Montero SAS

Removed the IFS and plasma cut off all the brackets from the original suspension.

Installing the radius arms and mocking up the steering and suspension, the arms are from Metal Cloak and the steering gear is from a 79 Bronco. I chose this gear because it's a forward swing and can be bought brand new.

Mocking up the new radius arm/transmission crossmember.

Building the crossmember

Completed crossmember!

Making the new transmission mount.
First pic is the OEM mount (bottom), aftermarket polyurethane mount (middle) and my new mount is two motor mounts from a 2000 Mirage with manual transmission. I chose these because they're larger than stock, are still isolating mounts and they're readily available. They do transmit a little more driveline noise than stock but they should handle the lower gears and big tires better. Also made a larger bracket to fit the bigger mounts to the transmission.

Made a test mounting plate for the steering gear, this gave me the ability to keep making forward progress while waiting for my drawings to be made into he final parts. With the gear in it's location i was able to then make the steering shaft and start on steering links and panhard.

I used PVC and GM 1 Ton TRE kit to mock up my inverted T steering links, the pitman arm is also Wagoneer. The Wagoneer parts share the same taper as the GM TREs so no reaming was necessary. With steering in place i then mocked up the panhard rod and trimmed up it's brackets. Steering links and panhard rod were then machined from 7075 aluminum, panhard rod ends are poly bushed at both ends.

Once the frame plates and steering adapter plate were in, they were fitted via locating holes. The frame plates locate to the front two original steering gear bolt holes, the Mitsu to Ford adapter locates off the same holes. I put alignment tabs on top to locate the shock towers and a tab on bottom to locate the frame side panhard mount.

Fitting the plates, steering adapter and towers. The driver tower needed extra work to clear the steering shaft, you can see now how the tabs on the frame plates work to put the towers in the correct location. Oh yeah, installed some Wilwoods...

Weighed the truck at all 4 corners; front left was 1300lbs and the rest were 1200lbs. Ordered a pair of Kings from Accutune, the first set got straight fittings and i ordered the second with 90's. I'll get 90's for this set later. Painted all the bare steel and installed the shocks to finally sit the truck down on its own weight after four months.

Wrapped mine up with some new double cardan driveshafts, interesting thing was that the Montero 9.5" rear diff pinion flange had the same pattern as the Ford F-250 but metric and female. Tom Woods was able to machine a pilot to fit the Montero pinion flange and Ford 1350 companion flange so all i had to do was use SAE bolts. Made some good progress on PA_JERO's SAS as well by this point, every time i made a part for my truck i also made his parts. I started mine 2 months before i started his and finished them both weeks apart.

I also had PAJ_ERO's shocks done slightly stiffer, after my initial drive with a decent amount of body roll. I ended up installing the rear sway bar which helps tremendously, i plan to fit a Currie Antirock next. We used Fox stabilizers to protect the steering gears and act as a place holder for the PSC ram since we both bought ported steering gears. I'm going to rework the axle side mount to be a double shear when we upgraded to hydro assist. I did however drive the truck without the stabilizer to ensure there was no steering issues whatsoever (no death wobble). We started with King Hydro Bumpstops but with the low ride height of these they were being used too much so they're getting moved to the back and rubber was installed in their place. I also had some cute skid plates made. Suspension cycles as expected, ride quality is great, steering is predictable and brakes are good. Still drives like a Montero

A few wheeling pics now, pretty happy with it. Only a few thousand miles so far but it's been great.