Axle questions...

[Bamfapotamus]

I got 2 trackers now... a 96 automatic and a 97 5speed. what I was wondering is, if I do a solid axle swap would the tracker motor be able to handle a Ford 9" rear end with 5.13 gears and a dana 30 or 40s series front axle with 5.13s also? I have a 4.39:1 transfer case set up in it now and it turns stock gearing and 34x9.5" tires like a joke right now, but I would much rather convert to solid axle up front and I have lots of ford parts in my garage rather than using the reccommended toyota axles or a samurai.

[cmays03]

I have a dana 30,35 combo on my tracker with 33" tires and 3.55 gears. I have the 4.24:1 reduction kit in the tcase and it turns the tires pretty good. but i am going to go to a 4.10 gears in the axles. unless you are going with a bigger tire than the 34's i would drop the gears in the axles to a higher ratio i think you will get to many rpms and not enough wheel spin.

[Bamfapotamus]

well i have a combo of gear sets all posi on the shelf to fit a 9" rear, 3.50, 3.70, 4.11, 5.13... maybe ill go with 4.11s!

can I ask how you did your SAS? homemade or did you order a bracket kit?

[cmays03]

well the front suspension is from the jeep cherokee that was the donor. it had a 6.5 rusty's lift on it and the front was a 3 link set up i modified to work on the tracker. the rear is all homemade.

[Bamfapotamus]

do you like how it performs? I was looking at the trail tough 3link front 4 link rear kit... but its kinda pricey, and I am fully capable of doing a custom build but Im not sure if its cheaper to buy or build atm and my main concern was the axles.. and since you are running the jeep axles I should be Ok with 9" + a dana up front Id imagine.

[cmays03]

yeah i like it. it does really good so far. i had to modify some of things i built but thats the way it goes. you should be fine with a 9" rear. I had alot of the material for the links already so i didnt have to buy very much to finish it. I moved the front axle ahead 3 inches too but it is messing with the steering. i bent the main bar and am in the process of fixing that with a thicker stronger piece of round stock. if that doesnt work i am going to hydro steering. yeah they want way to much money for a lot of the things for the trackers. I would much rather build it myself. i'm sure it will be a lot cheaper to do that instead of buying the kit other than it will go faster and be right. not saying you cant do it right but it takes all the guess work out of it.

[Bamfapotamus]

nice lol, Yea I can do it myself, one other question, what size heims did you use on your links if you even used heims, or id you use the rebuildable joints

[cmays03]

i just used rubber bushings. heims are to much right now. might change over to them later on.

[Bamfapotamus]

yea i think last time i priced out heims i was at like almost 1000$ for dom tube and heims or something like that, and thats at a discount price b/c i work with the metal everyday.