5.0 swap and SAS "Half-Pint"

[Rooster]

I’ll try running them down the radius arm in the future. Thanks for the heads up. I won’t be doing any serious wheeling with it for a little while, hopefully these will work for just driving it on the street

Speaking of which, I drove it in my driveway yesterday! Made it about five feet! I hadn’t welded the rear leaf perches to the axle yet, so as soon as I gave it a little gas, the axle rotated and the driveshaft broke... oops. It was a crappy driveshaft anyway, I’ll order a nice one tomorrow. I’m just happy it finally moved! I also discovered during the test drive that my power steering pump is shot. It would barely turn the tires and it whines like crazy. I have another one laying around somewhere from that green explorer, but if that one doesn’t work I’ll look into doing a conversion to a Saginaw pump

 

[Rooster]

Front and rear shocks are in, rear leaf perches are welded. Front shocks are tough country sx6000. The rears are some old stock shocks from an explorer or something. I didn’t want to use my new shocks on the stock mounts cause they’d probably bottom out. When I put the 9 inch in I’ll fabricate better shock mounts for the rear. I ordered a new driveshaft from Tom woods, it should be here tomorrow.

 

[Rooster]

Replaced the power steering pump with the one off the green truck and it sucks too Got my driveshaft yesterday and I was able to take the truck for a test drive! Went around the neighborhood a couple times, no major issues. I need to get a new power steering pump, and the front end definitely needs bump stops before I go drive for real. Overall a good first drive though!

 

[JoelAClear]

Very nicely done.

 

[Rooster]

Some updates:
Got a brand new PS pump put in, it works much better. Probably won’t have to go with a Saginaw pump anytime soon, the steering is fine now

I put in some polyurethane bump stops temporarily so I could drive it. I got some stinger bump stops that I want to put on eventually, but I need to work out some clearance issues first. The track bar contacts the oil pan at about 2.5 inches of compression. I want to get more up travel than that, so I’m looking into ways to fix it. I want to cut a channel in the oil pan to make room for the track bar, but if that’s not possible then I might have to make a new track bar.
The engine is running a little rough. It got better once I put some fresh gas in, but I still have a few codes to get rid of

 

[Rooster]

Did a home alignment this weekend after watching the dirt lifestyle video on YouTube. His videos are really helpful.

Been fighting those codes (p0171 and p0174) for a while now, I changed gaskets, replaced o2 sensors (don’t worry, I didn’t buy new ones), and changed the whole fuel sending unit. The sending unit helped a lot, the fuel pump was pretty shot and my fuel gauge seemed inaccurate. Don’t buy the master pro fuel pump from O’Reillys, the sock dissolved in my tank in less than a year.

The codes continued to pop up, so I figured it was a vacuum leak I just couldn’t find. Rather than spending $100 to get the engine smoke tested, I made my own smoke machine. Found a leak in the EGR valve. So hopefully soon I can get the truck inspected and start driving it regularly.

here is the video I found showing how to make the smoke machine:

 

[Naddanme]

Just caught up on this build. Looking good. Can’t wait to see it get dirty.

 

[Rooster]

Just caught up on this build. Looking good. Can’t wait to see it get dirty.

Thanks, me too

 

[Rooster]

Wound up having to helicoil the holes in the upper intake where the EGR valve bolts on, but I think the vacuum leak is gone! Hopefully next weekend I can get it inspected/registered

 

[Rooster]

Inspected and registered! Now I need to make it off road worthy (rear axle, front driveshaft, etc.)

 

[Rooster]

I made some rock sliders this week. Still need to paint them and weld them to the frame. I started the disassembly of the Ford 9 inch rear end, I’m hoping to get it installed by the end of the month, some friends of mine are going on a wheeling trip in January and I’m trying to get the truck ready by then

 

[Rooster]

Well, that’s not supposed to look like that
I guess the rear axle is going to take longer than I expected

 

[Rooster]

So I didn’t get the truck finished in time, but I still took it on the trip. Didn’t go on any trails, but I did get to test out the suspension a little on some rocks

Right now the rear flexes way more than the front. I definitely have some room for improvement on the front suspension, I need to change up my bump stop setup. I can even get a little more flex out of the rear once I put on the new shocks. The rear tire rubs the fender slightly, that can be trimmed though.

Here’s a group photo:

 

[Rooster]

Been working on the 9 inch a lot, I’ll do a whole post on that when it’s done. While I’ve been waiting on parts I worked on adding some “accessories”
I made some light mounts that sandwich between the fender and the body. I stuck a KC light on there just to see how it looks, I’ll probably get some smaller pods to put there though.

I also mounted some radios in the truck, I made a bracket that connects to the visor clips so I didn’t have to drill into the roof

 

[seveer13]

Absolutely love this build wish I had the money to duplicate it!