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Done with IFS - my turn for SAS

87K views 244 replies 40 participants last post by  lorenzo816 
#1 ·
So many of you know I've been wheelin just fine with the 34's and drop diff and OME springs and the aussie locker.
Been wheeling with a lot of people on this board and learned a lot. Glad to be here really.
I've also been pushing it pretty hard for about 7 years now. Well now its time for a change. The whole front-end just pisses me off every time I have to work on it.

So I've been collecting parts here and there and just in the past few months its been getting serious.
Over time I managed to get everything I need now for the swap except tires.
Gonna post up here first and hold off on putting anything up on NC4x4 until I have some more work done.

So here is a good shot of my truck as it sits now:


Here is what I currently run:
3" suspension - longer shackles and Torsion bar crank with Inde4x ball joint spacers and flip
OME Dakar HD springs
1" body lift
drop-diff (1.25")
4.56 gears (10 bolt front swap from trooper and regear the rear to match)
Aussie locker in the rear
34" LTBs (sold) on 15x7 snowflakes (sold)
Trail Gear (for toyota) rock sliders
2" gas tank lift
Aisin manual hubs
Moog ball joints.....

Here is the plan:
???" suspension lift
3 link on a Dana 44 (64" wms) with 4.56 gears and an OX locker
Highsteer on flat top knuckles (already got 'em)
12" Fox coilovers up front
SOA the rear end (keeping the aussie in there)
1" or 1.5" inch spacers on rear (to bring the rear wms to 62" or 63")
Trackbar on the rear
37" 12.50 on 17's (thinking MTRs or STTs or KM2s)
Warn premium manual hubs
Cromoly axle shafts
Revo gear - T-Case (3:1)

Pics as time goes on... here are a few teasers.
And if the truck blows up or takes a crap... I'm cutting it all off and moving on. No love loss - I just love the fact we have room for 4 adults and can wheel comfortably and the wheelbase is badass compared to a jeep. Also love the body on frame, cast iron front diff, good stock gearing... Isuzu did it right. SO yeah, this is a good truck to start a build on. No sense in moving on yet.
;-)

Flat Top knuckle with High steer

OX locker

Full width 44 (donor) and the J10 Axle

Nissan 17x8 rims
 
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#227 ·
Looking good! I would definitely bring those calipers in closer to the hub if you're going to be redrilling the bracket anyway. That picture makes it look like you've lost half the braking surface with how far they sit out and with how heavy those tires are I'd want every bit of surface contact between pad and rotor I could get.
 
#228 ·
Well just so happens that I got them back today from my machinist up the road. I called Barnes and a few others but none would make me a one-off set.
so he was able to weld and drill and tap the holes 3/8” further in. Welding them makes harder to drill and tap but he got ‘em done.

so far they look like they line up great.
this is a test fit before cleaning everything up, paint, grease what not.
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#230 ·
My plan after I clean those up, paint and reinstall fresh is to run galvanized brake line to the flexible braided line to the banjos. Then measure for parking brake cables and hope to buy something off the shelf.
I still need to figure out if I can run my shocks where they are - OR much better would be to move them outboard now that i have a little more width.
I'll find out how much room I have when I put my tires back on. Would be sooo much better to run shocks 5-10° and outside leaf pack than inside like they are now.
I can move the brackets down below centerline and not risk getting hung up since they're closer to the tire. Plus the truck will flex and just ride so much better.

So about the driveshaft, I had to make a new one. There were no parts I had at home to reuse to cobble something together. 😩 Cost a coin but hopefully that's the last big expense on this immediate project. Olivers up in winston made it and I picked it up last week.
The machinist has the new shaft and the isuzu transfer case output to melt them together. JK. :LOL:
He's going to work up a centering puck that will add to the isuzu flange so we can bolt to the double cardan head. Need everything to be centered or else bad vibes and destruction ensues.
Bicycle part Gear Engineering Auto part Machine
 
#231 ·
Today was a long day. It was one of those keep working until she looks at you funny, days. 😆

I got the brackets primed, painted and installed.
Hubs greased, calipers bolted, hub nut set and then it was time to grind the flange so the wheel would fit over onto the hub. It’s a tiny difference but you have to do it to fit the 6x5.5 over.
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here is a before and below is an after. You can see you have to switch to Allen instead of standard hex.
I’ll put some loctite on them eventually.
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I cut down the studs to fit the larger acorn bulge nuts. These are 14x1.5 and 21mm whereas isuzu stuff and most Toyota what not is 12x1.5mm and 19mm.
Before I started all this I made sure I could get a socket on the hub with the wheel. 💯

Now just need to get brake lines done, driveshaft flange modified, parking brake cables AND the last thing is the shocks. Inside the springs or outside.
I think I have room but want to flex it out first.
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First time on tires in maybe a month or two.
can’t wait to test this out and get back to wheeling.
 
#234 ·
Well since I had to break out the welder, I decided it was time to fix the busted window.
I couldn’t cut through this glue this time. Had to hammer chisel it off. Aggravating way to start the day. Glass and banging a hammer after a good hangover. o_O


it’s not great but it’s solid. Hate welding thin stuff.
Anyhow so underneath like I guessed it, when i went to bolt up the driveshaft, the CV head contacts the parking brake box ever so slightly. It’s definitely gonna smack it on rotation when the body and frame start flexing. So I had to essentially shave it and plate it up. Luckily this metal is 3/16 thick and even though it’s in a bitch position to get to, I was able to do some cardboard cut out and made a metal piece that fit pretty darn good. I’ll get a pic up tomorrow.

Hope to have time this long weekend to get some more work done.
Getting there slowly but surely.
bouncing between other projects and the rodeo it’s tough to get any single thing done straight away.

 
#235 · (Edited)
For those still following along here…

got lots done this weekend.

Arb air line hooked up. Brake lines bent and tied into place. Driveshaft up and bolted.
I had to cut the frame cross member hoop off just about a foot or more from the tcase output. Driveshaft would’ve hit it on the up-cycle. Cut the parking box and welded it flat. Primed and painted the rear window. Started to bleed the lines. Sealed up the diff cover. Put two quarts of axle fluid in the diff. And ran out of time.
This morning, I did a bunch of searching on rockauto for parking brake cables. It’s t ough looking for cables because the isuzu was center ebrake and both are the same length. The axle side is angled for the drum hat. And stock cables are 10” roughly too short. Anyhow, Most other vehicles are kick pedal brakes and the left side cable is shorter or has a T bar to a longer main piece and a short cables some of it exposed. Also some cables are the correct length but have weird loop ends on them and no balls or hammer ends. Which none of that we want. There was some mustang cables I found that were perfect but only 50-60” roughly. So the cars with the center ebrake is great but not long enough. Eh. For those wondering, I’m trying to avoid having to buy custom made cut to length cables. not a huge deal but cheap and strong is possible here.

I settled on 3 different right rear cables for a ford ranger. The conduit was long enough and the cables around 78-88”. I’ll return what I don’t use. Each one was like 9-$15 each! Winning.

here are some pics but I didn’t take many today.
isuzu Parking brake connector ends.
Driveshaft up. Lines done.
 
#236 · (Edited)
Well she is rolling now. 🤑


So the I narrowed down the selection of brake cables to c94741 which is roughly 72" conduit and like 80" cable which is plenty. I trimmed the tail wire-end off so I could put in the screw-stop from the parking brake in place.
The conduit ends and length are the important part since the parking brake bracket accepts this fairly universal end style (except inside drum-hat-rotor isuzu sigh) and the other end needs to be captive by the parking brake cable bracket into the box. I routed over and out towards the leaves then under the axle tube. There is a little extra more than I wanted but few zip ties will take care of that.



(Disclaimer: the parking arm bracket is the wrong one here and I swapped after I took this picture)

I finished bleeding the truck but could never get a good pedal. I went up to a friend of mine shop to help bleed it again and we decided that the 1' bore on the master cylinder is just not enough on the larger calipers. The previous Landcruiser calipers were large but not this large. So the 1" bore was enough and is actually the same as the Rodeo/Trooper. OR I have a tiny leak somewhere. Maybe both. 🤷‍♂️

The next thing to do was figure out the shocks mounting location. Inside or outside?
We got the truck on a forklift and the rear springs are sooo stiff they barely moved the shackle when we lifted the rear. I also have a ton of flex so we went to pick up the front and the truck squatted enough for me to figure out if there was room for the shocks without contact or binding.
We started making a bracket for the top tabs and I had to cut some from the lower axle tube brackets to clear the shock body. The top is welded in but the bottom we didn't finish. Had to call it a day a very long day. You don't realize how long fiddling with stuff takes and I think I was working on the brakes most of the day... hours just fly by.

So more parts and money is needed to finish this up. I am working on selecting a master cylinder with either a 1.25 bore or larger and will need to bleed the truck again and adjust the parking brakes some more. The cables pull but don't stop for sht... Yet!


 
#238 ·
Been a bumpy road trying to get all the parts together for this last mile.
Had to remove the stock master cylinder and booster.
Tried Going with simply a larger booster but it just wouldn’t fit. Cut up the firewall and drilled holes to make the booster fit. Dismantled the entire steering column and removed the brake pedal bracket and pedal. Cut the F out the firewall and made the four stud mounting fit best I could.
Then I decided this was a bad idea since I won’t be able to get the valve cover off - let alone the spark plug or coil. So I tossed that idea and decided to go Hydroboost.
I had a steering box tapped for hydro assist and just needed to pick it up. I wasn’t sure if it was possible to do both hydro boost and hydro assist together but sure enough lots of dudes have done just that.

The hydroboost I chose came off a savanna or express van. You can find the HB setup more commonly on diesels mostly because lack of vacuum for booster so you use a mechanical cam pump or hydroboost from a pump on the accessory belts to increase pressure to brake.
I did some research and found that the older you go, the bore size doesn’t get bigger. Because most older rear brakes were drum and had small cylinders compared to larger caliper pistons.
The sweet spot is like 90s-2000s for 34-37mm bore MC hydroboost because the vans/trucks would have disc rear.
Too big and the pedal is harder to push. I guess we’ll find out!!
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#239 · (Edited)
So I have a high flow pump, pulley, cooler and reservoir I got from an older Zu head.
I’m waiting on a July 4th special 6” Ram deal from TrailGear. I got all the hoses mapped out, -an fittings, compression fittings and hose for the entire setup. My buddy is gonna put another bung in the reservoir since I need two returns.
Gas Bicycle part Auto part Wire Electrical wiring

^ these are the old lines. All new has been installed and I need to mount the new box and I’m just waiting on the reservoir to get done.
I cut the amigo bracket off the cooler brackets since it’s a different depth than my rodeo center bracket. (Dirty one on the left) I then cleaned up and welded the cooler brackets the rodeo center bracket and now have the cooler on the drive side . The psgr side air cooler section on my truck is kind a blocked by the Warn solenoid box. Plus it’s closer to the pump and reservoir on the driver side. Everything fits! More pics to come!
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I managed to stuff the high flow pump into the stock bracket. Lots of time R&Ding this thing and it lined up perfect to the lower front pulley. Doesn’t twist either.
I swapped the serpentine pulley for a Vbelt aluminum pulley I got used from a raceshop. The above pulley is the serpentine I swapped out. Below is the $20 vbelt pulley.
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I got some adapter short brake lines to connect the 1/2-20 into the m10x1 proportioner .
You can see one of the two -an lines are connected here already to the HB unit.
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below is the tapped ISUZU box.
Thanks @paulevans76 for the tips.

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hopefully my next post is test driving.
I still need to finish burning in the lower shock tabs.
no pics yet but the shocks fit outside frame perfect.
I have a new set of BDS nx2 shocks for the rear.

I also bypassed the AbS module since it may be acting up interfering in all of this too. Never had an issue before but figured why not it’s not working anyhow!
Damn I just wanna be done and go wheeling!!
 
#240 ·
Update: I’m rolling now. :giggle:

It’s been a bumpy road for sure full of false starts and tear down rebuild repeat.
So I got the box on and could not turn right with the ram on. After much research, I figured it was the hydro lines must need be tapped in a different spot. After much studying and reach out to Zu legends of 4x4wire past… I disassembled my tapped box and retapped it myself in one new location. Bled It and voila, works!
Not great tho because it still has air in it or needs better fluid. I’m getting some royal purple here soon to swap it out.
Bicycle part Automotive tire Vehicle brake Bumper Auto part


so after I reassembled the box and installed the pitman, ran all the lines I still needed to do my brakes!
I almost forgot my braking was still crap because I still need to rebleed the brakes. Well one thing led to the next and I was borrowing a friend’s masterCool flaring tool to redo the rear lines and the section I removed on the firewall and psgr fender that was where the abs module was located.
These flares are better than new!
Wood Finger Thumb Nail Gas


After thy was all done, got the brakes bled and went for a test drive. Handled kind of funny with stiff new springs and no rear shocks.

I had to finish burning in the rear lower shock tabs. I also had to cut them some more so they’d clear the shock body. doesn’t look great but works!

White Automotive tire Gas Auto part Rim


With that knocked out, I adjusted the parking brake and was able to get everything tight so that the truck stops on a slight incline with ONLY the parking brake.

last two things I wanna do before I call it good is get my anti wrap bar brackets cut and welded on the 14. I still have the bracket which I recently put in new joints and bushings. On hard take off or heavy throttle sometimes the hog pitches up and the driveshaft hits the section under the parking brake that I cut and welded flat.
Second thing I wanna do is figure out if I need the cross member I cut out welded back in place. I want to get a few other opinions before I get a new one bent or decide not to use one. I had to cut this section out because the CV head pushes the downslope of the shaft further back which makes the frame cross member tube now in the way.

other than that, I’m happy. Just a few more miles on break in for these new 5.38 rear gears, change ps fluid, wrap bar and I’m gravy.
 
#241 ·
Oh I also managed to find a split rear rodeo/passport seat!
i just cleaned those up and installed them last night.
I don’t know how many times I simply passed that by at the junkyard.
only thing I’m not sold on is the 96-97 seats have vinyl on the leg/kick area and these have fabric. Oh well, at least I have options for rear seating now!

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#242 ·
I should add an update here.
well we went wheeling twice since I finished this up. I’m itching to go somewhere rougher than uwharrie.

everything works good so far. Before we went outI had to cut the top of the trans mount down and reWeld it. The cv head was still tapping from time to time.
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#243 ·
Here’s some cAd (cardboard aided design)
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I should add that on our test run, as soon as I got on the trail, I heard clicking.
damn hub sprocket finally gave up the ghost.
Three wheeled it all day and started in 3 pieces ended up like this ::
Art Font Circle Gas Automotive tire
 
#244 ·
Total wipe out on that sprocket. Never had one fail that bad looking, What else did it take with it?
 
#245 ·
Ah that was after a day of wheeling. Churned it! Even with a locker and 3 wheel drive I still had to turn the lock and get some traction in a few places even if it meant eating the sprocket more. Started in three pieces ended up like that^^ that’s the same hubs I been running for maybe ten years so it’s about time I guess.
I debated going to stronger premium or slugs but decided best to have a fuse in a slightly easy place to replace.
 
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