sas swap ideas

[That_4.0_ranger]

I'm considering doing a sas swap in my 91 ranger for daily driving and some wheeling but I don't know what axle to go with I'd rather not have a full width axle sticking out under it. any help as to what is the best choice and how complicated it would be appreciated

 

[dvdswan]

What's wrong with the current D35?

 

[Shran]

What's your budget? What size tires do you want to run? What type of suspension (ie, leafs, coils, air shocks, etc) What about wheels? Do you care if your bolt pattern changes or matches front & rear?

Newer donor is better. Stuff from the 70's is really drying up. Parts like spindles, shafts, etc are sometimes really hard to find. Anything older than that is generally not worth using. 80's & 90's are starting to dry up too... used to be easy to find a ball joint D60, now there are none.

Cheap & small is probably a Dana 30 from a Jeep. YJ/XJ/TJ... or newer. That doesn't really give you anything you don't already have, except a one piece axle.

Next is a Dana 44, from a variety of sources... one from an Early Bronco or Jeep TJ/JK/etc will be the smallest but probably spendy and the EB axle is low pinion...not really desirable for wheeling. You could narrow a full size axle (that's what I did.) Bolt pattern may change. A Jeep TJ front axle would probably be ideal as you keep your bolt pattern but they are in very high demand so you will pay a lot for it.

Beyond that, you are probably looking at full width truck axles. If you have good junkyards with old trucks, 70's and newer Ford, some Dodge, and I think there were some Wagoneers that had driver drop front axles. If you're careful with you wheel & tire selection, they won't stick out too far. Here's my '94 Explorer that has a full width 1970's truck 9" axle in it, stock 90's F150 wheels & narrow swampers:

 

[That_4.0_ranger]

What's your budget? What size tires do you want to run? What type of suspension (ie, leafs, coils, air shocks, etc) What about wheels? Do you care if your bolt pattern changes or matches front & rear?

Newer donor is better. Stuff from the 70's is really drying up. Parts like spindles, shafts, etc are sometimes really hard to find. Anything older than that is generally not worth using. 80's & 90's are starting to dry up too... used to be easy to find a ball joint D60, now there are none.

Cheap & small is probably a Dana 30 from a Jeep. YJ/XJ/TJ... or newer. That doesn't really give you anything you don't already have, except a one piece axle.

Next is a Dana 44, from a variety of sources... one from an Early Bronco or Jeep TJ/JK/etc will be the smallest but probably spendy and the EB axle is low pinion...not really desirable for wheeling. You could narrow a full size axle (that's what I did.) Bolt pattern may change. A Jeep TJ front axle would probably be ideal as you keep your bolt pattern but they are in very high demand so you will pay a lot for it.

Beyond that, you are probably looking at full width truck axles. If you have good junkyards with old trucks, 70's and newer Ford, some Dodge, and I think there were some Wagoneers that had driver drop front axles. If you're careful with you wheel & tire selection, they won't stick out too far. Here's my '94 Explorer that has a full width 1970's truck 9" axle in it, stock 90's F150 wheels & narrow swampers:

View attachment 120432View attachment 120433View attachment 120434

im looking to keep my wheels and tires and not wanting to spend a bunch of money (obviously an sas aint cheap) but i did find a 1998 tj dana 30 for 50 bucks nearby

 

[Shran]

Good parts axle, if I needed it I would buy it just for spare shafts.

My advise is be patient, wait for the right deal. I got a 9" and a 75-77 Dana 44 from my buddy when we scrapped an old mud truck - both axles complete with 5.38 gears, rear has a spool and front has an Auburn limited slip - $1000 total. Maybe you can find a similar deal from someone upgrading to 1 tons or something like that. If you're not a member of your local 4x4 club, that would be a good place to look, those guys are always willing to help others out on their builds.

 

[4x4junkie]

The D35 is a good axle, D30... Not so much (weaker R&P gears, weak housing).
Tell us what problem you're having, very likely there is a solution much easier than swapping the whole thing out.

A daily driver is probably the last thing you'd want to do such a major undertaking on anyway (especially if you've never done one before). There's a lot more to it than just welding on some mounts and slinging an axle under there.

 

[That_4.0_ranger]

The D35 is a good axle, D30... Not so much (weaker R&P gears, weak housing).
Tell us what problem you're having, very likely there is a solution much easier than swapping the whole thing out.

A daily driver is probably the last thing you'd want to do such a major undertaking on anyway (especially if you've never done one before). There's a lot more to it than just welding on some mounts and slinging an axle under there.

My current axle has no issues I’ve just had alot of different rangers and thought it might be cool to build one with a straight axle and also I want take it up a little taller and run 35s but I’m not a fan of lifting the dana 35 and dealing with alignment issues and also every shop in my area doesn't like to align them unless they replace every single nut bolt and bushing

 

[Jim Oaks]

I wouldn't do an SAS to run 35's and I surely wouldn't swap a Dana 35 with a smaller Dana 30. I've seen guys on here beat the crap out of their D35's with 35's. @Curious Hound is one of them.

 

[bobbywalter]

i would run the jeep axle. probably a zj for a daily.

Jeep DIY Front Long Arm Upgrade Kit

Looking to upgrade the front suspension to long arms on your TJ, LJ, MJ, ZJ, or XJ? This kit has all of the parts that the do it yourself fabricator needs to add front long arms to their Jeep. Kit Includes:2 Right Hand Thread 1-1/4" Heat Treated Chromoly Heim Joints4 1-9/16 High Misalignment...

barnes4wd.com

or buy a 44 from spicer.

Cart

danaproparts.com

or our local madman....look at december truck of the month contestants. his axles are wicked.

 

[bobbywalter]

like said.....i wouldnt run it over a d35.....but if i wanted a straight axle for light work the d30 is perfect.

 

[4x4junkie]

My current axle has no issues I’ve just had alot of different rangers and thought it might be cool to build one with a straight axle and also I want take it up a little taller and run 35s but I’m not a fan of lifting the dana 35 and dealing with alignment issues and also every shop in my area doesn't like to align them unless they replace every single nut bolt and bushing

Well, your choice what you want to do...
The D35 is quite fine with 35s, a few here have even rock crawled with as big as 38s on it w/o issue (though I wouldn't recommend that unless you had a std-cab 4-cyl Ranger or a BroncoII).

As for getting shops to align TTBs, there's no argument there... It definitely can be a PITA to find good shops that know WTF they're doing (especially nowadays with 1997 (1998 on F-250s) having been the last time a TTB was produced).
That is why I wrote this article years ago, it actually is not hard to DIY an alignment once you understand a few things (1st part covers some common TTB steering issues, 2nd part covers alignment procedure):

Steering Tech - Discussing TTB Steering and Alignment - The Ranger Station

How it’s supposed to work (and why it often doesn’t work like so) Steering continues to be one of the most overlooked, often misunderstood pitfalls on these suspensions, so I felt this subject deserves it’s very own page. As many … Continued

www.therangerstation.com

If you're really itchin' to do something different, I'd say leave your DD as something practical to drive and build another Ranger all-get-out as your dedicated wheeling rig.

Some ideas to start:
Dana60/10.5" axles (2005+ Ford F-250/350)
6" lift w/triangulated 4-link & Fox or King coilover shocks
40s w/beadlocks & fender trim
Ram-assist (or hydro) steering
Coyote V8 or EcoBoost swap
Crawl box

Do it right, and you should be able to drive it at speed on a freeway too, for those times you just want to go somewhere and not trailer it. But research will be key... Done wrong, it might not make it out of your own driveway (same can be said of the SAS you were proposing here too).

i would run the jeep axle. probably a zj for a daily.

Jeep DIY Front Long Arm Upgrade Kit

Looking to upgrade the front suspension to long arms on your TJ, LJ, MJ, ZJ, or XJ? This kit has all of the parts that the do it yourself fabricator needs to add front long arms to their Jeep. Kit Includes:2 Right Hand Thread 1-1/4" Heat Treated Chromoly Heim Joints4 1-9/16 High Misalignment...

barnes4wd.com

or buy a 44 from spicer.

Cart

danaproparts.com

or our local madman....look at december truck of the month contestants. his axles are wicked.

I think I see a Supercab as his avatar pic... A Jeep D30 (anything pre-2007) would likely taco itself under the weight of a 4.0L Supercab.

 

[bobbywalter]

jeeps.....dana 30 have everything. its 100 bux for a truss. they are the ls of the axle world.

they dont bend under rangers....unless they are like mine with an idiot driving 37 or larger tires and a giant 800 pound engine.

there are alot of d30 swapped rangers and s10s. likely the majority.

grand cherokars weigh the same or more then rangers.

rangers dont make any power stock. grand cherokars make prodigious power with the i6-318-360...in relatives. they wasted rear axles....why they built those axles like that i have no idea....but they did.

for a wheeler or driver i would run full width. ttb d44 is way better then a d35..

the stoopid doodie axles are dirt cheap....it makes no sense not to use those save for the unsprung weight but he wants it to be small.

i threw the cost out of 5 grand for a fresh stock axle assembly just for a reference. used rubi 4.10 run 2-2500.


sd axles where i am at the u pull are less then 200. wont find any old stuff but 99 up...ace..

i have both. rather have the big axle. everything is better.


i like the ttb, and would rather a ttb truck if i had one go full width ttb then a solid.

but if i had a 2wd....d30/44 jeep no problem.

 

[Shran]

I know a large handful of locals that are running D30's in their old XJ/TJ/YJ, etc and are very happy with them, and are running 35" tires or larger, and wheeling them pretty hard. Harder than I wheel my truck, and I have a D44 with RCV shafts in it.

D30's shine in their original application if you use them within reason/have an automatic/are careful if you have a manual. You can drop a set of RCVs in them and have a relatively stout setup. It's just a rabbit hole to go down though if you're swapping a D30 into something else - easy to spend a bunch of money on one and end up with a mediocre axle when you should have just gone a little bigger with the same amount of money to begin with.

Super Duty axles are crazy strong, especially the newer ones, everything is just enormous. They are really heavy though and you'll need 17" wheels at minimum for '05+... 16" for 99-04. They are not particularly cheap out here either, it is probably a regional thing, $500+ per axle for older SD's and $800+ per axle for newer ones. Not sure why. Our U-pull-it closed about a year ago and the one junkyard we have left that would even have super duties is really expensive on everything.

 

[4x4junkie]

The thing is though, every Jeep (prior to 2007) with a D30 under it is hundreds of pounds lighter on the front axle than a Supercab Ranger (yes, the Grand Cherokee too with its unibody construction), so they do hold up pretty well used in their original application.

I researched this quite some time ago because these D30 debates were once commonplace; a Cherokee XJ is about 3200lbs with close to 50/50% weight distribution. That means roughly 1600 lbs at the front axle. A YJ/TJ is around 3500lbs, again about 50/50% WD, so ~1750lbs. The Grand, 3700lbs (can't locate a WD figure for it, but I would expect it to be between 50/50 - 55/45 F/R), so maybe as much as 2035lbs up front.

A Supercab Ranger (4.0L) OTOH is around 3800lbs, but has a 60/40% WD (WD is where the big difference comes from). That means ~2280lbs up front (a 680lb difference vs the XJ, the vehicle this particular version of the D30 originally appeared under). I'd have to check, but I highly doubt the Jeep's front GAWR allows more than a few hundred lbs to be added to it.

This isn't to say it can't work at all, but it is very far from a good swap candidate. A D44 is the minimum I'd suggest, or a 2007&up Jeep D30, which is built much heavier than the 2006&down D30 (both the R&P gears and the housing).

 

[00t444e]

Find a high pinion Dana 30 out of a 91-99 Jeep Cherokee XJ. They hold up great to 35s, I have ran mine locked on 35s for years and never had an issue, they are cheap, and they have the same 5x4.5" wheel bolt pattern as the Ranger unlike the newer Dana 30s like suggested above. I have a couple spares I thought about putting in my Ranger, but I have no plans on going larger 32-33s since I have 2 Jeeps already that are my main off road vehicles.