SOA HEELLPP!!

[BigStupid]

Howdy.
I'm new to the whole fsj thing and in fact know very little comparitivly about working on cars at all. Recently i have become obsessed with my truck and want to start working on it. My brother is taking an auto tech. class and is becoming knowledgable about things plus i know people. I've been reading up and i want to preform a sping over axle conversion to my 77' Jeep Cherokee. I need extreem help about specifics like measurements and proceedures. I am familar with the basic concept though. Any information you have is very useful. Thanx.

BigStupid

[porkchop]

Welcome! You have sure come to the right place. Many of us here have done the SOA and this is a topic disscussed often. Here is a good place to to start to get some answers, this is in the topic of the month. You can also look in the archives to get some GREAT info. http://www.ifsja.org/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=8&t=000002

Once again welcome.

[BigStupid]

well it looks like this is all the help im gonna get for now ill try to sort through the info and decifer what i can use.thanx for the help, maybe ill post again later and not metion my age,or perhaps yall just got bored of this one a while ago. thanx for the info. :confused:

[River Beast]

Did you check the link that Porchop left you? it's got all you need to do the SOA...

check it out.... it's not hard to do just takes time and a little money....not much though

[Bob Barry]

As easy as an SOA may be, you might not want to make it the FIRST mod you do to your truck. You might try changing the shocks or the bumpers or something.

Thing is, if you do this WRONG :( , it can sour you on FSJ's for some time, and nobody wants that.

[Joe J-Truck]

I'm a somewhat experienced welder, what's the main consern when welding steel perches to the cast iron diff housing for a SOA? Any special tricks or techniques to ensure a strong, solid weld?

[jeepbob]

The best welder to use is a TIG welder with a professional welder operating it as this is a safety issue. I do a lot of welding with stick, MIG, and TIG but I still decided to have a pro do it. It cost me about $25 dollars to have the perches welded on and I consider that real cheap peace of mind.

[River Beast]

I'm with Jeepbob....The welding is the main concern.

I used an ARC welder with nickel rod. I got the cast nice and hot with a torch, then laid the bead. For cooling it slow, I recommend burial in sand.

Oh.... wait... that was my rear axle.... another story....perches on the rear are cast.... the front I used flux-cored MIG and haven't had a problem. I laid several beads...still heated it up though.

Of course, mine was done with no carrier ro R&P. I HIGHLT ADVISE NOT to heat the case with a torch if all your guts are still in. You are asking for trouble there.

[ November 02, 2001: Message edited by: River Beast ]

[Joe J-Truck]

Thanks for the info, I'll be pulling the carrier and ring gear out to install lockers anyway, so I'll do the welding then. The guy next door is a pro welder with a big mig setup, so I'll have him do it, he owes me a favor.