soa

[jboncher]

can somebody get me a list of what needs to be done and bought and welded where to do a soa? gonna keep the stock springs for the time being but i need more clearance. tia

[River Beast]

For the mods required to perform the SOA conversion... the little things involved seem more tedious than the SOA itself. The SOA is nothing more than welding perches on top of the axle in the correct position and equal height. Now doing that takes a little work on your part. New longer U-bolts and new perches have to be purchased. Perches can be bought from $13-$50 a pair... so the choice is yours... but I would look into these.... in the future

http://www.ifsja.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000870

if you dont want to wait for the perches above... you can buy some and relieve the radius to fit on the cast once you dress it up a bit to fit the perch.....and continue on..

Once the cast side perch is properly fitted ( tack welded at 0-3 degrees from OEM perch) you can work on the tube mounted perch. since the cast mounted perch will sit higher, the tube mounted perch will need to be 'built up' around 1/2" to ensure a level side-to-side stance. Measure the distance from the top of the axle tube to the top of the cast mounted perch... use that measurement to build up the tube mounted perch. I used 1/2" plate steel and welded it fully to the top of the tube mounted perch and re-drilled the centerhole. 1/2" is approximate due to various ways you can accomplish this. Once the perches are level.. tack weld the tube mounted perch and test-fit the axle and check the pinion to T-case angle... REMEBER... NO MORE THAN 3 DEGREES up from OEM perches or you run into steering issues. IF you tack the perches at 0 degrees... and you need a better pinion angle... you can purchase steel shims to angle it up a bit..again... no more than 3 degrees.

Now... the AT is a full time case and I highly recommend a Part Time conversion if you are going SOA... the angle is alot for the QT to deal with all the time.. and a high angle CV shaft is just about a must to keep things operational for a good length of time...

Speaking of steering.... this is where a little money is involved... some use a 4" drop pitman arm to correct draglink angles... it works and it is safe, but not the BEST route in my opinion. High X-over steering is a better option... this is where you use a flattop knuckle on the passenger side that has been machined, drilled and tapped to accept a high steering arm, and an extended draglink to move the steering linkage OVER the top of the spring... most need a 1" spacer under the steering arm with stock springs in this application and easy to setup. The hard part is getting the knuckle and having it 'prepped' for this use... www.partsmikeparts.com (http://www.partsmikeparts.com) is a great resource for the components needed for high X-Over steering.

Next on the list is shocks... this must wait until the SOA is done.. that way you can measure out and see what shock is required by your SOA...

Extended brakelines can be purchases from www.bjsoffroad.com (http://www.bjsoffroad.com) or you can just fab up some drop-down brackets and lower the lines off the frame... I did this... cheap and easy.

The rear... well... my inversion kit or blocks you make the choice....

I hope I cleared some stuff up for you...

PS... I have alot of info on my site with pics... http://home.earthlink.net/~riverbeast

any more questions... feel free to ask....