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upgradeing my drivetrain

A

ADAMEKH3

Member
Messages
14
Location
CHICAGO
Well fellas the time has come ! My warrant has expired and I need to start upgradeing my drivetrain to accommodate my heavy foot in offroad situations .
I have 07' H3 I5 adventure on BFG KM2 35" any suggestions .
 
Neo

Neo

Badfish
Messages
1,666
Location
Brookings, OR
nothing's bullet proof but a solid axle swap would be a good place to start for the front end , or go with a cast iron case and lighten up on the skinny peddle ...:cheers:
 
4speedfunk

4speedfunk

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,250
Location
Tardville
The SA-front/SOA-rear is a pretty cool combo. Not only do you get the added strength of the SA...but, you also get rid of a lot of sub-par components!...

*steering rack
*AAM-7
*non-greasable A-arms
*half-shafts and CV-boots
*flemsy tie-rods
*torsion bars
*stock front driveshaft

I can't help but notice many of these items get massive amounts of attention in other threads. On one hand...I understand the frustration, as I've been there done that with many of these parts. On the other hand its nice to realize that none of this stuff is on my H3 any more! ha-ha....

Best of all...by switching to a good, ole, proven axle...you can choose pretty much any gearing and locker combo you like. The ride and steering are surprisingly good, and if you do it right...the computer has no idea you've gutted the front suspension and started over. ABS, TCS, and VSS are all fully functional and its great to keep the factory brakes on the 70's Dana 44 axle. I'm so impressed with my SAS that I've decided to put together some "kits" to do this swap. I've got (6) solid-axle kits sitting here in my shop, and I'll post up some pics and pricing info as I get my production line up & running, and get all the details hashed-out.
 
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A

ADAMEKH3

Member
Messages
14
Location
CHICAGO
The biggest problem areas I have is the ftont and rear diff I seem to strip the gears often, Ilike the setup of my rear solid and front independent suspension I just need to BEEF it up a few notches . will the V8 H3 axles work on I5 ,I'm thinking that the V8 h3 axles would be more rigid than I5 would . I also be adding a front locker into my setup but I'm still not sure if I should switch to a ARB locker system or keep my E-Locker system. Also I need to get it geared for my 35"BFG's
 
Paladine71

Paladine71

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Messages
1,483
Location
Tallmansville, WV
Adam, welcome back to the forum. I wondered what happened to you, we've missed you on the runs over the past year.

4speed, definitely interested in your kit.
 
reaper

reaper

Well-Known Member
Messages
527
Location
Denver, Colorado
Hey Adam. Here's what I did to my 06:

Upgraded my front axle to Alpha CVs, a cast iron locking front diff, and of course the 16mm tie rods. Also a new steering rack with an added middle clamp and Hunner sleeves.
Minor performance tweaks: Add an AirDoc (removes the air baffle with a pipe), swapped exhaust to a cat-back exhaust.

I also have the rancho lift-- looking back the SAS and SOA would have been not much more $ and a good option. But I have the Rancho lift and really love that combo.
 
4speedfunk

4speedfunk

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,250
Location
Tardville
4speedfunk, Is your kit going to offer a coilover option?
Click to expand...

It won't be a full "install" kit. Its merely an adapter kit that allows you to mount the H3 braking system on the Dana 44 axle. It will be very tough to make one SAS install kit for all H3's, simply because everybody seems to have their own opinion about what works best. Budget constraints and what type of wheeling you want to do, has a lot to do with what type of suspension you choose...(3-link, 4-link, leaf-spring, coil-spring, coil-over, etc.) One thing for certain is: All of these can benefit from a cheap and easy way to keep your H3 brakes intact, and keep all the cool H3 electronics working properly.

I used a 3-link with coil springs on my rig. In all honesty...the 3-link was not that difficult to put together using bracketry from WFO, PartsMike, Ruffstuff, Barnes, Ballistic Fab, etc. I would openly share any info on it if someone wants to duplicate it...its nothing real fancy. The springs were 4"-over Bronco front springs...and they seem to make for a nice ride. The steering is somewhat tricky but...not expensive. Its a 2000-2004 junkyard box from a Nissan Xterra, and the tie-rod & drag-link is all simple Jeep-ish type stuff. The axle itself is very common, and very cheap...available by the truckloads. Most of the custom fab work was limited to the brake system...and that's the kit I'm putting together. This gives the user the option of finding a GM Dana 44 locally and building it to suit, rather than pay big money to ship a pre-assembled axle. Simply put...the GM Dana 44 is so common that it doesn't even make sense to ship one! The brake kit will be very small, easy to ship, and easy to install...so you just bolt it to your junkyard Dana, and you're on your way!

There might also be a market with the Canyon/Colorado crowd, and the FJ-cruiser crowd. They essentially use the same basic ABS system, and Dana 44's seem to be a good choice for them as well.
 
silvrzuki77

silvrzuki77

Well-Known Member
Messages
556
Location
Vegas
Add the abs sensor ring to work and that will be a great kit. Thats my biggest issue with the sas. So far so good on the xterra rack i take it?
 
06 H3

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,496
Location
Meridian, ID
Cj, how much tougher would it be to make a rear axle sensor happy, say a 14 bolt full float? I'm assuming much tougher seeing that the front end sensors are in the hubs and the rear end sensors are in the actual axle but do you have ideas on how to get that to work?
 
4speedfunk

4speedfunk

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,250
Location
Tardville
Add the abs sensor ring to work and that will be a great kit. Thats my biggest issue with the sas. So far so good on the xterra rack i take it?
Click to expand...

ABS rings and sensor mounts are included, of course.

Its an Xterra box however (not a rack & pinion)...and it seems to work pretty good. I'm now running 37"s and I get the feeling that's about all the box can handle. Every once in awhile with a quick snap of the wheel, or during hard turns while sitting still...you can feel that its struggling a bit. I've got a ram-assist in my future but, for now I'm doing fine without it. I already have another Nissan box sitting here on my bench and I may try to port it myself.

I'm also still tweaking some adjustments on the front suspension. Last week I made a new pitman arm from scratch and it works much better now...takes less movement at the steering wheel to turn the front tires. You really notice it as you approach full-lock, and the steering "feels" very normal now. The stock Nissan pitman was 5.25" long and the new one is 6.0"...so the extra 3/4" of length made all the difference. I had to make my own because there are very few pitman arms available with the Nissan splines. So I cut the splined end off the Nissan arm, and turned it down in a lathe...this basically created a round doughnut with the splines still intact. Then I cut me a new flat pitman arm from a chunk of 1" billet, and bored a large hole in one end to accept the doughnut. Then I made sure I had the splines indexed to the correct position and welded it up. The other end simply needed to be bored to accept the 1-ton GM DRE. Came out looking like this...

View attachment 6925
 
4speedfunk

4speedfunk

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,250
Location
Tardville
06H3...depending on the 14-bolt axle shaft diameter, you might be able to re-use the stock ABS rings (with some modification). I've got a pair of H3 rear rings lying around here, and they have a rubber lining bonded to the ID of them. The idea is that they slip down on the tapered H3 axle shafts and become "tight" about 4" from the flanges. They have a nasty, black adhesive that comes on them when new...presumably to "glue" them into place on the H3 axle shaft.

My thinking was that you could bore the rubber lining out to fit the 14-bolt shaft diameter, and then use a set-screw to hold them in place on the axle shafts. The real question is whether there is enough material left on them to do anything with. The other question would be the OD of the ring. Obviously it needs to be small enough to fit inside the 14-bolt axle tube. You could weld some small plates to the outside of the tubes and drill them for O-rings and sensors (just like the stock H3 has)...that shouldn't be too tough. I'm pretty sure this is what Dynatrac did on Recon's rear axle.

If none of that works...you can always bag the internal ring idea all together and use a more traditional location...on the backside of the rotor.
 
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