Okay, so EVERYTHING involved w/ the SAS and doubler is DONE!! We finished up last thursday night about 12:30 am, and I drove it to Gilmer on Friday.
Problems we ran into that may be of note to someone else doing something similar (*cough*, JAMES, *cough*):
Had to cut the inner fenders to fit the shock hoops. Poor little fenderwells. Oh well.
T-G diff protection does not fit right. I ordered the small "bone" style diff guard because I don't want the huge all pro style. Well, that little piece of crap didn't fit anywhere close to right from the get-go. We pounded on it, reshaped it, and eventually ended up leaving it on the shop floor in a pile of discarded bolts and nuts.
When installing the FROR rotated cross member, it was necessary to clearance the skidplate for the CV joint on the front output. It was also necessary to convert (on my '94 anyway) the speedo gear info-receiver-thing to electric signal where it used to be mechanical on my old tcase, as well as extend the wires for the speedo gear info-receiver-thing. To accomplish this, I had to remove the speedo gear and shaft from the mechanical unit and swap it into the electric unit. You have to remove a c-clip from the electric unit and leave it out to accomplish this, but it's okay since the mechanical unit has a protrusion on one end to keep the gear in place. Also, you have to clearance the back of the crossmember to be able to fit in the bulkier electric unit. The extension was just a matter of splicing in about 6" of extra wire. It all works perfectly.
Also, when putting in the crossmember behind the doubler, you HAVE TO cut out the torsion bar mounts completely, as this is exactly where the doubler ends and the crossmember sits. This sucks, but a plasma and an air hammer make (kinda) quick work of it. Just be careful of the fuel lines.
Anyway, the only thing that's not operational right now is the 4wheel drive. when we drooped the front suspension to set the shock hoops in place, we found that the spline length of the driveshaft had not bee properly set when the dshaft shop retubed it. Basically, when the suspension drooped, I suddenly had two halves of a front driveshaft, since that * came completely apart. Well, needless to say, I'm now waiting on a long spline kit from all pro. Should be here tomorrow or the next day.
I drove it all the way to gilmer on its maiden voyage and it performed wonderfully. a slight pull to the right is all that i noticed. the MTRs are quiet as can be at highway speed, and no vibes, bumps, or jerks in the vehicle. *, w/ the 5.29s, i got 17.5 mpg for the weekend. Oh, and I did test out the low-low setting. OMG, that *er CRAAAAAAWWWWLS!! pushing 3500 RPMs, it moves at a very slow walking speed. very impressive.
Sometime this week, we're going to get back in the shop and trim the fenders up and maybe (probably not, though) bob the bed. I'll post up some pics soon, but it pretty much looks like the ones in the post at the end of page one.
Anyone doing an SAS project soon is more than welcome to the knowledge i got while doing this. I'll gladly drink your bud light and point at stuff while you get covered in metal shavings and burn your arms/legs/head w/ plasma cutter spatter cutting in those tight spots.
