What up guys, Ive had my 95 for about a year and cant stand driving it around stock. Ive been reading about a SAS for a while now and finally found a guy with some axles. One of them is a 75 3/4 ton dana 44 that has leaves on it and the other is a 75 1/2 ton dana 44 with coils thats still on the truck so i can get all of the spring towers and radius arms. I dont know which to grab. Id rather do leaves because it seams easier but dont know if it will work with the crumple zone crap on the frame. Which one should i get, and what will i also have to get/fab up to get it on the road. I plan on running 36in parnellis. Thanks :beer

id go with the coils.

grab the following:
Complete axle (of course)
Radius arms
Radius arm brackets
Steering (drag link /tie rod)
Trac Bar
Lower coil bucket/retainer thingies
Upper Coil bucket
Driveshaft (Always good for a spare)

etc.. anything else i may i have forgotten.

ok, so whats the difference between a three quater ton dana 44 and a half ton dana 44? I always thought it was the axle tubing. I was also told that the half ton dana 44s were stronger than the three quater ton dana 44s because the thickness of the tubes on the three quater tons limited the size of the axle shafts. doesnt sound true. Will all of the steering bolt up to mine? and will a 28 year old axle hold up for any length of time? thanks:beer

well you will want to rebuild it, replace seals, bearings etc.

IS 75 a good year?? or is that LP or with kings?? Someone else will have to adress that

Other then that the 28y.o axle will hold up years longer then the TTB

the diff between the 1/2 and 3/4 is 8 lug, which is a good thing for most of us. And bigger brakes too. The tubes are the same.

I believe 77 1/2, 78, 79 are the years most desireable (high pinion)

agreed. AFAIK, the early years like you are talking are all low pinion and possibly drums and/or closed knuckles. You better verify.

I am looking for 8 lug stuff if that guy wants to sell it to me.

I am going to plan mine using leafs.
Here is a link that keith Found and gave to me.
http://chrisb.users.superford.org/Solid_Axle_Swap.html

I am planning for around 6-7"s of lift.
I am still trying to figure out what was I am going to go with the steerign though.....

IMO I think the leaf sprung set up will be better for my needs.

I dont rock crawl, and I dont need a ramp king.
I just need stability.

IIRC, You do not need a track bar with leafs, or radius arms, or a dropped pitman arm, so that right there already elliminates some costs, and a lot of welding work. Plus it saves you from drilling a shiz load of holes into the frame. (Never fun).

Leafs can always be re-arched as well if they get abused, coils can not.

So there are benefits either way it is just what you need for your driving style.

I respect anyones rig who has taken the time to do a serious mod like a sas.

Out of all the ones I have seen I think Raf (Bronkzilla) has spent the most time on his.
Hes got Warn shafts, CTM Joints, HD 8 lug outers, Coilovers, etc. To much time and to much money for my blood... ;-)

I would much rather do leaves but do not know if it is possible with the crumple zone in the front. What year did they start that crap? I also do not need anything to serious just something tough enough to have fun with without worrying about tearing something like the TBB. Is it possible to use leaves with the crumple zone in the front? i already have hangers and shackles i can use for it.:beer

I am not a welder of any kind, but imagine that some kind of plate steel ban be welded to the side of the crumple zones, and then the voids can be filled with something or boxed.
After that is done you can then weld teh x-member to the boxed portion of the frame and then install teh leafs in the mounts.

When I say x-member I mean lik eth eone in that write up I posted.
http://chrisb.users.superford.org/Solid_Axle_Swap.html

ok, let me try again.
You make your x-member like the one in teh write up here
http://chrisb.users.superford.org/Solid_Axle_Swap.html

Then the ends can be box welded around the frame, and the voids can be filled beads made from the welds.

Sorry I dont know the welder lingo but I hope I am making some kind of sense.

I just think that if you made a strong enough x-member you could use that to hang the leafs from, and also have it strong enough to bolt a custom made winch bumer as well.
It would be heavy, but worth it if it were done right.

Just use a set of leafs from a one ton rig, and heavy duty shocks.

What i plan on doing now is cutting off the shackles and shackle supports i guess what to call them, the bracket bolted inside the frame to mount the shackles on to for the rear of the spring and cutting off the hanger in the front, building a crossmember like the done in the site beerman posted. using about 6in lift dodge springs, since that is what the hangers and the shackles came off of. as far as the crumple zone on the front of the frame i saw a guy cut it diagonally and built a sleeve that slid over it to extend the frame some and is what he built his bumper off of. sound like a good idea??? :beer

probably be easier to graft on a new frame horn section than the crap you are talking about. Slice and dice and put it one. Spring mounts would already be in place in the front. :shrug

Exactly which part of what i was talking about are you calling crap?

oh nothing imparticular, just a generic term. My point being it may be easier to lift the motor a tad ahnd just graft on an older style frame horn that the mount s would go directly to. Talk to keith about this, he has the first hand

I am just going to do pretty much the same thing tht Chris B did in that write I posted. (Thanks Keith).

I cant figure out what he did with his drag link because the last picture on that page is totally different than the first flex pic steerign set up.

I tried emailling the guy but he hasnt responded.

I will let you all know when I hear anything.

Keith, do you by chance know what he did with his final steering set up.

the drag link doesnt look like it is going diagnol to the knuckle, it appears frm teh very poor pic that it goes parallel with the tie rod over the passenger side leafs, then connects to something that you cant see.
WTF?

screw all that jazz, just cut off the part that crumples and weld up some square tube in a manner that incorperates a KA front bumper and that x member you were talking about, and your spring hangers.

ya that is what i was talking about doing. is there a site for the KA bumpers or whatever:beer

i remember seeing some site that had bumpers for sale where they cut off the crumple zone and mounted a prerunner bumper over it but cant remmeber where i saw it:beer

autofab? I did a similar thing to my frame when I built my bumper

ya yours is alot like what i want to do.

Dustin, the more I look at your rig, the more I fall in love with it.

You see if you were to make a bumper like Dustins, then weld the x-member across it then you can use that to sit the leafs springs on.

I think that would kick arse.

Again no track bar to worry about, no track bar brackets to weld, reinforce, or worry about., No coils or coil buckets, no radius arms to buy or worry about, IMO I think the leaf spring option is totally the way to go, if you dont need super dooper flex.

This is just my opinion though and everyone who did the swap using springs, i respect a ton, you just have more ability than I do, and have different off road needs than I do, thats all.

i cant really tell what you did to your from the pics. what did u do?:beer

Who are you talking to? You should have "quoted" somebody.

If you are referring to the link that I posted, I dont know anything further than what Chris wrote up, If you are refferign to Dustin bumper then I will let him speak because Dustin is the man and will be a lot better at explaining it than me.

I dont mean to be a piss ant or anything I just want to help you to help yourself better. cool?:beer

Sorry i was talking about dustins bumper.:beer

click on tghe banner in my sig line and go to the prerunner bumper pics....there should be some frame pictures there.

I accually cut alot of frame off when I did this so it didnt stick way out.

Originally posted by 95BOGGINBRONCO
ya that is what i was talking about doing. is there a site for the KA bumpers or whatever:beer UGGhhh I always do crap like that. KA is 81Bronk36 language for Kick A$$. Sorry for the confusion. there are tons of KA bumpers, but with no frame horns... custom is king in that case.

hhahah ya i figured out a while after what you meant by KA. i was going to build the cross member and drill the holes for the shackles but got in trouble with the law which kinda screwed everthing up. do you guys think that if i cut off the crumple crap and welded the end of another frame onto the end of it if it would be strong enough?

Here (http://www.superford.org/registry/vehicles/detail.php?id=2989&s=11689#content) a 95 that has 4 leafs

Thanks alot Hdpsd!:beer

Look at that guys truck and how he did his, do you guys think that it would be strong enough? My setup will be similar to his in the front but i am going to use a shackle bracket off my old dodge instead of what he did for the rear. :beer

I would just really worry about the crumple zone, personally.

that really does seem like a lot of work in comparison to doing the coil set up. the only hard part with coils is the track bar, and there seem to be enough successful setups that you wouldnt have to re-create the wheel here. Just my .02

for me it is much easier to do the leave set up i already have hangers and shackles made, just need to weld them on. and i have always had bad experiences with coils, parts wear out more often, not quite as able to take abuse as much as leaves, not saying anything bad about you guys trucks but im pretty hard on mine and the ones with coil set ups in the past never held up but the leaves always did.

After a little more research I found out that you can hammer down teh crumple zone and them weld in a boxed end.
There wont be any problems with stability if it is done right.

have fun hammering, thats going to suck

what do you mean hammer it down? how the hell can u hammer it down?:beer

BFH+Wheeties :histerica

How about using coilovers?

http://www.fourdoorbronco.com/images/DSCF1448.JPG

Raf, After having them for a while now how do you like the compared to regular coils?
Also, I see that you trac bar and draglink are not paralel. Do you have a problem with bumpsteer?

havent tested it. need to redo the upper mounts so that the coilovers point in more.

I remember that you posted pic of this all a while ago. Where do you keep your pics at?

i just upload them to my ftp thingy.. theres no list online.. just copy the link on any picture i post then change the number at the end. they are usually in order.. maybe a few missing but there should be alot

Originally posted by Dustin
have fun hammering, thats going to suck

Your right, that would suck huh?

I wonder how that guy did it????

His web link is no worky now.

I should of thought about that more before I posted.

Now I look like a dillhole...