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The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob


Andres629

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What I'd do I think if you plan on hacking up the body mount, is essentially just ditch that entire mount and make one right from scratch with an incorporated leaf bracket. Look up the user "CopyKat" on here (if his account still exists, I don't know if he deleted it) and look through his BII build thread. He used Chebby leaves on a BII and had to do the same thing you're looking into doing. May or may not help you out. :icon_thumby:
 


86 slo-vo

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i run my rear 63's pretty far out of level, but it was the only way to work with doing a shackle flip and keeping low lift...


 

Kage

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yea i think id go the higher up crossmember route even if you just run the puck as your body mount or cut the stock body mount down to 1" tall
After looking at it tonight, it looks like there's enough room to do that and still have a 1-1.5" body mount back there..

:icon_idea: could you box in the body mount to make it a hanger?
That was the plan, but I think I've got it figured out now (Updates coming soon).

What I'd do I think if you plan on hacking up the body mount, is essentially just ditch that entire mount and make one right from scratch with an incorporated leaf bracket. Look up the user "CopyKat" on here (if his account still exists, I don't know if he deleted it) and look through his BII build thread. He used Chebby leaves on a BII and had to do the same thing you're looking into doing. May or may not help you out. :icon_thumby:
Thanks for the Lead, He gave me some ideas, most of which were popping up under the BII corral.

i run my rear 63's pretty far out of level, but it was the only way to work with doing a shackle flip and keeping low lift...
(snipped pictures to save room)
Don't take this wrong, but I love the back of your truck :icon_twisted: On a more serious note, do you recall approximately what your spring pads were set at (off of level) Or at least do you have an educated guess?

Thanks alot guys! I've got two updates coming up here quickly. One of which deals with trying to get the rear figured out.
 

Kage

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Rear Dana 60:

My main goals for the rear axle were to:
1) Be a full floater
2) Have disc brakes
3) Common enough to find gears/lockers for it

So that narrowed the field down to the 14 bolt, Sterling, and rear 60 axles. All of these have their strengths and weaknesses. The big selling point for all of them is that they’re cheap and plentiful and more than strong enough to handle a lighter rig.

The draw back to the 14 bolt/Sterling’s is that the huge center section. Its not uncommon for people to shave the heck out of them to regain some of their lost ground clearance. This is not so much of an issue with the Dana 60 as the center chunk is smaller, and more than sufficient enough to “hold itself together” for my application.

It took a few tries to get a good 60. Most of the issues came from a lack of knowledge on my part as to what to look for on these guys.

The first Dana 60 I got was part of the package deal when I bought the Dana 44. Everything looked ok on the surface, but once I dug into it, things turned ugly.


At some point in its life, it apparently spun a bearing and destroyed the spindle on one side.


While this can be fixed, an inspection behind the diff cover revealed that the pumpkin was full of water for awhile:


Which at that point, I cut my losses and scrapped this one out. (Lesson 1 learned).

The second axle looked pretty good on the inside and on the spindles:

But once I started hitting the housing with a grinder, some sever rust damage started to show its head. This made me decide to go ahead and scrap this axle (Lesson two learned).

Axle number 3 came out of a ‘99 E-350 van that a friend had bought for his project (he later wound up going 14 bolt so this axle was taking up space). ’99 was a changeover year to the metric bolt pattern. Thankfully, I got lucky and this is one of the early ‘99s as it has the standard 8x6.5 bolt pattern.

As an added bonus, it already had disc brakes from the factory. Unfortunately, it did not have the calipers (which weren’t cheap!). This is actually a Dana 60U, the U denotes a smooth bottom of the pumpkin. The axle also has the larger through bore spindles, so if I find myself snapping the 32 spline shafts, I can upgrade to 35 spline shafts without the hassle of boring out the spindles. It also has the larger (and thicker?) tubes over a standard Dana 60.

When I brought it home:


I went through, cleaned it up and slapped the calipers on it Everything looked good other than a leaky wheel seal:


I picked up the Ruff Stuff Dana 60/70 swap kit as I was feeling kinda lazy and didn’t really want to fab up the leaf perches. Plus what Dan charges for some of this stuff, it isn’t worth it to make it myself. Pre fabed stuff means projects go faster :icon_thumby:

(Ignore the rust on there, I bought it back when they were having the end of the year sale, so its been sitting awhile):



Eventually I’ll weld it onto the axle after I get the doubler installed so that I can set the correct pinion angle.
 

Kage

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Rear Test fit and Chevy 63’s

For the rear, I decided to ditch the standard Ford springs and go with the Chevy 1500 rear leaf pack. These are a cheap way to lift the rear 3” when left in the stock location. Not that it matters since I’m moving everything around anyway.

I grabbed the stock pack off a 2wd which has 3 leaf’s and a overload:


Pulled the overload off:



And now the pack looks like this (The overload is about .75” by itself):


After that was sorted out, I played around with where I wanted the rear springs to live. Thanks again for all the suggestions guys!

All of the following photos are with the WB set to 115”

At first I played around with how much angle I’d be comfortable running on these springs as Ideally, The spring eye’s should be about level with one another (From what I understand). So I laid things out like that:



That got me a little nervous as it looked like that rear body mount was going to have to change quite a bit and I’m just not real excited about that prospect (Probably because it took waaay to long to get the dang cab lined back up).

So I tilted the springs so that I could clear the body mount which netted me more of an angle than I liked:



At this point, I realized that trying to fit leaf’s with no weight on them isn’t getting me anywhere fast. So I went ahead and tightened up the U bolts and put some weight on the springs. At which point I had a “Kyle M” setup going on.

Hub center is at ride height:


Much to my surprise, this looked pretty dang good, but gave me to much lift in the rear though not enough that I couldn’t tweak it to where it needed to be. But then I got out of my brain fart and realized that I need to stuff a BII fuel tank between the rails so that idea was nixed. :icon_twisted:

I think I’m going to do a hybrid of the ideas. That being out boarding the spring to the stock spring width, but mounting the front spring eye low enough to not interfere with the cab mount. I’m going to sleep on that tonight, but I think that’ll work.

Question: For this stock pack, is it worth it to do a shackel flip? Or should I just plan on rocking the stock syle setup?

Thanks again for all the help guys!
 

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if you run the shackles the way slo-vo did up there with them going up towards the bed you can run a long shackle to get the most flex outta the spring and still keep the ride hight low
 

Kage

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if you run the shackles the way slo-vo did up there with them going up towards the bed you can run a long shackle to get the most flex outta the spring and still keep the ride hight low
Agreed. Maybe I should rephrase the question some.

Since I'm not planning on re-arching the springs, will the shackel flip/no flip really matter?
 

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If you flip the shackle, it will essentially lower it 3" and go right back to stock height. How much too high are you back there? If you were to make your own shackle mount, you could ultimately fine tune your ride height by dropping the shackle mount accordingly. Same goes for leaving it like the stock, unflipped way. You've got ~1" to play with that you can move the shackle mount up 'til it hits the bottom of the box. If any of this makes sense...
 

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If you flip the shackle, it will essentially lower it 3" and go right back to stock height.
Right, if I were to flip it, I'll make my own shackel mount to drop it where it needs to be (Might have to do that regardless).

How much too high are you back there?
I was a wee bit tired last night, so I didn't get around to measuring anything :icon_twisted:

If you were to make your own shackle mount, you could ultimately fine tune your ride height by dropping the shackle mount accordingly. Same goes for leaving it like the stock, unflipped way. You've got ~1" to play with that you can move the shackle mount up 'til it hits the bottom of the box. If any of this makes sense...
Yup, makes sense, and I'm not afraid to clearance the bed if need be.

So it goes back to is there any benefit articulation wise to flipping the rear shackle with the stock 63" pack?

In my mind I’m thinking it is worth flipping the shackle with the stock pack as it should get rid of the “jacking” that is inherit of the stock setup. This should help keep the body “flatter” as it flexes out.

Or am I ass backwards on this train of thought?


High jacking my own thread here for a second. I plan on replacing the clutch when I do the doubler (Seems as though the pilot bushing is going out, may as well get at it). And I read about a lot of slave failures. That said:

Who makes the best slave for these trucks? Is it worth the money to pony up and buy the ford part?

I recall finding a thread on the different slaves, but I’m having trouble finding it again. Any help here would be appreciated.


Thanks again for the comments and help guys!
 

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Don't take this wrong, but I love the back of your truck :icon_twisted: On a more serious note, do you recall approximately what your spring pads were set at (off of level) Or at least do you have an educated guess?
lol thanks man, i really couldnt tell you on the spring pads...i did it all by eyeball but i can get you a measurement here in a few

and as far as the 63's with a shackle flip you can deffinantly get the flatter when stuffing a tire, i really need to get some bump stops back there to keep it from going too far

i am happy with the shackle flip but there is no possible way to do the flip and keep the eye's level....do to so on a ranger your rear hanger would be over a foot below the frame and you would end up with a ton of lift

i know in this picture the rear leaf is completely flat


and a few more that will give you an idea of things




hope that helped ya a little
 

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Flip the shackle and make a dropped mount, you're right, it helps. :icon_thumby:

Far as clutch business, what I would honestly do (and this is just me...) is replace the whole shebang to a pre-'93 clutch. The '93+ slave is all plastic and known for leaking, whereas the the pre-'93 is a metal body. I also like the feel of the pre-'93 clutch better. But if you change it, you have to change the master, line, and slave, so it's best to try and find you a whole good setup in the JY.
 

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lol thanks man, i really couldnt tell you on the spring pads...i did it all by eyeball but i can get you a measurement here in a few
Thanks, that would help me sleep better.

...and as far as the 63's with a shackle flip you can deffinantly get the flatter when stuffing a tire, i really need to get some bump stops back there to keep it from going too far...
This still doesn't quite make sense in my head, but I've seen enough examples of it that I don't doubt it.

i am happy with the shackle flip but there is no possible way to do the flip and keep the eye's level....do to so on a ranger your rear hanger would be over a foot below the frame and you would end up with a ton of lift...(Pulled photos)...hope that helped ya a little
That helped out alot, thanks!

Flip the shackle and make a dropped mount, you're right, it helps. :icon_thumby:
I'm starting to become a believer :icon_twisted:

...Far as clutch business, what I would honestly do (and this is just me...) is replace the whole shebang to a pre-'93 clutch. The '93+ slave is all plastic and known for leaking, whereas the the pre-'93 is a metal body. I also like the feel of the pre-'93 clutch better. But if you change it, you have to change the master, line, and slave, so it's best to try and find you a whole good setup in the JY.
I didn't even know that was an option, and I see what you're talking about with the plastic vs. metal issue. I'd really like to get away from the internal slave all together, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

Bone yards don't usually have much 'fun' stuff around here, so I'm probably out of luck finding the master and correct line out here. It'd have to be a new purchase.


Back to the springs, I should have an update on the mock up tomorrow. I think I've got a handle on it at this point.

Thanks again guys!
 

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I like it, great work so far!


When I mounted my springs the 'factory' way, I had the same issue with the cab mount and spring mount. I ended up making a new crossmemeber with a cab mount built in(I can find a picture if you would like) Which gave me room for the spring hanger.

Now spring under the frame, I have a different frame, regular cab long box frame, but when I mounted my springs, with the stock shackle and no block I netted about 4" to 5" of lift, my best guess.

I will have my truck done tomorrow with pictures if you wanna have a look at that too.
 

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Thanks, that would help me sleep better.
now that i think about it some, at first i had them setup to the same as the stock expo pads under the axle but it wasnt quite enough so before i welded them in i pulled the pinion up maybe 5 degree's to get my double cardon shaft set like its suposed to....and i couldnt find my angle finder to give you an exact measurement :thefinger:


here is where i first setup my rear 63's from...

http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28793

i also had mine arched the same, but had to throw in the second leaf from a stock ranger pack because they sagged a little
 

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I like it, great work so far!
Thanks!

When I mounted my springs the 'factory' way, I had the same issue with the cab mount and spring mount. I ended up making a new crossmemeber with a cab mount built in(I can find a picture if you would like) Which gave me room for the spring hanger.

Now spring under the frame, I have a different frame, regular cab long box frame, but when I mounted my springs, with the stock shackle and no block I netted about 4" to 5" of lift, my best guess.

I will have my truck done tomorrow with pictures if you wanna have a look at that too.
I wound up going a different route than you after all, but keep your build thread updated, I like seeing that trucks progress:headbang:

now that i think about it some, at first i had them setup to the same as the stock expo pads under the axle but it wasnt quite enough so before i welded them in i pulled the pinion up maybe 5 degree's to get my double cardon shaft set like its suposed to
Thanks for the insight!

....and i couldnt find my angle finder to give you an exact measurement :thefinger:
So many smart ass remarks come to mind but I'll let them slide :thefinger: (My garage looks to be just about as organized as yours, so I dont' really have any room to poke fun :D)


...here is where i first setup my rear 63's from...

http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28793

i also had mine arched the same, but had to throw in the second leaf from a stock ranger pack because they sagged a little
Thanks that thread had alot more photos than what I was finding elsewhere.

Quick update for today (I'll grab more photos tomorrow and throw out alittle more information).

It appears that I was worried for no reason, once I had some weight ont he springs, the spring pads leveled out enough to make me happy with the angle they were sitting at.

Everything else went out the window though. I wound up mounting the front of the springs like this (further foward than I thought it would be):


Then I put a piece of C channel under the frame to support the rear springs (where the shackels will go):


Somehow everything worked out. It looks like I'm not going to be able to do a shackel flip at this time (no time/budget to get the leaf's re-arched). The rear shackel needs to be about 7" long, so that makes life stupid easy for getting the shackel done.

Nothing is burned in at this point, but I'm fairly happy with it so it may stay like it is.


The help/advice has been greatly apperciated guys! Thanks!
 

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