

Now this is more like it
finding a new home

 

Did you make that diff guard? Man, that thing looks like it would survive a nuclear holocaust! I like it. I have to do something on mine. The D44 I have has the "thick" cover -- not sheet metal. But it's still not rock quality, lol.

 

supporting the front shackle hanger


front shackle hangers


I put two holes in the leaf hangers and shackle hangers to accomodate moving the axle foreward in the future and different length leafs

Leaf hangers

 

I made the diff cover, It's solid 3/4" stock. It came out pretty beef, I made one for the 8.8 rear that I might want to sell someday.

 

looks good man

 

heres a couple rear axle pics




I made the pinion-guard too, I have a better pic somewhere, but cant find it right now.

 

Nice job. I got one of the heavy aluminum diff covers off an IRS 8.8 Explorer for mine. It's pretty good armor.

I might have to take a shot at making my own protector as well. I'm not a great weldor but that's something I could do. So far my SAS hasn't fallen apart so I guess I'm not an awful weldor either, lol...

 

Axle placement





Figuring out where to put the leaf/shackle mounts

You can see my square u-bolt setup here






This is with weight on the springs, the leafs went inverted. I used stock toyota truck leafs and added a leaf, apparently not enough. Of course, most stock 80-84 toyotas ive seen ride like that too, but I wanted some arch to the springs. So my planned 7+ inches of lift turned out to be less than 5.
It'll work for now, but I'll get new springs this summer when I get the 35's

 

You're right, I should gusset those leaf mounts

 

I used the ranger rear shackles up front and made some longer shackles for the rear, but I cant find any of my pics of the rear shackle hangers right now.

Here's some pics of the rear shackle angle




that's using stock ranger rear leafs, they're totally flat, I'll be doing something different for the rear springs in the future also.

 

nice, check out me and my dads build.

 

The flat to inverted type leaf is smoother and they're often done close to that on the fronts of trucks with them for ride quality.

 

Nice and strong looking, Mark.

 

looks like your penetration on those welds isnt much. you really should clean the rust off if you are using a MIG, flux core is usually ok with the crap but if you are using gas it really needs to be clean for a nice weld.