SAS with leaf springs
 

I am going to do a sas on my ranger. It has the TTB fron axle on it now. I am going to install a d-44 out of a Bronco. My ? is instead of putting a 3 or 4 link on the front would leaf springs work on the front well enough? I dont care about crazy amounts flex. I was going to use a set of oem leaf packs out of the junk yard from the rear of a ranger. I want the front end fairly stiff and i think the spring rate of the rear would work well. I think the leafs would require the least amount of money to install and be mostly fab work with the welder. No expensive heim joints and all that junk. Comments appreciated. I am going to install a fw 8.8 in the rear.

why not run the stock bronco setup with radius arms and coil springs? That would be the absolute easiest.

well heres my thing... what year ranger is it...... because a the coil springs and radius arms.. on a 66-77 bronco... damn near bolt up... to some rangers... we did this on my buddys 91 explorer we took a front end out of a 72 bronco...... just cut the old coil buckets off and put them on his explorer along with the radius arm brackets..

Im guessing this would be on his 1993 since thats the wheeler of the two...

And i agree with the abouve that running the stock Bronco setup will be the simplist swap. What engine are you running/planning to run?

Leaf springs on the front would work, and be the easiest way to do the SAS. Solid axle, not TTB. You need to fab a front crossmember to attach the front of the springs and strengthen the frame (boxxing the frame horns is recommended), and some type of shackle mount for the rear of the spirngs. You likely will run into caster problems, especially with rear springs which are usually longer than the front. The other issue is your rigs frame width compared to the spring perch width on the donor axle. 79 & earlier axles are narrower width (32" frame width0 compared to 36" on 80-up F-series trucks. I recently posted a link to my Dana60 leafspring SAS on the 84 Bronco in another thread in this section, JSM84

I will be running a 302 roller motor maybe stroked a little.

I wanna be different. I like how the old f-250s with leafs in the front were nice and stiff. I hate a soft front end.

Buy rough country lift coils. They will jar your brain loose.

I found a jeep dana 30 and leafs out of an old yj. I think i will use it. I changed my mind on the v-8. I found a mustang to put it in. Its funny how plans change.

x2, why would you want to run leafs over coil...... :-huh :-huh :-roll

if you like the pound your ass feel go ahead, if not go with the coil springs....

I dont think Ive ever seen a sas'd ranger on leafs. They are all on coils or coil overs. Actually there was a "how to" in either fourwheeler or petersons offroad 2 or 3 months back. They used a 79 F150 D44 if Im not mistaken and used XJ coil over bucket. It was a bolt in deal with like zero mods (the buckets not the whole thing)

If i use jeep yj leafs i dont think it will be bad at all. They dont pound you to death. Old toyotas arent bad either unless you use re-arched leaf packs. I found a real good geal on a dana 30 and leafs for 100 bucks. i can even have the spring perches and it has 3" lift shackles. jeep was hit in the rear. jeeps have had leafs all the way around for years up until the tj series in 1997. It worked for sooo many years until everybody wanted a truck/jeep to ride like a escort or honda.

there is a leaf sprung ranger on the ranger station. Petersons did the sas on a 97 ranger. They used a dana 30 out of a jeep tj and they ran 6" lift coils and 35s.

Why are you taking out the D35ttb for a D30? If you are going through all the trouble of sas you might as well upgrade to a 44.

Maybe it was a different magazine but it was a red ranger they did a sas on. They called it "project danger ranger" or similar. I distintly remember them using a D44 because they talked about machining the knuckles for highsteer. They also used XJ buckets and king coilovers. 8.8 rearend as well.

Super cool IMHO

Actually, I have a 4 inch RoughCountry lift on my 79 Bronco, and with the extra weight of the 460,, not sure though, it is a firm but not harsh ride.
My $.02,,