SOA average Cost

[ArmyGreenSexyBeast]

Hey guys, just a quick question. What would people say the average cost of doing a SOA/shackle flip from BJ's? I would plan on doing the majority of the work myself, except obviously for the driveshaft. You also need to do something with the steering right?

On another note, am I completely going to lose driveability if I do this? I suppose important to note is that it already has some pretty worn 4" skyjacker lift springs

[jaber]

From what I've been finding, the price of purchasing a spring-over kit from BJ's is roughly the same cost as a 6" lift from BJ's. I've been trying to figure out how I can get the cost down for the SOA. Theres a guy around here that I've been told can do the knuckle work for around $50 then it would be getting the parts. I'm still researching this so I dont have a definitive answer yet.

[Stuka]

uh, 50 dollars for labor?? What exactly is he doing, or rather, not doing to get the price so low.

You can make it cheaper if you can fab stuff yourself. Also, I think the IFSJA discount applies for the SOA stuff, you would need to check with Brent/Ryan though.

Not sure you want to do the SOA with 4" lift springs, then you get into more issues with drive shafts and such. Steering ends up being one of the more expensive parts of the conversion.

[fulszjep]

It depends on what you have. I did a axle swap Dana 27 to Dana 44 with disc brakes in the front and it cost 2500.00

[JeepinPete]

J Nutter does them for $50 shipped back to you. Very quick turn around. I was very happy with his service.

[oldyellowwagoneer]

If you're going to regear and use bigger tires you would be both time and money, not to mention a better turning radius and wider-safer stance, by buying 3/4 ton running gear out of a chevy or dodge with the gearing you want already in them. The fronts bolt right in and the dodge rears will also with no perch mods needed. I'm not sure if the chevy rears will but its a heck of alot easier to weld perches on the rear axle than the fronts. Now you have 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, or better axles with the gearing you need for a fraction of what it would cost just to regear your existing axles. Also the front is wider so you can turn those bigger tires in a tighter radius without hitting your springs or having to cut grind and weld on your too narrow 1/2 ton stock axles. People are selling chevy 44/14bolt combos all the time for 500 or less and you can sell your stock axles to the baby jeep guys for about that or more. the rear can be lifted either with the rear shackle kit or you can go the junkyard route by welding or bolting on the spring perches from the front of 70's- 90's dodge trucks under the existing spring mounts. you can buy extended brake lines for the front and use either a rear extended line or, if you use a dodge rear out of a 4x4,the factory dodge hose which is plenty long enough even for 11" of suspension lift. You just need to buy a 75 cent brake line adapter to hook it to the jeep hard line.
The steering will need to be addressed the same way whichever way you choose to go.
So, if you figure in the cost of the kit,gears,carriers, and the fabrication time it makes much more sense to buy axles that already have the gears and the perchs where they belong and sell your old axles to recoup your cost. the rear can be lifted with the rear perch kits (which even I admit are good units) for ease and to save junkyard scrounging time, or maybe with the junkyard mounts if you want to save money and have time to do it that way.
The benefit of using other axles is they are wider so they keep the center of gravity down and turn alot sharper than you could with narrowtrack axles with bigger tires on them, you dont have to take a chance with your life on the welded front end, or deal with possible axle seal leaks if you get the seals too hot while welding the perches on.
Dennis

[lasinvegas]

I agree with the guy above.
pre 80 - chevy axle for the front
80+ - ford high pinion 44 up front.
and the tadsal kit out back

I did my first soa on a chevy 10 bolt front and a 12 bolt rear that I snagged for free. Pretty cheap way to go.

[ArmyGreenSexyBeast]

hmmm, interesting. so I find a pre 80 chevy front axle and I swap it for mine? I can still use my springs and brake lines and such? but use everything else from the axle? what about the drive shaft? and for the rear? what do I use for that?

[Stuka]

hmmm, interesting. so I find a pre 80 chevy front axle and I swap it for mine? I can still use my springs and brake lines and such? but use everything else from the axle? what about the drive shaft? and for the rear? what do I use for that?
Doesnt have to be pre-80. It can be 87 or older. 78 and older used a D44 front. 79+ used a 10 bolt front, which is just as strong as a front D44. It will even match your 6 lug patern.

EDIT: Springs bolt right up. The brake lines will be the same with your 77, 73 will be different. But yes, whole axle housing, complete knuckle to knuckle. Drive shaft should not need to be changed. For the rear, you can use the rear axle from the GM truck. But, the 1/2 ton rear axles (10B/12B) suck because they use c-clips. In which case, try to find a 3/4 ton if you can. Then you get a 14B rear, and an HD44 front.

[jeeping1974]

I'm going to be getting a set of HS D44 knuckles from a friend to do the HS conversion. Only thing costing me some money is the DOM tubing, the 1 tom TREs, and the flip kit. See if you can find a local wheeling forum and see if anybody has anything that you can get that you need. you'ld be surprised how much cheaper it will make your project and you might be able to get someone/people to help you out and make some friends.

[Boebr1]

The only thing I don't see mentioned is mods to steering system to connect the Jeep to the Chevy axle. This thread is interesting to me, sounds great, but I have a '72 waggy. I know there are some differences due to the fact that lift kits are different for these older ones. How much of the "bolt-in" you mentioned will work on mine? Oh, when I got it, someone had welded spring perchs on and did an axle flop, they rotated the axle forward to keep the driveshaft intact. this made for a terifying ride above about 20mph... couldn't keep it in one lane, and needed to recover the seat after the pucker factor (jk), I flopped the axle back under, and one of the welded on perchs fell off as i was putting the u-bolts back on. drives safe now, but sure sits low. also, they modified the steering arm by cutting it, then stacking the parts and welding them back together, thankfully it looks done well and hasn't come apart on me, so, does anyone make an extended steering arm for this jeep?

[lasinvegas]

I was giving the years based on the jeep not the donor axle. pre 80 wags had passenger side drops and the post 80 stuff went to driverside drop. Advantage of the driver side stuff is the Ford HP front 44 with the SOA means less driveshaft angle.

For the old stuff look up tadsal and click on his link to his build. If I remember correctly it is a post mount jeep. His buildup thread has no useful info for me because of the year of my jeep, but I read the whole thing the other night....

[Tad]

The only thing I don't see mentioned is mods to steering system to connect the Jeep to the Chevy axle... GM axle really does not matter except you get the drivers side knuckle already done (as in milled, tapped and if lucky has decent studs left in it).
All the info in the link below applies, be it a FSJ D44, GM D44 or GM 10-Bolt front axle.
http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=58435

...but I have a '72 waggy. I know there are some differences due to the fact that lift kits are different for these older ones. How much of the "bolt-in" you mentioned will work on mine?... Virtualy none will apply to your front D30 or your rear post mount suspension

...so, does anyone make an extended steering arm for this jeep?
You will need to clarify?
Drop pitman arm or other steering component?

I left parts of your quote out since I really could not see what they had to do with your questions.
I've only seen 2-3 good SOA conversions for closed knuckle post mount rigs done. One was Tuck (a member here), I don't recall the other two.
Eventually, all those went to an open knuckle setup.
Be it WT, NT, GM axles, etc, we did the change based on the availability of parts available for such conversion that are not readily available for the closed knuckle folks.
My build is in my signature, the "It's Time" one.
Nothing special, don't take it as gospel, just something that happened along the way.

[Casey]

My SOA cost, less the TT's kit and shocks, is in the steering thread.

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=58435

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/rcasey/FSJ/highsteerdone.jpg

All told to get it like this it cost around $1000. Mud not included. :)


A GM front axle (passenger drop) will bolt right up. You then only need to do the mill work on the passenger side knuckle, get a pair of arms, some studs/washers for the pass side and get the tierod/draglink modified to fit. Or get new stuff. That can easily knock a couple of hundred dollars off the cost of SOA with high steer, depending on how much you pay for the GM axle. Usually a come-n-get-it part. Last GM D44 I found was $75. I gave away the last 10 bolt I had.

:rolleyes: Before scrap went to $10-12 a hundred!!!

My "new" SOA was far easier, but waaaay more expensive. I used a DRW Chevy front 60. It bolted right in. I got a pair of arms made by the local shop that did the rest of the axle work. I'm building new tierod/draglink out of DOM tubing and 1 ton TREs.
The reason for the cost? I paid good money for the axle. Around here there are a half dozen shops and at least 10 rock crawling competitors. Everyone knows what a front 60 is worth. Now they're like hens teeth to find, too.
After regearing, locker and high steer arms, I have more in my front axle than I had in the entire Jeep after the first round. Add the rear axle and I could have bought another Chief...A NICE ONE. Ah well...it's going to be worth it. At least that's what I keep telling myself. :banghead:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v189/rcasey/Two%20Dogs/100_4918.jpg

[ArmyGreenSexyBeast]

wow, thank you everyone....looks like i got a lot to think about :D

[JeepNOFEAR]

I have just at $1000. HD44 up front with highsteer and welded 14 bolt in back with disc brakes and ebrake. Shackle flip and perches also.

None of this is installed yet since my blue jeep is currently under the knife.

[ArmyGreenSexyBeast]

I know this is heading a different direction than most people were talking about, but I found a guy who will practically give me the drive shafts and axles out of a 1976 Cherokee. I know they are wide track which would be better, but if it were your rigs would you still go out and look for chevy or dodge axles?

[misfittom138]

I know this is heading a different direction than most people were talking about, but I found a guy who will practically give me the drive shafts and axles out of a 1976 Cherokee. I know they are wide track which would be better, but if it were your rigs would you still go out and look for chevy or dodge axles?

I would wheel what I have until I really started breaking things. Then I would slowly start gathering stuff. But I am on kind of a tight budget. I know my driving style and no how far to push things most of the time. :D Depend how big a tire you wanna go and how hard on driveline you are. If it was me and I had the WT axles, I'd go for it. Run 35s or lightweight 36s with lockers and call it good.

[Headhoncho]

I know this is heading a different direction than most people were talking about, but I found a guy who will practically give me the drive shafts and axles out of a 1976 Cherokee. I know they are wide track which would be better, but if it were your rigs would you still go out and look for chevy or dodge axles?

Yes. If you don't have the time and tools to fabricate then just get something that bolts up factory like. Plus, you can run what you have till all your parts are together and then do the swap without much downtime. If you plan to stay 6 lug (assuming you are already) just get a 1/2 ton chevy front axle. If your going eight lug, Get 3/4 ton chevy axles from the same donor. I swapped in a ford d44 from a f250 and it worked great. Converted to crossover steering and I'm good to go.

Axle...$275
m715 drag link....$50
homemade crossover steering arm......$case of beer$
u-bolts.....$30
There are alot of other expenses like gears, calipers/brakes, hoses, driveshafts that have to be taken into account too when balancing out using what you already have over something new.


JR

[Blake]

I used to have a post that described exactly what it takes to do SOA on a waggy In short, you can do a pretty good job for like 400 bucks. When I bring the new site up, I'll repost it.

[ArmyGreenSexyBeast]

I used to have a post that described exactly what it takes to do SOA on a waggy In short, you can do a pretty good job for like 400 bucks. When I bring the new site up, I'll repost it.

that would be awesome

[phatmax95]

Whatever figure you come up with, multiply it by 2. That will be a truer cost.

[ArmyGreenSexyBeast]

hmmm, new thought. what about the axles from my 73 J-2500 or something similar? I was thinking about parting it out, this might be the motivation i need. haha. I know they are wt and have the perches on the top, the only sucky thing I can think of is that they are drum brakes in the front, but can anything be done about that?

[Tad]

I'm sure they can be converted to disc, KaiserMan (sp?) has done this, I think will all GM outer stuff. Down sides would be the perches are in the wrong place (post mount truck fronts are out wider) and it's closed knuckle. I'm not knocking the closed knuckle stuff, some folks here have gotten some real fine use out of them.
Just seems like a decent amount of work and $$, same amount could probably come close to buying 3/4ton GM axles.