Dana 44 SAS Tech thoughts

[Shran]

I thought I'd share some thoughts about my SAS, since it has been done for almost two years and I've had time to work the bugs out of it.

First and foremost. Everyone, literally everyone, seems to have this idea that the Early Bronco D44 is THE axle to have, if you want to stay "RBV width." I will tell you, it is not. It is simply impossible to get a reasonable pinion angle AND have reasonable caster measurements AND any amount of lift. Pick one and throw the other two out the window because it won't happen without turning the C's and/or wedgies on the housing.

If you REALLY must have a D44, you NEED a high pinion housing. You also need 76-77 Early Bronco knuckles because the steering arms are literally like almost 1.5" higher than the F150 version. I highly recommend building your own steering from DOM and heims vs tie rod ends. I did that, and used a narrowed and sleeved F150 track bar. My truck with 35's, 6ish inches of lift and a redneck alignment drives so smooth that I can do 80 with no wandering, no death wobble, and I do not even have a steering stabilizer!

Secondly, and this is pretty obvious, make an axle shaft upgrade a priority if you do ANY kind of wheeling. If you end up with stock Early Bronco axle shafts, like I did, buy good (Spicer) u-joints or you will be making a trip to the parts store to warranty at least one u-joint after every trip out. The F150 axle shafts are significantly better and I actually only broke a u-joint in these once. A good set of hardened shafts is only like $500 and it's a HUGE upgrade to your truck and confidence level.

Third, make lockout hub purchases the last item on your list unless you have something that is known garbage. I had the stock Ford (actually Spicer, I believe) lockouts in my truck and they went through some serious abuse without a single hiccup. Most people want the hubs to be the "fuse," ie part that breaks first and is easiest to repair - but the Ford lockouts IMO are so strong that there is zero reason to replace them with anything else. I am referring to the style with the huge spring and two separate, cast steel pieces that fit over each other and interlock, NOT the "Warn" style that have a small "gear" thing inside a larger piece.

The one other piece of not-so-well-known tech I'd like to share involves polyurethane C-bushings (ie Energy Suspension, Duff, parts store brands, etc.) They are CRAP CRAP CRAP!!! Mine were cracked and blown out of the radius arm within 200 miles and 4-5 very mild wheeling trips, leaving the axle to rotate wildly inside the bushings. In talking with a few local people, I learned that it's pretty common for this to happen because the poly bushings don't "flex" at all, so something has to give. They are probably fine for on-road driving, and I would for sure run them without hesitation in that situation but for any offroad vehicle, rubber is the ONLY way to go. NAPA has rubber bushings and they are cheap and awesome.

Hope this helps someone avoid a bunch of extra work. I could have avoided doing things 3-4 times if I had known some of this stuff.

 

[wahlstrom1]

You don't 'NEED' a perfect pinion angle on something that doesn't see hi speed 4wd use... I ran 7" coils with stock 78/79 radius arm brackets and 7* bushings ending up with 2* castor and guess what, it drove great!

I don't see how you 'cracked and blew out' poly bushings in 200 miles if they were installed properly, I had over 70,000km on mine and they were still working fine and I wheeled the truck until I bent the inner C's and knocked the tubes loose...

I'll agree with you on the shafts, and the lockouts though... the old Ford/Warn all steel hubs are a whole level above anything available aftermarket other then drive flanges....

 

[legoms013]

Turning the knuckles in my case was not feasible, since my wedgies are the cast kind.

My axle is a 79 F150 axle that I have narrowed.

I am hoping to end up with around 3* of castor when I am done. I will be running 5.5 or 6" coils so I think this is realistic with 7* bushings. 3* is more than I have with my TTB setup, and it drives fine IMHO so I am betting 3* will be even better.

Why do you suggest heims over TRE's Shran? I'm going with TRE's to stay legal here in Communist California.

May I suggest this as a good thread to post pics of what people have done, what shouldn't be done and what works good?

I'll post the first:

May I make a suggestion about narrowing a cast wedgie D44: Don't dilly-dick around with grinding the weld far ages and ages, nor screw around with pressing the wedge on or off.

Take a band saw, cut right at the weld. Grind the weld flat, die-grinder the inside of the cast wedge with a 120grit flapper disc (just a hair so that you can slip on the wedge about 1/16" by hand), and then use a 3/4" x 8' piece all-thread, 3/4" nuts steel plates and an impact to suck the wedge back on. I did this whole process in 2hrs. WAY easier than the article in the tech library says to do, plus I didn't have to have a 100 ton press or or 37 grinder wheels to gouge the weld out. YOLO people, YOLO, make it easy on yourself.

There's my advice (so far since I am not done with my swap yet)

 

[Shran]

You don't 'NEED' a perfect pinion angle on something that doesn't see hi speed 4wd use... I ran 7" coils with stock 78/79 radius arm brackets and 7* bushings ending up with 2* castor and guess what, it drove great!

I realize that. The issue I had was that the pinion-end u-joint was literally binding at ride height. I had an 1976 EB D44, 7* bushings, factory radius arms, 6" Duff coils, and the 78-79 Bronco radius arm drop brackets. I guess it might have been possible to fix the driveline issue with a double CV shaft, but that is a LOT of money.

Plus with the high pinion housing, I am no longer dragging my driveline over every rock. Here's a pic that kind of shows where I was at:

I don't see how you 'cracked and blew out' poly bushings in 200 miles if they were installed properly, I had over 70,000km on mine and they were still working fine and I wheeled the truck until I bent the inner C's and knocked the tubes loose...

I'll try to explain this like it was explained to me. When you flex out a vehicle that has a factory Ford radius arm setup, there is not a lot of "give" in the poly bushings. The axle naturally needs to be able to rotate a little bit when the suspension is cycled, and the soft, rubber bushings allow it to do that. The poly ones do not. Hence the wristed housing kit that BC Broncos sells (see http://www.bcbroncos.com/suspensionfront.html for more info.)

Here are some pics of my bushings. I called Energy Suspension and explained what broke. They were really nice and super easy to work with, and had a set of new bushings in the mail the next day (which I never used.)

Why do you suggest heims over TRE's Shran? I'm going with TRE's to stay legal here in Communist California.

You're just screwed. I suggest heims (where they are legal) because to me it's easier to fabricate a steering setup that works really well instead of messing around with factory steering components. It's also less work because you don't have to find or buy a reamer if you want to do the GM 1-ton TRE upgrade. I'm not saying TREs are a bad choice, heims just seem far easier in my experience.

 

[scooter]

I used Energy Sus poly 7* bushings on mine..... ZERO issues. I know i wheeled it as hard and as often as anyone else on this board
! ! !
That being said i also had Johnny Joints on the frame end of my radius arms.

I used 1ton cheby TREs' too. Worked great, no death wobble, no stabilizer.




Todd S.

 

[Jay W]

You're just screwed. I suggest heims (where they are legal) because to me it's easier to fabricate a steering setup that works really well instead of messing around with factory steering components. It's also less work because you don't have to find or buy a reamer if you want to do the GM 1-ton TRE upgrade. I'm not saying TREs are a bad choice, heims just seem far easier in my experience.

So you're saying easier is better?

I have always built steering with TREs and have never had a problem.

 

[Shran]

So you're saying easier is better?

I have always built steering with TREs and have never had a problem.

Nope, just less work involved in drilling three 3/4" (or 5/8") holes than reaming the steering arms and/or pitman arm for larger TREs. Simply my preference, neither is superior in terms of strength.

For comparison, my first steering setup had TREs and I would have had to carry four spare parts (basically a complete drag link and tie rod) if I wanted to have enough parts to fix any piece of it. With heims, I carry one spare heim, one 3/4 bolt and one nylock nut. Less baggage to carry around.

 

[wahlstrom1]

You could do the same with TRE's if ya set it up right... personally, I'd want two spares... a right and left hand thread

 

[legoms013]

You could do the same with TRE's if ya set it up right... personally, I'd want two spares... a right and left hand thread

I was thinking the same.

 

[scooter]

I carry ZERO heims with me......

Jesus if you break one of those, youve really done something. I turn full hydro and 44's on a 5500# rig with cheap 3/4 heims.


Todd S.

 

[Hagan]

Since we are adding suggestions I would suggest to extend the radius arms. I cut the stock arms off and cut a slit on both ends of the 2"x2" .25" wall square tubing (Round DOM is expensive and isn't readily available to me) and I added 2 square tubing adapters http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/125-Square-tube-adapter_p_1557.html and used RuffStuffs 1.25" heim joints.

 

[cdawall]

Didn't realize you were on here as well. I am glad I didn't go EB width. I am more than happy with fullwidths. I also like the idea of TRE's on a street truck the stay tight longer than heims. You are completely correct on shafts though the stock EB shafts are weaker than the stock shafts in a later model D30 (5-760x joint or CV)

 

[Shran]

^ Yup, been here off and on since about 2006 and through a couple forum crashes. Nice to see you here. Your Ranger is looking totally cool and I think you did well with the full width axles. I considered it, and have actually had numerous FW D44's/60's/sterlings etc in my possession but I guess I just kinda ended up with what I have now when it was all said and done.

I like the extended radius arms above. I thought about doing something similar but my stock arms are as long as my extended Duff TTB arms... and the Bronco brackets work so well with my trans crossmember. Maybe someday I will redesign it.

 

[cdawall]

^ Yup, been here off and on since about 2006 and through a couple forum crashes. Nice to see you here. Your Ranger is looking totally cool and I think you did well with the full width axles. I considered it, and have actually had numerous FW D44's/60's/sterlings etc in my possession but I guess I just kinda ended up with what I have now when it was all said and done.

Thanks figured it was about time to go all the way instead of half assing things. It isn't quite done yet, but there is no way to describe how happy I am with how it is working out. It is at least a million times better than I could have imagined it. Todd is nothing short of a miracle worker and I loved being able to help with his design of it. Not many shops will let you do that and I honestly did not have the know how to get it like it is. Go zfab

I am really happy with the rear D60 even if it is only a 32 spline rear (already got spares though), it has stock disks, the hubs fit 35 spline shafts without boring and has the thick tubes. Hell of a upullit find. The only downside anyone can find with it is the brake calipers are low. The front D60 is just a normal early balljoint has the less awesome brakes and what not, but for $92 it was still a steal.