I will be SASing my 86 pickup and I bought most of a 1980 4wd to be a donor. It looks like the cross member and shock mounts are in good shape. Can I simply cut out the IFS cross member and weld in the leaf sprung cross member and do the same with the shock towers? I already spent 500 bucks on the donor truck so I'd like to use it as much as I can. Also I'm not going for much height. My truck is currently lifted 3 to 3.5 inches and I'd like to match my rear lift to keep it cheaper.

 

Although buying a taller shackle in the back won't be the end of the world.

 

I wouldn't; stock spring hangar is not very strong. I agree with not liking taller aftermarket ones. Can make your own but can take a long time depending on tools you have. Shock tower seems there's a downside to stock but don't remember. Ford F-250 tower is a budget option that gives longer shock options, thus axle flex.

But it like all builds depends on how you intend to use rig as to how it's built.

 

having owned an 81 I would suggest not recycling the front spring hanger. The stock spring mounts as mentioned by muddpigg is not very strong. On my 81 I used a T-G front hanger but was never happy with how high it lifted the front.
On my 94 I used a low profile front spring hanger from Low Range Off Road
trying to cut off a shock tower to re-use seems like you would end up hacking most of it up.
I used the Ford shock towers (also available from LROR) on the 94 and am happy with the price and the outcome

 

i heard the LROR front hangar was aluminum. DZ is that true? Seems absurd to be true.

 

Could you use one of the sky, low range, tg hangers as a front cross member? Or do they have to go under the factory cross member? And 35 to 40 bucks for f250 shock mounts seems like a good deal. And I don't know how it could be aluminum unless its bolt on some how.

 

Bolt on seems like a bad idea to me. Think guy me have been full of crap. Front Range off road made the lowest when I did my SAS. Better to do a kit of hangar and shackled from same vendor, good idea to do the math to verify geometry of castor angles. Castor angle is set by front hangar and shackle length. Or cutting knuckle balls off and rotating them, bit more skilled work than I can handle.

 

It comes down to just what you can make yourself .

Myself I would rather make new or buy new parts then reuse 37 year old parts

Then it is your build go for what you decide to do.

That is what we did in the days before the Internet

 

Yeah. I could see the value in buying a kit where they have the measurements already done. I will go ahead and get a kit. I hope a can at least reuse one of the two front drive shafts. From what I have read, the old one will have the best range of motion. Is that information correct?

 

The LROR front hanger is steel, mine rusted sitting in the garage waiting for the SAS on the 4Runner.
the 80 front shaft is 4" shorter (if truck is stock) than the shaft from your 86 due to the difference in the length of the transmission between the 2 generations.
Generally on an SA conversion you end up with greater spring travel (depending on what springs you use) and need a long travel or long slip front drive shaft

 

My donor truck has had a 22r and a 5 speed transmission swapped into it. At least I believe it was swapped into it because the info I found listed the 1980 as a 20r with 4speed. Ill have to take a tape measure and see what I am working with. I plan on 3 inch springs (I'd like to use ome 2" since that's what I have in back but the SAS instructions say it has to be 3). And I plan on keeping my 33x12 tires. I have no idea what to expect as far as articulation.

 

If your talking TG 3" springs, I seen post that they are much taller than 3". Do your research. Some have to run dual cases to relax operating angle of front driveshaft. This could turn out to be a very expensive project. As mentioned above by Wyoming google is you friend.

 

I still have plenty of time before I dig into it. And hopefully parting out the donor truck will help offset some cost. It seems like what I am looking for has been done before a number of times in the low lift SAS threads.

 

RUF is a popular one on a budget. With chevy 63's in rear. Both are suppose to give better flex than most other springs.