Ah, I understand. Never considered the 'tipping over' aspect

 

Yeah, neither had I until I ran off the edge of a road that had about a 6" ridge. Got back on the road, but kinda lost control. Being that bad lifted 7", I didn't want to risk it happening with like 12" of lift with the same width axles
Plus now I get to be one of those kewl kidz with "stance"

 

Here are some pictures from last night. Got the pinion shims welded in and got the diff cover on and filled it with fluid. Also used a lube locker gasket. Decided I'd see what all the hype was about with them.

 

Pinion angle looks better with the shims in there but I'm still interested to see how that front driveline turns out. It looks like that axle is live like the 4wd rangers so the shaft we be turning all the time. That could be trouble with a high angle driveline. Worst case scenario, you have to point the pinion up toward the t-case and then rotate the knuckles. Then just run a double cardan joint at the t-case end of the driveline. But we'll see. Might look into how TrePaul86 set his pinion (if you haven't already). You are a little more restricted with the cast leaf perch on the driver side though.

I think once you get the spacers off it'll look a lot better as well. Definitely a cool build man. I dig it.

 

Yes, it's a live axle. I won't be running a drive shaft for a little while, but when I do, I'm sure I'll end up having to shim it more for an angle. Sadly, both perches were cast into the axle. I had no choice in either of them.

 

Whats the caster at right now? I don't see how you're going to get a usable pinion angle while still have manageable caster without cutting and rotating the c's.

 

I have no idea what the caster is currently. It is pointing up slightly currently. I'm thinking about getting another 4 degree shim to get it pointing up more. I can always get adjustable ball joints that will help some with this axle's caster. I really really don't want to have to rotate the "C"s

 

Caster is very important. Much more important than the pinion angle. With shitty caster your truck will drive really bad. So definitely get that dialed in haha. Not sure if those ball joint adjusters will be enough

 

Now how exactly do I measure caster? Put my angle finder on top of the upper ball joint?

Also, I want about 4 degrees leaned back, right?

 

Yeah put the angle finder on the the inner c but make sure you have a good flat surface to put it on. I think around 4 or 4.5 degrees negative caster is about what you want

 

I thought it was positive?

 

Yes, it needs to be positive to about 4.5-5 degrees. I didn't check tonight. I was working on the gearbox mount

 

Yes it should be positive, my mistake. I got mixed up on the axis orientation.

 

Little progress this weekend. Only thing left at this point is Drag link, tie rod, and shocks.
Decided to do something a little different with the steering. I left the trans cooler up front from when it was an automatic and decided to repurpose it as a power steering cooler. Put a filter in line too. I know I probably should have put the steering shaft support on the body, but I've seen a few done to the frame that didn't have any major issues. So if I ever have a problem, I'll take care of it then.

 

Good idea on using the trans cooler for the power steering. I don't think I've seen that before

 

Definately. Might make it easier to do a fluid change if you plumb it right, with say a T fitting and a 1/8 or 1/4 ball valve on the low pressure side.

 

HUGE UPDATE TIME!
SAS is in the final stages. Tie rod was successfully bent and I got it aligned this morning. it now drives straight! Caster is at like 5.5 degrees. But until I tackle the front drive shaft, I don't want to go shooting blind at the pinion angle. Drove all around town today after the alignment with no shocks, and still handled fairly well. Shocks will be installed in the morning since I had to order them from O'Reilly today. Also had to get some longer brake lines since the 21" ones I had ordered originally. So I put a set of 30" lines on it and I have had no issues with flexing so far. And here come the pictures.........

 

Where da shocks, where da shocks, where da shocks at? Had to order crappy Ranchos from the parts store.

 

Better crappy ranchos than nothing.

 

Looks good man!

 

Thanks Sam.

 

Pretty interesting how you did the drag link connection at the knuckle. Did you make it yourself? Looks pretty stout

 

Yeah, we made it. It's all 1/4" plate and some beefy DOM for the bolt to go through

 

Ranger takeover at my house this weekend. Glad to see my old 8.8 go to someone who isn't going to just rag on it.

 

So I guess nobody likes SAS swaps anymore? lol.