My SAC (Solid Axle Conversion)

[FordRanger1991]

Over a couple years of looking at rangers and watching my bro transform his i came up with the idea to convert my TTB dana 35 into a solid axle. I figured i could save a lot of money by not having to buy a new axle and new gears. I also saved money by not having to possibly buy new rotors or brakes for the dana 44 and by not having to shorten the axle. Also i didn't initially have to buy new coils or shocks to get the truck on the road again and this was important because it is my dd.
So here is a bunch of pics as i went through the long process. Thanks for the time and I hope you like it.

P.S. I know that my trac bar and drag link need to be parallel but i had to make my trac bar quick and didn't have time to make it perfect. I will make it perfect later... lol

 

[crawlin91]

I only see one picture but I am interested....post up the rest.
for you for the ingenuity

 

[FordRanger1991]

Total Expenses

C-Clip Eliminator Spring -$2.50
Rod Ends + Weld In Bungs + Jam nuts -$ 127.40
Bolts For Steering + Washers + Nuts -$34.35
Axle Oil -$20
Bearing Grease -$6.99
RVT Sealer x2 -$12
Longer Pumpkin Bolts -$20
Black Rustolium Pain -$4.99
Steel for building axle/steering- $84.30 (I have lots of steel left over lol)
Weld reals -$40.00

Grand total of -$352.53
Not too bad

 

[FordRanger1991]

I only see one picture but I am interested....post up the rest.
for you for the ingenuity

lol give me some time i just started downloading my pics on the comp haha

 

[FordRanger1991]

Started with the cutting of the axle

A little cleaning was needed for future welds and paint.

And now some to think about what i was going to do.

 

[FordRanger1991]

Getting Access to the gearing without having to remove the pumpkin.

It really sucks having to take off the pumpkin to get access to the gearing. so i thought that i would fix that first and then move to the more difficult part of the build.

I had to make some room for the whole unit to come out in the future if i need it too.

And now a little grinding and . would make that thing look sweet.

But now that the easy part was done i had to figure out how to make that axle work.

 

[FordRanger89]

Only took us like half a week! It sucked haha

 

[FordRanger1991]

So the wife says i have to go hang out with some friends with her so i will be back later tonight or tomorrow to put more pics of the process and final product.

 

[RangerSVT]

Looks good so far

SVT

 

[88_Eddie]

scribing to this. looks awesome so far. you must be gwaii's long lost brother lol

 

[brinker88]

'Scribed. This is VERY interesting.

 

[shane96ranger]

No doubt. I'm impressed!

Can't wait to see the rest of the pics.

 

[chrwilkins30]

No doubt. I'm impressed!

Can't wait to see the rest of the pics.

Me too.!

 

[FordRanger1991]

I got all my bolts from the home depot which was pretty sweet because it is hard to find a bolt that is threaded all the way down.

Now the build begins.

All of this work was made possible with cardboard stencils lol after those looked good i would use the grinder and cut out my pieces. I was difficult to make sure the axle would sit straight under the truck and also i wanted to make sure that my pumpkin would sit right to give me a good pinon angle. I extended the axle around an 1" and I bought a c clip eliminator spring to put on the passenger side axle shaft.

The bros truck with the sas d 44 next to mine.

Another top plate tack welded.

Getting that steering right now is the point where i realized that it was possible

now a back plate to box that mother in.

Once the axle was boxed i then put a peace of sheet metal running across the break and welded both sides. this would make sure that i would have more support. I even put 1.5" corner plates on the back top and bottom for more support.

Also, in the future i want to be able to remove the whole passenger side drive axle if i break it on a trail. To do this both passenger drive side axles will be welded together with the c-clip eliminator spring. Also the inner u-joint was too big to fit out of the passenger side nuckel mount and it was too big to slip out of the nuckel hole. So the box frame at that location was widened and the inner u-joint was grinned down less than a 32nd so that the whole two peace axle shaft would slide out as one unit. (I hope that makes sense lol)

 

[FordRanger1991]

Now i was ready to slide that axle under there.

The finished product.

Trac bar mount.

Before

After

I am hoping to fab some new radius arms this summer and i will also be putting new coils and lifting it 3 more inches. So i will also put some f250 shock mounts under there. Also i got to do something with my brake lines. Probably what my bro did lol I will put more picks up when i start working on the radius arms.
I hope you like it and if you have any questions please ask!