Squeaky SAS thread

[IISPEEDYII]

I want a kit. hahah Id be first in line to buy one.

 

[High Five H2]

i thought thor parts was going to make a kit? I read a thread on it a while back.

 

[06 H3]

Thanks guys! Its more blazer then anything, still not a jeep :woot: only jeep thing on there is coil springs and its MUCH quieter inside.

Dave bring it on down, I have may have some free time, I gotta fix that. :thumbs:

4speedfunk can probably make a complete axle but there is still more to do. I will let him do the talking seeing hes the guy at THORparts.

 

[4speedfunk]

i thought thor parts was going to make a kit? I read a thread on it a while back.

Ssshhhh. PM if you want one.

 

[06 H3]

now that im back in CA and finals are almost over squeaky will be getting some attention. It doesnt really need much but the little things. Made my skid plate to work with the new crossmember. It will protect the t-case. Next is one for the oil pan and trans pan. For the t case skid I just need to drill some holes and bolt it up, other then that its painted and fabbed up.

2nd I need got an adapter for my driveshaft. This is a big thing marked off the list, the aftermarket driveshafts for the H3 use a very old style cardan. As I went to driveshaft shop to driveshaft shop when they saw it and they all said the same thing. The cardan design we have on our shafts are the most outdated clunky mother ****ers around. These flanges were made by some chinese company to adapt to a mid 80s driveline from a chevy. So all the driveline shops would make them with this cardan because that was the only thing available. Some got around this by redrilling the t case flange or getting a custom t case flange I didnt want any of that. I wanted an adapter so if I had to throw in a new t case I just swap the adapter piece onto the stock H3 t case flange. To boot, these old drivelines were on trucks with unlocking hubs, they never saw freeway speed. Now some of us dont have driveline vibrations, some of us do. I was....so searching for options I couldnt find a single one I liked, either they cost a **** ton of money, tons of down time because they wanted my tcase on the table while they made the drivelines, custom flanges, etc. So I spoke to 4speedfunk and settled on an adapter, its the most cost effective way and now the driveline uses common jeep stuff.

I have a spare t case, I could of taken the flange off and brought it to a machine shop, there are a ton of machine shops by me but I have walked into them before and literally get told to get outta there. They are all on huge contracts that make them millions of dollars and I just want an adapter. So CJ spoke to tatton driveline they are on ebay. They have the best prices around while still having quality drivelines, spicer u joints, DOM tubing, etc. They picked out a driveline. Shipped it to CJ he took that driveline and the t case flange off of his old t case and told his machine guys to make an adapter. The driveline is off of a jeep, they dont have locking hubs so they will be spinning all the time at freeway speeds like us so it should work out nice. That is in the mail, Im gonna test it out and then we have a good driveshaft alternative for IFS or SAS guys.

The old driveline could be made to work, CJ has no issues with his now but they can be a PITA so I think this will be a better option.

Lastly, I have a thor parts builder bumper coming my way. I needed to route my PS lines under the bumper, my bumper is so thrashed that the bumper is pressed up against the framerails, there is no room to run my lines, right now there hanging a little bit low. So I will get the builder bumper, a cheaper alternative to the full thor bumper and see if I can keep the plastic while mounting a winch under it. I have a few ideas....Then I can run my PS lines and trans cooler lines nicely behind the bumper.

I will get pics of my stock bumper, its beyond beat. It has lasted me over 6 years of wheeling and has the scars to show for it.

Other then that I have over 5k miles racked up. Tested it in mild rocks, good hillclimbs and mud it kicks ass so far, next it tougher rocks and eventually high speed. I think for higher speed my shocks are too soft and should be valved with more compression in them. My brothers JK king shocks have more compression then mine and I am heavier. Revalving them would help on and off road.

 

[4speedfunk]

Good time to grab some wrenches and tighten everything up. Things to check:

1. Track Bar bolts!
2. Coil spring capture plates!
3. Link bolts!
4. All of the jamb-nuts on the links, track-bar, tie-rod, and drag-link!
5. Shock bolts!
6. Take your lock-outs off and re-torque the hub bearings...40 ft-lbs preload (inner) and 130 ft-lbs lock nut (outer).
7. Lube ball joints and pivot points.
8. Steering box mounting bolts.
9. Steering input shaft clamp bolt.

I checked mine after 5000 miles, and I was amazed that the whole thing was loose as hell! An hour under my truck tightened up the road feel and got rid of a bunch of clunkin and poppin.

 

[06 H3]

Will do.

One other little thing I did was swap out my diff vent. My axle didn't come with one and I couldn't find one anywhere so I went to Home Depot when I first finished my SAS to put in a brass fitting they didn't have the size I needed so I had to grind down a bigger size to make it fit. It did the job but wasn't ideal. Went back today they had the 1/8th in fitting I needed put it in fits tight put some sealant on the outer edge of the fitting now I can submerge it with no worries. Little crap like that adds up but I wanted it done right.

 

[06 H3]

Well one more update. Almost 3k on the tires and 6k on the SAS. Loving the tires and SAS so far. I did not post this run up as I have slowly built up the difficulty on my vehicle to test it before going out or leading a run. I went to big bear and ran gold mtn in the snow and Holcomb creek. I wanted to hit John Bull but they closed the close entrances leaving 2 ways to get to JB by the dump or rim of the world. The entry ways through mid big bear are closed through the winter. It made JB too far to get to seeing we had 2 more hours of daylight

There was a ton of snow! Much more then when we ran gold mtn in early 2014.

On the back side it was over a foot....there were many spots that my brother (JK on 37s) my friend (TJ on 35s) and I on 37s had lockers on and all 4 tires turning and literally spinning our way through the trail. It was awesome!

After that we hit up north shore cafe for a late lunch. After that we wasted hours trying to get to JB and hitting many closed gates. We called up ALL J products, the local jeep shop, who told us that the dump or rim of the world are the only ways in. Loosing daylight we hit up Holcomb creek. We got to the first obstacle and my brothers girlfriend was scared. She wheeled all day and seeing it was getting dark out, in the snow and her first time out and seeing off camber hill climbs we followed them back to the main road helped them air up they left and my buddy and I went back to Holcomb around 8. It was gnarly to say the least. A ton of off camber climbs off the side of a hill. With the snow it could get scary quick if you slid. Then we hit the big rock garden at the end of the trail...I hit the biggest rocks smacking tie rods, control arms, diff covers, and axle tubes. Beat the snot out of it and it all held up well. Even felt the same driving home as it did going to big bear....that's never happened to me before. Normally it's outta whack.

I'll get pics up soon. It was a good day and my confidence in squeaky went up drastically after driving in the snow to the trail beating it up and driving home with no issues.

 

[06 H3]

I also made my new t case skid. I must say, after doing all this work I now know how recon felt wheeling without skids when he posted his concerns years ago before he had em. Even without my trans and oil pan skid I get worried but atleast those sit up high. Gonna make those soon.

 

[Panzer07]

"Argh, you Dick no invite ?!"


Torres

 

[derian06]

I also made my new t case skid. I must say, after doing all this work I now know how recon felt wheeling without skids when he posted his concerns years ago before he had em. Even without my trans and oil pan skid I get worried but atleast those sit up high. Gonna make those soon.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

 

[06 H3]

Sorry Torres lol it was last minute we literally decided the night before to go to big bear.

 

[owlxxx]

sounds awesome. So what I gather from all this, instead of spending 3K on a rancho and spring over, I should just get down and dirty and go SAS? I was a metal fabricator for 8 years, so cutting and welding are no issue for me. I'm gonna start gathering parts Cause this seems to be the way to go considering that everyone that has done it, loves it.

 

[High Five H2]

sounds awesome. So what I gather from all this, instead of spending 3K on a rancho and spring over, I should just get down and dirty and go SAS? I was a metal fabricator for 8 years, so cutting and welding are no issue for me. I'm gonna start gathering parts Cause this seems to be the way to go considering that everyone that has done it, loves it.

do it!

 

[4speedfunk]

Anxious to see the oil pan / tranny skid. I laid under my SASH3 and stared up at it for hours...waiting for a light bulb to come on. I got nuthin.

 

[06 H3]

sounds awesome. So what I gather from all this, instead of spending 3K on a rancho and spring over, I should just get down and dirty and go SAS? I was a metal fabricator for 8 years, so cutting and welding are no issue for me. I'm gonna start gathering parts Cause this seems to be the way to go considering that everyone that has done it, loves it.

I think it would depend. I still stand by the rancho/spring over combo. It does surprisingly well. Its limitation is the AAM-7. If you can live with 35s for the rest of your life and the fact that you need a bolt in ready to go AAM-7 sitting in the garage waiting if you wanna wheel the piss out of your truck then I would say go rancho. As a dual purpose vehicle the SAS and rancho are great setups. I was always pushing the envelope with my hummer. If I got through obstacle A and B was tougher then I would wanna hit up B, when I was able to improve my driving skill or vehicle to make B look easy then I would wanna hit up Obstacle C which made B look like like a dirt road. I always wanted tougher obstacles.

Also to my surprise, I have heard no negative comments, except one, on social media.In the end who cares, its me whos gotta be happy not them. (ill get to my point in a second) Since the SAS my follower count has doubled on instagram and all the people have had awesome things. One dude said shoulda bought a jeep. I call bull. A SAS H3 and a jeep are two completely different animals even though they mimic similar suspensions up front. Thats like saying a mercedes sedan and a camry are the same because they are both running independent suspension. In the world of suspension there is so much tuning that just because we both have Solid axles up front mine handles and steers way different then a jeep. Its still H3-like (but better IMO) and still comfortable. The jeep comment also holds no value when comparing the interior comfort. I can go on but I think the point is clear. I would still take a SAS H3 over a JK anyday. Especially because my brother is starting to weed out the weaker parts. I start with all beefy crap because I know the abuse it needs to take. The Jeeps start with flimsy tie rods, drag links, control arms. So price wise your paying for all of it at once vs slowly adding beefy parts.

So with all that said, its still a comfortable DD and I dont bitch about it being a DD I actually enjoy it. I am a perfectionist about certain things. My buddy calls it "selective perfectionism" lol. To me ride quality I am a perfectionist on. I have gone through 3 sets of coil springs so far. Most jeep guys call it good after the first set, the 3rd one I liked the best. Now to me my shocks are too soft on compression. I have had people tell me, who cares. To me I know revalving a shock will make the world of a difference. If it didnt, people wouldn't spend thousands of dollars on a shock tuner to go out wheeling to have them feel the ride and perfect it. I called up bilstein directly, they recommended mirage motorsports. I called them up so I can get some shim stacks for my bilstein 7100s. I told them my symptoms, on road its fine but off road when coming off a ledge it will bounce almost like there is no shock there. I figured compression is too low, especially seeing I remember my brothers kings have more compression then I have and hes lighter then me, and rebound may be a tad high, but might be ok. After speaking with them, they said compressions gotta go way up, rebound down a tad. They said they will call me back with a recommended shim stack. I will revalve them myself following this video.

[video=youtube;IGCmAzSZz_k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGCmAzSZz_k[/video]

Either way, the SAS is worth it for what I do. The only thing is that you have to be willing to tune it. CJ is running bronco coils and JK shocks and he loves it. For me I tried some bilsteins and ZJ coil springs and am tuning it now. So you can make it easy and run what he runs or what I run but ride quality is subjective. Stiff is good to one and not good to another and so is too soft and everything in between. I will gladly share my results when i revalve.

Overall the SAS is a great option, just requires some work and if you want to you have to be willing to "fine tune" depending on what your looking for. The rancho is great too, just depends on what your looking for.

 

[ReconH3]

Anxious to see the oil pan / tranny skid. I laid under my SASH3 and stared up at it for hours...waiting for a light bulb to come on. I got nuthin.

Take a look at mine. Very simple and very effective. Keeps everything nice and cool as well as protected.


"Ex Umbris Venimus"

 

[06 H3]

Anxious to see the oil pan / tranny skid. I laid under my SASH3 and stared up at it for hours...waiting for a light bulb to come on. I got nuthin.

I have one idea, its gonna be a tight fit, it may or may not work but when my buddy installed his clayton oil pan, trans, and t case flat belly skid it all made sense on how to get some strength on the front end of the skid by the oil pan. I gotta install a few other things first :thumbs:

I also have recons skid pictures saved to my desktop. lol

 

[06 H3]

as for pics...





BTW, the Trxus MT's kick ass in the snow









Depending on where you were, snow drifts had snow up to my knees (im 6'5") but other parts had minimal amounts, the backside had over a foot the whole way. the front side would vary from a lot to a little.

For the so cal guys, you know how many rocks are in here, only the big ones are showing










Lunch with a view



Night snow wheeling is fun.



I will get the pics from my brother and buddy and the video too.

 

[3Hummers]

The rock garden in snow would be interesting.

 

[Big2dabank]

Very cool, those sidewall lugz on the Trxus are crazy big for a hybrid M/T and are probably a huge benefit in the deeper snow.

 

[Panzer07]

:thumbs: good scheiße !...that rock garden would surprise someone who has never been to it before in the summer.
Can't wait to get up there on this Sunday and tackle JB...seeing your pics I'm confident there gonna be some snow left.


Torres

 

[06 H3]

There should be snow. JB will be tough that's for sure especially with no lockers

 

[Panzer07]

There should be snow. JB will be tough that's for sure especially with no lockers

I'm counting on that. Lol luckily some of the guys I'm going with have lockers...so I should be fine...getting a strap here and there, im fine with that. Just gonna take some spare parts for sure .


Torres

 

[Zach]

:thumbs: good scheiße !...that rock garden would surprise someone who has never been to it before in the summer.
Can't wait to get up there on this Sunday and tackle JB...seeing your pics I'm confident there gonna be some snow left.


Torres

I would seriously reconsider going. Last time on JB I was towed like a dinghy and that was dry. I'm locked front and rear and can crawl, lower gearing plus tcase.
JB is a hard ass trail for Hummers, we have learned that.
Not being licked and no 4.10, I think you are going to have some serious issues. First time when it was dry, we tugged a 3 most of the day. It wasn't lifted, but same as you. Talk to Craig about JB