some more front end pics







In that last one you can see the heim jointed drag link on the pitman arm. In the second one you can see it attatched to the high steer arm, but I dont have the misc spacers on there yet.

I'm not sure I like the heim jointed setup for steering yet, we'll see how it works out. the problem is that that drag link is made for a jeep cherokee and it's about 1" too long, actuall it was a couple inches long, but i screwed the heims in as far as they'd go. I was thinking I could just take off the pitman arm and turn it a couple splines, but that wont work, cause it's keyed and only goes one way. I'll need to get hold of a tap so I can shorten the drag link and add some more threads. right now my steering wheel is about 1/4 turn to the left when the tires are straight. I have an awesome turning radius to the right, but it sucks turning left until I get that shortened.
I also want to drill those bolts and put a cotter key, so I dont ever lose a steering bolt, which I did one time in my landcruiser-it's a very scarry feeling going down the highway and not being able to steer, luckily, I was the only one on the road at the time.

 

Front shock mounts



And here's some "after" pics











I'm pretty impressed with the swap so far, it's not 4wd yet. I modified the engine crossmember so the driveshaft would fit, but when I did my design, I had the doubler on there and right now its not in the truck 'cause I had some trouble with it overheating-more on that in another thread. anyway, I cant get my driveshaft in yet. Plus I also need to redo the front gear setup as it's definitely not right-whoever set it up before used the wrong shims or something because the carrier shims are coming out from behind the bearings and I would definitely not try to turn it in 4wd as it is. I'll get a pic so you can tell what I mean when I take out the diff.

But it does ride nice. I thought it would be too soft cause the leafs inverted, but it rides smooth, I got the rancho 9012's set at about 3/5. and it takes bumps way better that the ttb did, even washboard roads at speed that used to turn me sideways. and the best thing, it drives straight down the road, no pull to the right like it did before, I can steer with one finger for the first time since I had this truck.

I've got the edelbrock shocks I had before on the rear right now in the stock configuration, but I'll be changing that in the future.

 

It's been 6 months for me before I got my driveshaft in, lol. But that's because I didn't have the t-case in yet on a 4x2 to 4x4 conversion, lol.

I've seen lot's of SAS's though where the front driveshaft waited a while. Don't know what that is but a lot of us have ended up there one way or another so you're not alone.

 

Buy a ~4' peice of 1.5" .25 wall, some tube adapters (one right, one left obviously) and make your own instead of adding more threads to a thin-wall factory cherokee drag-link.


Don't. Run stover locking nuts and make sure you get the misalignments in there, on the high steer arm and the pitman arm.

If you're that worried about the bolts on the drag link you could safety wire them.

 

way to dig up an old thread but a good thread

 

yeah, I haven't had any input on this thread for awhile now.

I have a stock waggy tie rod, but the drag link is solid, drilled and tapped for heims - 3/4 x 16 -I think. so what I need to do is cut about an inch off, then drill and retap the drag link to get the right size. My steering wheel is about 3/8 of a turn off and my turning radius to the left sucks right now.

Before, I was a high school metal shop teacher in town here so I had lathes and welders and tools, but I dont have that job this year so the build is going pretty slow.

I will be updating this again though sometime in the near future as i've done alot since then, just haven't put much on the thread - like redoing the doubler, adding some pipe to the cage, and stuff.

I had made some misc spacers that are on there now. so far i just have the bolts lock tighted, but I always worry about them coming loose, so I will be doing something else this spring.

The other thing I don't like is that the high steer arms are straight bolted, i.e no studs/cone washers and so I wonder if those might work loose in the future. so far they havent, but I havent been off road yet.

heck it's still 2wd, and looking at the dates, it's been almost a year, how pathetic

next items on the list are front gear setup and 35" tires, then hit some trails

here's a latest pic

 

Who's high steer arm do you have? I'd try to get an arm that has the chamfered (spelling?) hole and some conical washers. But if you haven't had any problems with it coming loose yet...

 

I'm not sure which arms they are - came with the axles. actually only one on the pass side for the drag link.
the tie rod is in the stock location.

I was thinking to get some studs/cone washers and have the holes tapered/reamed

I don't think that's any special taper on there is it? (like chevy tie rods)

 

It's a 60* taper (not sure the exact terminology, but measuring from one side to the other is 60*, not 60* from center)

 

thanks, that's good to know.

so if I do it myself, I just want it deep enough so the cone is flush with the top of the hole - or should it be above slightly? I know I don't want to go too deep, right, or else it wont clamp down.

 

Hey man very nice rig one of my friends lives a street over from where that truck is small world eh? I always liked your sas setup! I'm gettin ready to attemp a similer build looks awsome man!

 

Thank you for the build thread, and thats a nice lookin truck. I'm probably going to do the same set up.

 

Hi everyone at ranger-forums.com:) I am the founder of starlightbreeze Guided Meditations Online Site. I would like to share my completely free mindfulness audio lectures such as Guided Meditation for Better Sex and Guided Meditation for Money and Wealth with everyone at ranger-forums.com to serve to help you to manage tension and also relax. Much Love xox