It's not a lot, I think 2" or so without sacrificing the ride. I had to crank my pass side T bar about an inch to level it out, and I didn't notice and change in the ride.
Thanks for the feedback, I got under it tonight and it looks like there is some adjustment left. And I recall when I got it, the front axle shafts were level. They are now tilted upward towards the wheel, if that makes sense.
I got a jack under it and about a inch and a half is all I need.
Will see how it goes.. I really don't want to buy new springs....
Hank, I'd go ahead and adjust the torsion bars before replacing and see if does what you want. Definitelty less time consuming and easier job than replacing the bars.
Ok, I'll try torquing the torsion bars first and post back. Was just thinking if they are sagged now, adjusting them may just be a band aid. But if it lasts a couple of years I guess that works.
I got the van on some level ground today, an airplane hanger, and wanted to get your guys feedback.
Guess it is typical but I have a drivers side lean. It looks like someone adjusted this before to get rid of it. With 129k on it, I'm sure it is expected.
I noticed the suspension sag about a month or so after changing out my KYB Gas-Adjusts for some OEM style Monroe's. The KYB's were a bit too stiff for our lousy roads. I checked my notes and the whole van is about 1/2" lower since pulling the KYB's.
The drivers side, both front and rear, is a half inch lower than the passenger side.
The drivers side front axle shaft is not level. It has a slight taper downward towards the front dif.
The passenger side axle shaft is level.
The drivers torsion has about 1/2" of bolt left. Not sure what this means in adjustment room as I see the torsion adjuster is inside the crossmenber. Looks like a little room left to adjust but could not get my fingers up there to tell for sure.
Thinking I have a few options here.
1. Try torquing the drivers torsion to see how much adjustment is left.
2. If after torquing and there is not enough adjustment left, install KYB's back in the front only to force some lift. The front was not too bad with the KYB's but the back was like a buckboard. Yes, I know shocks should not hold up a vehicle but these are the stock shocks and boy are they gas charged. If needed, adjust down the passenger side as in theory it will also go up a half inch.
3. Replace the torsion bars. Decided I really don't want to do this. $$$
Why not lower the other side down a little to compensate for the low drivers side? Unless you start experiencing the van bottoming out, the small amount of lowering you'd do would little affect the ride/braking/tire wear.
I see where you are coming from now...you are looking to not have the axels "cocked". I dont' think I'd worry about that too much, they are designed to work at all angles all the time...the only thing that destroys the average CV joint is lack of lubrication due to a torn boot.
I agree, a CV joint is a CV joint and it does what it is supposed to do. It is just something I've noticed and since it is on my radar it is bugging the hell out of me.
I also don't like the front end sagged down. It is an AWD, not a low rider. lol I had to pull and sell my lift kit so I am already dealing with the emotional height loss.
Also, I'm prepping the van for next year's towing and camping season so I want it all right for when I drag the big 5000lb cinder block around.
I also don't like the front end sagged down. It is an AWD, not a low rider. lol I had to pull and sell my lift kit so I am already dealing with the emotional height loss
Damn Hank, now I feel bad, maybe I could pay for some grief counseling or something? :lol:
I know what you mean, once I noticed the driver's side sagging in my van, it drove me nuts until I leveled it out. Really it's a painless task, don't even have to jack up van if you don't want to. I marked a spot on the torsion key adjusting bolt and frame so I could easily reference how many turns I added. Probably take you five minutes.
Ha-ha, its all good. The lift looks great on your van.
Yeah, adjusting the torsions is a no brainer. Back in the day I had a slammed 86 Mazda mini-truck. Slammed, re-keyed, re-located ball joints, notched frame and re-arched springs.
Anyway, the downside is that I see on my van it looks like someone already adjusted the drivers side. There is about 1/2" of bolt left but I can't tell how much space is left between the adjuster and the bottom of the crossmember.
I need to get the front up to try to level the van out a bit. When i had the lift on, I dropped the springs into the middle hole on the shackles.
I can also get 1/2 by putting the kyb's back on in the front. I don't like running mixed shocks but the monroes are a bit soft in the front. Worst case, I can put bags in the rear for when I'm towing. Even with a load leveling hitch I get some rear end sag.
I'm not sure what exactly you mean about space left between the adjuster and bottom of crossmember, but if you have 1/2" of bolt left then you have a lot of adjustment you can do. That should be at least 1 1/2"-2" or more.
I agree, since the a-arm is larger than the adjuster a small movement of the adjuster is a large movement of the a-arm. That whole a^2 + b^2 = c^2 thing...
I must have been on crack yesterday as I found 2 real good level pieces of concrete and the van is even from side to side but is down about an inch in the front and a half inch in the rear from when I had the KYB's on it.
So I'm going to crank the torsions up first to see how much lift I can get in the front and then decide if I want to put the KYB's back on the front only. The front is just too mushy with the Monroe's but the rear rides too harsh with the KYB's.
Well it's been a while but I finally got around to doing this.
You guys were right, it doesn't take a lot to raise up the front. I blindly gave each side 7 turns, dropped it down and the nose was way up in the air. Cranked it down 3 turns and it is about 1/4" up in the front.
Going to drive it a few days, measure and adjust as needed. I have an alignment appointment on Saturday.
BTW, yes I'm looking at adding the overland shackles to handle the rear age sag.
Hey Hank, not to start another ridiculous discussion, but you may be better off with add-a-leafs at this point if you are trying to restore rear ride height due to spring sag, though the one benefit of the shackles is adjustability to fine tune ride height.
At the moment, I have the van set almost level, about 1/2 lower in the front and I like the look and how it feels sitting in the seat. I almost regret getting rid of my lift as I never kicked up the torsions when I had it on and had to have the rear shackles in the middle hole. Could have had a lot more height out of the thing.
It was actually close to 2" sagged in the front so I'm quite happy on how much adjustment I had left.
The real kicker is going to be when I hook up my travel trailer. Even with the load leveling hitch I get some sag in the rear although I can minimize it some by cranking the springs down on the hitch.
I may put bags in the rear to solve this. Found a set for 249, complete bolt in firestone kit. Would just manually inflate it as needed for camping trips.
I have an 01 AWD I installed overlands extra-lift torsion keys as I had passenger side sag that could not be taken out with the stock keys. the overland keys have worked great. I also installed 1" subframe spacers in the front to maintain suspension travel with a bit of lift.
I also installed firestone ride-rites in the rear. a word of caution on that. The air bags replace the bumb-stop but also bottom out earlier and more aggressively than the bump stops when not inflated. So, I hear you suggest, keep them inflated, right? well kinda. When they are inflated they naturally lift the rear. and also increase the spring rate, affecting rear-seat ride quality. In fact this is what prompted me to embark on lifting the front. The nose-down attitude was irritating.
Anyway, I then got the overland shackles to give some more wheel travel before bottoming out on the air bags on harsh bumps. This introduced a driveline vibration at around 15-25 mph as the shackles change the angles on the driveshaft joints. If you go for the shackles, get the pinion shims while you are at it. 4 degrees worked great for me using the maximum lift setting on the shackles.
Also I recommend Rancho RS900+ shocks as you can adjust them to your preference. Crank em up for towing, back em off for touring....
You can see here that even with the shackles on max lift setting, there's not a whole lot of wheel travel up (5" perhaps) before the air bag is in full compression when deflated. inflating it is really only comfortable when towing or heavily loaded up.
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