SOA

[Tourettes]

who makes the best/most used/most recomended SOA kits out there? or would i be better off piecing it together my self??
Riverbeast, what did you use?

[Hump]

As far as I know, nobody makes kits for FSJ soa's. I wasn't even able to find a spring perch that would work for the cast side. I ended up making my own perches and having a shop weld them on. You're gonna need extended brake hoses, or just lower the stock mount. You're also going to need a drop pitman arm, longer shocks, and new u-bolts. Other than that, it is pretty much a custom job, and you can do anything you want to. Just do ALOT of research so you don't do stupid things like rotate your pinion way to much and throw your caster all to heck!

Also, no matter how time efficient you think you can be, only do one axle at a time. Having a truck sitting two feet off the ground with no axles or springs on it is just an accident waiting to happen. :(

[Damage, Inc.]

So how do you avoid screwing up your caster? Seems to me that 5-7" SOA with a 4" Rustys would put the xfer case PRETTY high up. I've looked for the answer on this, but no one seems to mention it.

[RamJetFSJ]

No one makes a kit for the Front SOA. Riverbeast sells a kit to do the shakle flip in the rear to equal the lift of a SOA, without new springs or using blocks.

[Heimeken]

Stock caster is 4 degrees, if you weld your perches at an angle or use shims to angle the differential towards the tcase, you should not surpass 4 degrees or your steering will not recenter (at the minimum).

[tuck]

front driveshaft angle isn't that big of a deal if your front driveshaft isn't spinning all the time, or if you're always in 4lo. That's my case, dana 20. So I just had the perches welded to match the factory perches, except on top of the axle, works great.

[River Beast]

I bought new spring perches... new u-bolts and angled the front diff up 3 degrees... now if you use stock springs you can just weld the perches parallel to the OEM perches. Just remember to ensure your perches are equal distance from the axle tube... since one is on the cast, the other will have to be built up a bit and the other shaved down a bit.

For the rear... just use the link in my sig for the Shackle Inversion if you have a 76 or newer FSJ... ;)

As far as caster... don't go more than 3 degrees up on the pinion and it's ok... not perfect, but ok and very stable...that's what I run at...

Steering issues for stock spring SOA and be corrected with a 4" DPA... even with 2.5" AAL's the 4" DPA works fine for some.. ask Porkchop.

Any higher than 2.5" AAL's with stock springs will most likely require high X-over steering mods that can be found on my site.

[Damage, Inc.]

My front driveshaft has a CV joint in it so maintaining pinion angle isn't as important as the rear, correct? (I'm applying that to the caster and pinion angle.)

As for the rear, I'd love to use RB's stuff, but mine's a 74 (Sep 73) and doubt it will work...'sides, I kind of want to be able to say I did the work... smile.gif

And on the SOA note, what about the shocks? I know I have to relocate the mount, but what is ideal as far as shock compression goes? Should I compress them halfway and use that as a guide? (Am I making sense here?!?)

[River Beast]

YES Angle is important when dealing with CV's... the OEM CV has an operating angle of 16 degrees and MAX angle of 22 degrees...this is why I said to angle the diff up 3 degrees... you may still need a 'relieved' CV or custom high angle...but you won't really know until you put it all together... are you running a QT or Dana 20 for the T-case...this is important to note.. as this is even more important if you are running a full-time QT... it will be turning all the time.... not a good thing.

As far as shocks go... I made new U-bolt plates and put my bottom shock mount on it to give me what I wanted, but you are in the right frame of mind to mount the shock at it's midpoint of travel. The shocks you choose must accomodate your full droop and full compression aspects of your suspension.

[ August 01, 2002, 04:03 PM: Message edited by: River Beast ]