Time to let the cat out of the bag. Some of you may have picked up on the hints here and there, but I started my SAS Back on May 6th.
Specifications:
4" SAS kit for Front
5" leaf spring kit for Rear
5.29 HP elocker front
5.29 ARB rear
CV front drive shaft from high angle driveshafts
Stock toyota axle for now
33x10.5 for now
Stock auto tranny single tcase
I hear the UPS guy was pissed when he delivered the kits, the wife said he was cussing.
So I started rebuilding the 84 axle I have. First thing I did after wrestling it onto jackstands was drain the differential grease. Wait...did I say grease...um yeah...
Later, Geoff and I were admiring how the steering stops were bent as if the tires were forced to turn left way too far...hmmm. Accident?
Me: "Hey Geoff, does the housing look bent to you?"
Geoff: "Yup."
Back to pirate to search for a used housing. Later, I went to pick up some manual hubs from a guy. We were chit chatting and I brought up that I was in need of a new housing. Well, the guy has two housing just laying around. Score.
On May 6th Geoff, Randy and I started cutting on the rear. We're working on this at my friend Randy's place up in Oakdale on the weekends. That's a 90 minute drive for me, one way.
First, we unbolted everything. These land cruiser springs were much easier to remove than to install.
We also dropped the gas tank to gain welding access to the frame and to fix my malfuntioning fual sender. I knew I had a dent in the stock skidplate, but I didn't know my gas tank was dented this much! No wonder I'm getting fewer miles out of my tank these days...
All these brackets had to come off. Geoff had fun plasma cutting.
Here they are:
After an hour or two of grinding, the axle is clean.
This is just one of the grinding wheels Geoff used. This used to be a 4.5 inch wheel.
Randy cutting:
Leaf springs hung. Trying to see where the axle should sit.
Prep'ing the front axle with a gusset supplied with the kits.
Here's the fuel sender:
I went back the next weekend and Randy and I got the gas tank back in and the shocks mounted. I forgot the U-bolt plates at home because I was painting them, so we couldn't quite get it rolling.
This past weekend Geoff and I went back to Randy's and started on the front. Whoever says the rear is easier than the front is lying!!!! The front was way harder than the rear to prep. For anybody doing a SAS, I recommend you unbolt all the suspension parts first, before you cut off the brackets. It makes it way easier to do things and we even had a plasma cutter. We had the rear axle taken out and prep'd in probably 6 hours. It took us all day to get the ifs out. Cutting those holes for the shackle hangers suck, even with a plasma.
Here it is with the rear done:
The front about to come off:
Geoff having way too much fun with the sledgehammer
Eureka! It's finally off. It took all day to get this far.
The frame is cleaned up and things are ready to be bolted up.
And there it is
We still have a little more to bolt up on the front. One of the U-bolts is too short so they're sending me a new one.
I also found out my new housing is bent too so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with that yet. If the axle seals don't leak it'll be fine, but if they do I'll try to sledge hammer it.
We'll be going up there again in two weeks, hopefully it will be done well before the mammoth trip.
When this is all done I'll post up how much it all cost and how many man hours it took. So far we're up to 154 hours.