93 pickup SAS and rear chevy springs
 

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Recently towed this nice looking pickup home to do Sas and most likely rear chevy springs. Truck is a 22re auto with factory 4:11's on 35's. The previous owner before the individual who currently owns it that im doing the work for did a very good job with the truck. Stripped it down to bare frame and put it back together adding front bracket lift for the ifs and 4inch blocks for the rear. Fiberglass front fenders and fiberglass rear bed sides with a nice looking green paint.
For reference at the moment we have 25" to bottom of the frame directly under the seat. Rear spare tire mount is 35 1/4". We will be using Trail gear ifs eliminator kit with 3inch leaf springs which im expecting to sit a little higher in the front. Once the chevy springs are added we'll see what is needed to level us out for a nice stance. The owner managed to scoop up a complete mini front donor axle with 4:88's and matching rear to go with it which will drastically increase the drivability for it on the road.
https://trail-gear.com/suspension/so...tor-kit-3.html
let's start the build.

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Donor axles unloaded and ready to get molested.

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Started with getting the front axle on the pipe vice and some stands. Axle seems to be in pretty good shape in terms of rust. Took a glance over and started cutting.
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Axle torched and grinded, Started with a 1/4" disc then moved to a soft pac and finally a wire wheel to help smooth out the metal a little more when we go to paint it.
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Nothing critical here. Take out the 10mm bolts followed by your snap ring and then the 12mm nuts with cone washer and the hub somewhat just falls off.
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As of now we are keeping the factory solid axle hubs and not doing a ifs hub swap. To get the rotor off these there secured using the wheel studs. As expected not all of these studs wanted to cooperate. 3 of the 12 needed heat to get out and another stud bent in the removal process .

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The backing plate and spindel are held in by 14mm bolts. Removal of those and the backing plate falls off. The spindel shouldn't be a fight, a few taps with rubber mallet and it'll cooperate.https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...bdc35f6268.jpg
The knuckle caps for the bearings are 17mm, I've had these come right off and sometime they just wanna fight you all the way out. Once you get the cone washers loosed up on the studs they free up a good bit.
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Once you get the top and bottom, you may have to push the trunion bearings in slightly but the whole knuckle will come right off.

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Now with our axle 💯 disassembled we can go ahead and start paint prep. Unfortunately i do need to order the diff gasket as well as some new wheel studs before we can put this back together in the mean time we'll get paint taken care of.

Progress looks good, thats a great looking truck. What year is the new rear axle from? Great time for knuckle gussets and a truss before you paint it.

The fibeglass fenders kind of grew on me, good color choice as well for that truck. The rear im pretty sure is from a solid axle truck. I think the ifs rears were like 57" or something wms. This is 54 and change. Im just taking the diff out of it and putting it right into his factory rear end.
Top of axle and inside of truss were painted Monday night. Put truss on tonight and hopefully get hubs and knuckles painted. No knuckle gussets for it.

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Pressure wash and wire wheel
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Top of axle painted before the truss covers it up
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Did not get as far as i wanted tonight. But knuckles are cleaned up and ready for paint. The pressure wash was to get bulk of it, then the wire wheel strips it down pretty good. In the garage i go over and scrape any remaining with a screwdriver in the corners.
Quick spray down with brake clean. Skim over with sand paper/scotch pad. Spray with brake clean again then a good wipe down with acetone.

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Both knuckles and hubs painted.

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Inside of truss and top of axle where truss goess was pre painted as you saw. Truss was dry fitted, wire wheel along the edge to get and paint off and welded.
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Once hanging i did final prep, same as before.
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Painted

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Low grit schotch pad to clean up the gasket surface. Stuffed with rags to keep any trash out.
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Same, cleaned up gasket surface.
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Alot of people always use permatex for this gasket. Which is fine, ive done pleny myself. But this truck looks pretty good and the gaskets are only like $5 a piece. Using the gasket gives it a better fit and finish imo. Thin layer of anti sieze on the housing, factory paper gasket, then another thin layer of anti seize.
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Diff back on housing. Nuts snugged star pattern. Once all are snugged, tightend to 15lbs. Then go again torqued to 21Lbs.

[img alt="Time for assembly
Steering arms and bottom knuckle caps i had powder coated. Little extra money but far easier and quicker then me prepping and hand painting."]https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yotatech.com-vbulletin/2000x926/20260131_220612_47a0825b30c92de6ecbfbd4c57b3437ad3 191f4a.jpg[/img]
Time for assembly Steering arms and bottom knuckle caps i had powder coated. Little extra money but far easier and quicker then me prepping and hand painting.
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First was inner axle shaft seals. Some grease on the housing and outter part of seal. Small piece of wood and hammer they go right in place.

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I wanted to point this out. Some people will skip replacing the knuckle bearing races top and bottom of the ball. You can see the end result they are the same height but the difference in the races is clear. Technically it would of worked but you can see how little surface contact the needle bearings have sitting in the old race vs the ones supplied.

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The old ones didnt put up to much of a fight. Piece of aluminum tube from top or bottom. Can catch the inner edge of race and work it with hammer. The new ones i had place outside for a half hour to shrink slightly. It was 20° with some wind blowing today. Grease on the ball and outter of new race. A piece of oak wood and small hammer and they cooperated.

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Before knuckle goes on inner ring, rubber seal and felt must go over the ball first. Once knuckle is set then they will be bolted to knuckle. 10mm bolts torqued to 8Lbs.
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The new bearings need to be packed. For these im sure any grease would do the job as all they done is go back and fourth. For all assembly on whole axle im using valvoline moly fortified and my favorite Lucas red and tacky. From the book main part is that they carry NLGI #2 rating. Just a side not for anyone in future. When you get to your wheel bearings in the hubs. Don't be cheap, good grease is not that expensive.

I didn't take pictures of shims or anything. The knuckles really put up a fight to get them how i wanted. The first one i did went on and off 3 times with different shim combination before i got close to the preload i wanted. Firat was too low, then too high then pretty close.Shims go on the knuckle, then set steering arm and bottom cap. Tap them home with wood and hammer, i was using a rag between the wood and paint to try and not hurt it. Do not crank them home with the nuts. Get them atleast halfway on first. Snug top and bottom and work your way to 71Lbs torque on all 8 nuts.
Once torqued with your pull gauge want to measure amount of force it takes for the knuckle to start movement. I was going for 15Lbs on the pull gauge. One side came to 15lb 4oz the other side was 15lb 8oz I think it was. I didn't want to take it off again and end up going to far one way or the other changing shims again. For factory or close to stock size tires you want 7-13Lbs. Larger oversize tires 15LB.

[img alt="Once the knuckles torqued and done. Then can finish install with these. 10mm torqued to 8lbs as mentioned prior.
Make sure to grease the rubber seal and ball. I did put a lottle bit of anti seize on the inner ring that snamps into back sode oglf the knuckle."]https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yotatech.com-vbulletin/2000x926/20260201_165942_dfa1afd6a1ab896d30909e6e2e5a196f5a 82b2b5.jpg[/img]
Once the knuckles torqued and done. Then can finish install with these. 10mm torqued to 8lbs as mentioned prior. Make sure to grease the rubber seal and ball. I did put a lottle bit of anti seize on the inner ring that snamps into back sode oglf the knuckle.
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Before axle goes in i put a healthy amount of grease between the ball and knuckle. More can be added later through threaded plug on top of knuckle.
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Axle, nothing to explain. Line your flat spots on the birfield with top and bottom and work your way into the diff. With almost all gaskets i touch they always get a light layer of anti seize. It'll keep them from rusting and make lofe much eaisier for the next person to take it apart.
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Spindle bushing greased.

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This is where i stopped for the night. This is not final assembly, just showing gaskets. Backing plate eliminator will go between gasket and wheel hub dust seal. I did torque these down after the picture to 34LBS. Book shows 29-39lbs. Wheel hubs and oil seal,wheel bearings, rotors and wheel studs remain.