Damn, ga? That's a good haul from where his shop use to be.



Lightning if i were you i would def not get rid of it, You have probably the most BAD A expy anyone has ever seen. If you really wanna do the swap but don't have the cash right now just start part collecting and slowly getting everything when funds allow.

 

Dude lightning you are stupid to want to get rid of that bro. You need to drive around a beater for a week and then youll really appreciate your expy. I almost bought a 09 roush gt mustang, and luckily the deal fell through. I am more than happy that I dont have the $350 a month payment on it.

 

Yeah I really don't want to get rid of the truck. Straight axle right now is looking much more promising but funds are going to be a bit of a problem. I'm first going to look into stronger bearings for my truck before I look more into the costs of the SAS swap. If I can't get stronger bearings I think a straight axle will most likely be happening. Quick question for anyone who has done this. Can I get a rough estimate of how much a coil sprung SAS swap will cost along with a leaf sprung setup? I really need to prepare for how much it will cost. Thanks a lot everyone.

 

offer still stands

 

Haha don't worry, if I buy the axles I'll have the 7.5 fabtech, upper control arms and spacers up for grabs.

 

My sas for my explorer cost around 3k. And that is at the very low end of cost spectrum but still very well done. I did that by taking my time and looking for deals/free parts. I worked for parts and I searched for deals for more hours that I'd like to count lol. I also have done every bit of work on it myself, including gears. I still have stuff to do. Right now it's trail ready but I haven't even started the steering yet (still using stock parts). Leafs aren't going to be terribly different.

If I were you i'd slow down and start reading. Once you've read till your eyes pop out...read some more. Good luck.

 

My sas for my explorer cost around 3k. And that is at the very low end of cost spectrum but still very well done. I did that by taking my time and looking for deals/free parts. I worked for parts and I searched for deals for more hours that I'd like to count lol. I also have done every bit of work on it myself, including gears. I still have stuff to do. Right now it's trail ready but I haven't even started the steering yet (still using stock parts). Leafs aren't going to be terribly different.

If I were you i'd slow down and start reading. Once you've read till your eyes pop out...read some more. Good luck.

 

Your by FAR money ahead by starting over with a 4WD vehicle. Just the SAS alone is gonna burn some cash then on top of that you will have to get an all new drivetrain.

 

I'm still deciding on whether or not to actually make it 4x4. I may just straight axle and leave it 2 wheel. From what I have read thus far, money is primarily tied up in axles, gears and transfercase. So if I stick to 2wd I can eliminate a few costs. I know it sounds dumb but it is a street truck and I don't plan to put it in a rut.

AZFX4, I was a little confused by your wording, do you mean I would be better of with a truck that was previoiusly 4x4 or with a truck that was 2wd? What does this change?

 

I just mean that if you eventually want to have working 4 wheel drive it would be a LOT cheaper to start with a truck that has 4 wheel drive than trying to retrofit a 2wheel drive.

 

If you dont plan on getting all the 4wd stuff count on 3-5k for a leaf set up. you will have around a 1000 just in a good hysteer set up. If you want to go coil springs and a 4 link better figure on 4-8k. its a lot of small things that adds up the fastest. I have not personally done a 4 link myself but there is a lot more involved and you have to know what your doing or the 4 link will not work right at high speeds and cause a lot of problems. I know a few guys that didnt get the 4 link right and they turned there nice truck into a rock crawler because they didnt set the 4 link up right and had major handling problems over 20 mph.

 

Hey man i dont hardly ever come on this site anymore, but i got your pm. I sent you my number call me. I have all the fabricated parts that you would need. To complete the swap all you would need is front axle, leaf springs, wheels that would fit the bolt pattern of the D44, and like i said in my PM a 5 lug D44 is not much of an upgrade over what you have now, if you are gonna spend the money id definitely look for ATLEAST a D44 HD its the 8 lug D44 came in some 3/4 ton fords, you can normally find them for pretty reasonable priced. Depending on your know how it would take you anywhere from 2 weeks to do to 2 months, alot of that depends on your know how and work schedule. If everything is there i dont see why anyone couldnt have the truck rolling again in a week but thats working on it every single day. So if you are like most of us and actually have to go to a job then 2 weeks would be more reasonable.

Dont let anyone scare you off this its not as hard as people make it seem. Once you tear everything out and start looking at it its very simple, specially if you use the stuff from farmboy fab, its really only made to go on one way. Im sure there might be a few differences between the expy and f150 but not enough to make that much of a difference.

Now this is gonna seem contradictory, but whatever. Everyone saying that the leaf spring setup would be easiest has obviously never had the priveledge of working with the 97-03 f150 frames, they are pretty much the worst possible design for swapping leaf springs. Ive seen straighter roller coasters then the frame on these years. With that being said the difficulty in a radius arm setup would be equal to the leaf spring setup but then add alittle bit because you have no model to work with no kit or semi kit to go by. The down right easiest route would be a parralell 4 link, but you would have to know how to use the 4 link calculater and know what degrees to put everything at, and for a street truck id definitely wouldnt start your first build with a link setup. It gets expensive fast, and you MUST MUST MUST beable to trust your welding more so then on any other setup.

like i said, call me.

actually, just to throw this out there, id much rather have started with a 2wd. The stock t-case can be clocked but causes some issues with the fluid and the linkages. Id much rather have started with a 2wd trans, short shaft to a diapered divorced NP200 or similar, then drive shafts from t-case to axles. This would help d-shaft angles and give you a stronger trans-case. The np200 is ran vertical and but outputs are on the bottom giving great driveshaft angles even with alot of lift.

 

Okay thanks trimble, I'll try and give you a call soon but like you said time is a bit of a problem right now. Working about 30 hours and have class 4 days a week. I'll send you another pm though because I can't really make calls right now until later.

 

10-4 pm sent back 2 of them actually

 

True but again your talking more money and more of the OPs time in sourcing all those parts and fabbing up all the mounts, brackets, linkages, etc...