1999 SAS Dana44 ARB 4Runner Build

[Mountain Fun]

I'm a little confused. Why are you spending money on a lift and front diff when your doing a SAS up front ? Sick build bro!! Looking forward. Liking how the progress is going fast

( it amazes me that people don't reply to this thread. If it was about a TRD STICKER it would be pages long lol)

Initially I didn't plan on doing an SAS. I was just going to do the 5" lift with 35" tires and keep it somewhat tame. But after tearing through 3 CV boots up front and a reoccurring from diff leak that would splatter everywhere I got frustrated to the point where I said screw it and decided to SAS. I'm so glad I did it. The truck is my dream truck. The build is completely done now, I'm just trying to find the time to write the entire build. I just want it to help people if they decide to SAS so they don't make some of the mistakes that I made.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Starting the SAS 1999 4Runner with a Waggy 44

I decided to go with the Sky Manufacturing SAS kit (unfortunately it's no longer available as a kit but most of the parts are still available just sold individually). It was an awesome kit, high quality brackets and parts. It's supposed to be a 7" lift kit but I think it came out closer to 9". Came out a little taller than I wanted but I'm still very happy with it. Only problem is no instruction so you spend a lot of time mock fitting and measuring with a tape measure. The crawler springs is came ride very well and provide insane axle articulation (pictures to come later in build).

I just wanted to add that the guys at Sky Manufacturing were awesome. They answered my questions for my about the kit, my brakes, and other concerns I had. There products are bad ass and custom built. Here is the link to their page if you wanted to see their products:
Sky's Off Road Design – Sky's Offroad Design

 

[Mountain Fun]

My first potentially big mistake! I measured the Cherokee Chief Dana44 as 60" WMS (wheel mount surface) but I was measuring from rotor to rotor, not WMS to WMS. The Chief Dana is about 3" wider than the Wagoneer Dana. Not only would the front axle be 3" wider than the rear but none of my high steer parts would fit this axle. This could have been a huge problem but luckily a good buddy of mine had a Wagoneer Dana44 axle that had been sitting for like 20 years that he sold me for $150. It took about a days work to swap everything over and brake down and reassemble the axle shafts but it all worked out in the end. I have to thank Josh for helping me out of this one.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Addicted Offroad front and rear bumpers

I decided with the built to get rid of the crappy cosmetic factory bumpers for some real trail armor. I decided to go with Addicted Offroad's tube bumpers and rock sliders. They are bad ass, super strong, and an incredible value for the money. Only negative is be prepared to wait 2 to 3 months once you order them. Mine took 3 months to get. The reason this was big pain is that I needed the front bumpers crossmember mount to start my build. I was going to weld it to my frame and then weld my spring hangers to that. Still worth the wait though.

I had them powder coated satin black.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Well it was time to start the build. I had taken several welding classes in preparation but was starting to get nervous about taking this on in my small one car garage. I went to a couple of local shops and got quotes from them on the install which ranged from 20 to 40 hours at shop rate, basically $3000 to $4000. It was important to me that I did the build myself so I was bracing myself to do it in my garage when my buddy Josh volunteered to help and said we could use his garage. This was huge because not only had Josh already SAS his Tacoma but his garage had a full lift, every tool you can imagine, and a killer 220v miller welder. It took the two of us about a combined 50 hours to complete the build. I can't thank him enough for all his help and knowledge.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Pulled the truck into the garage, when it backs out of this garage it will be SAS and leaf springs front and rear.

We attacked the front end first cutting out all the factory bracketry and grinding it down to a smooth frame.

Crossmember was mocked into place for welding it in.

 

[kolelt]

Deffinatley JELOUS. Badass truck sir. And definitely a lot of $$$$$$

I believe there is a member on here who is owner of SLAG FACTORY who did a sick job on SAS conversion.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Drivers side done and frame brace welded in.

Addicted Offroad's bumper crossmember getting ready to be welded in place.

Front axle completely assembled and sanded smooth ready for install.

 

[MN4runnerman]

I haven't heard of sky manufacturing before I'm glad I have now, just looked at their site and might be ordering stuff for future projects.

 

[Mountain Fun]

The oil pan had to be switched over to a rear sump to make room for the high crossover steering.

**I forgot initially to mention a very important potential problem. The dipstick! I was lucky enough that the 1999 4runner had a plug in the block that can be knocked out to install the rear sump dipstick tube. Later model do require drilling out the block (at an angle from the bottom) for the dipstick tube. This is why Trail Gear just has you cut the dipstick down and add an extra quart of oil. I did this on my front original dip stick and left it where it was but I did install the rear sump dipstick also. The second problem I ran into is that my motor mount didn't have the hole for the tube (some models do, my friends Tacoma had the hole in the motor mount) but we had to pull off the motor mount and drill a large hole in it for the dipstick to go through. Not a huge problem but did take a couple of hours to complete.

I don't have any pictures of this but the drivers motor mount had to be removed and drilled out to make room for the new dipstick. There was also a plug that was knocked out of the bottom of the motor for the dipstick tube.

This was by far the scariest part of the install. Huge pieces had to be cut out of the frame behind the motor to make room for the frenched shackles. If we screwed up here it would be very hard to repair. I'm sure Sky Manufacturing has a jig they use when they are SASing trucks but we didn't have anything like that. To make it even more complicated the frame is angled in here so you are cutting this piece out at an angle.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Rear shackles welded in place while the front hangers is clamped in place. The front hanger is moved forward or back to get the shackle angle correct. You want the shackle angle to be close to straight up and down at install with the weight of the truck on the springs. This is because the springs will settle and when they do you are hoping for a shackle angle of 40 to 45 degrees for the best ride quality. The front hanger is the only thing that can be moved to achieve this so don't weld it in till last.

Test fitting to get shackle angle right.

Once the correct shackle angle is achieved the front hanger is welded in place.

 

[Mountain Fun]

The shock hoops were mocked then welded in place and shocks installed.

Steering box installed. We went with the straight up factory style location. Just be careful to make sure you have clearance of the radiator. If you angle it, it will need to be moved forward. You will need to cut away the radiator shroud and part of the fender to make room. We did have to remove the radiator during install.

I almost forgot to mention this but you will also need a new power steering line kit to reach the new steering box. Trail Gear has a nice kit that is already measured and cut and ready to go.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Most of the SAS kits move the front axle forward to help with approach angle. I wasn't really a big fan of this look so we decided to move it back one inch. The Sky Manufacturing axle perches are triple drilled so you can move the axle forward or back an inch. We just drilled the Ubolt plate and moved it back.

This is the before.

This is the after moving it back one inch.

Hey look, the front of the truck is done.

Time to strip the rear axle of all the brackets and coil perch it doesn't need anymore.

 

[lhsoulrebel]

Fantastic!! Really looking forward to the rest of the build!

 

[Rockdawg84]

Looking Good :guitar3::guitar3:

 

[Mountain Fun]

Our second big oops! When cutting away the old brackets for the rear leafs the cutoff wheel jumped and sliced into the gas tank. Definitely pull the gas tank when doing this, it only took us about 10 minutes to pull the tank. This could have been really bad if the gas spraying out had ignited.

If you have the tank pulled out go ahead and replace the fuel pump if you haven't done it before. 4 months later my fuel pump went out and I had to pull the tank again. The Toyota Stealership quoted me $1200 to do the repair...no thank you, I will do it myself.

Springs hung and rear almost done.

 

[Mountain Fun]

The rear 56" springs are hung. Trying to get the shackle angle correct is a challenge. It was also difficult to weld in the rear shackle hangers because then ended up being right over where the old tow hooks mounts were on the frame. The metal here was thin and had a little rust on it so the weld kept burning through the frame.

The shock hoop was welded in and shocks mounted.

Woo hoo!!! Look what is back on 4 wheels. The springs should settle an inch or so in the next month. I did have to install wheel spacers on the front because the tie rod was slightly rubbing on the tire. Since the truck came out taller than I had planned I eventually installed 1.5" spacers on the front and 1.25 spacers on the rear to give the truck a little more width.

The shackle angle may look wrong but they are the correct angle for a new install. It's been about a year now since the build and the springs have settled and the shackles sit at about a 40 degree angle.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Testing out the axle articulation. I couldn't be happier with how well the suspension flexes.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Time to mount the bumpers. The front was obviously pretty easy, just six bolts and ready to go. I knew the rear was gong to take some modification. It is designed to slide on around frame. The problem is that the rear shackle hangers keep the bumper from sliding on.

If you remember earlier I mentioned that we weren't really happy with how the rear shackles welded to a thin part of the frame. I was worried that on the trail the shackle might rip loose from the frame leading to a catastrophic failure. Since the bumper frame was thick steel we decided to cut the rear shackle mounts back off, slide on the bumper, weld it completely to the frame, and then weld the shackle mounts to the bumper frame. This not only boxed the rear part of the frame but there is no way that rear shackle will rip loose now. It's very solid.

 

[Mountain Fun]

Bumpers are on and truck is ready to drive home. Here it is pictures next to my buddy Josh's bad ass SAS Tacoma. I can't thank my friend Josh enough for all his help, expertise, and the use of his garage and lift. This was a very complex build and tackling it with two guys made it a lot less stressful.

Learned another important lesson. My house is about an hour drive from my friend Josh's house down the interstate. Well, by the time I got home there was a nasty burning smell in the truck. Since the factory exhaust pipe from the muffler back wouldn't fit back on the exhaust was blowing right up into the bottom of the truck burning and melting the carpet liner in the back of the truck. I should have cut the tail pipe into a downward elbow. Lesson learned.