converting 93 astro front to 98 safari
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Hi astro1
Their were a fare amount of changes between those 2 years. Their is information on this conversion here and on the old forum if you do a search on it. I haven't done this conversion myself, so I can't comment on it in to much detail. I'm sure others that know, will chime in when they can.
Their were a fare amount of changes between those 2 years. Their is information on this conversion here and on the old forum if you do a search on it. I haven't done this conversion myself, so I can't comment on it in to much detail. I'm sure others that know, will chime in when they can.
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I'm doing the same..sort of. Converting a '94 to a '97. I just bought and brought home a 97 Astro with a nice front end. The car exterior is good, interior and engine are crap. Fan belt broke and the PO trashed the engine. Paid $500 bucks for the rolling vehicle. I don't think anyone even looked at the engine. Nothing has been removed. A year ago I couldn't find a hood and fenders for $500 bucks!
I understand that the radiators work are large and work better on the '95 and up Astros. Hope so. My AC overwhelms my cooling capacity. OK without the AC.
I've seen an in-depth how-to for swapping the front ends in the archives, but cannot find it now? If you locate the thread please post the location.
Thanks!
I understand that the radiators work are large and work better on the '95 and up Astros. Hope so. My AC overwhelms my cooling capacity. OK without the AC.
I've seen an in-depth how-to for swapping the front ends in the archives, but cannot find it now? If you locate the thread please post the location.
Thanks!
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54 Posts
This much I can advise...you'll need a donor vehicle that you can cut the front fender supports off. You'll have to weld the fender supports from the later van in place. The rear edge of the fenders bolt up, but the front won't until you install the complete fender supports and radiator support from the later van.astro1 said:
The van must be blocked so that the subframe doesn't shift (sag), which it will do when the front sheet metal is removed.
Keep in mind that the crossmember isn't removeable on 95 and later Astros...unless you make it removeable. Stronger if not cut.
So in answer to your question, yeah, it's a lot of work. I'm of the opinion that if you have an otherwise nice or unique early Astro, it will seriously improve the looks, and add to aftermarket dams and bumper selections. Certain later front Astros just look better.
I've got an LT4, 4WD conversion that I cannot seem to wear out. In bad need of paint, runs perfect, drives great, so I'm gonna convert it.
It just occurred to me...gonna have nice (other than paint) 94 front end if anyone wants to convert a late to early model1
Whole vans are cheap now. That's really the way to do the job. You will need a donor van for the front end swap. HTH, JR
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I'm in the process of doing a '94 to '97. Got the '97 front end cut off. Staring at the frame horns now. The bumper mounts are different.
In answer to your question, the late model fenders will fit the early door contour. However, the lower part of the fenders are different on my '97 donor. Small plastic covers that cover a nonexistant mount point on my '94. These covers interfere with the '94 fender and door trim. I had not planned on removing all of the side moulding. May end up doing exactly that before I'm done. Bummer.
You really need a donor vehicle. You'll have to cut the fender supports off the donor. Then drill out the lowest part of the donor sheet metal where it joins the rad support. I'm going to try to keep the upper side panels on the rad support. I've not disassembled the '94 yet so there's more to this.
It's a lot of work. You'll have to strip off the obvious...fenders hood, support, grill/headlight/turn sigs, radiator, evaporator (this is different from my '94 and I'm not sure what the AC is going to require to get it hooked up), windshield washer and coolant over flow tanks are required from the donor. And, you'll need the wiring harness from the donor. As prevously stated, the bumper and frame horns are different so the mounts for the bumper must be cut off and welded on the '94. The '97 has a steel reinforcement welded between the frame horns. I'm gonna cut that off and install it on the '94. There's also 2 additional braces that I cannot use due to my van being a 4WD.
To complicate all this, I want to install tow bar brackets on the unit while it's apart. The AWD (mine has an NP231 so it's towable) brackets are different from 2WD, and '94 is different from '97. This is a conundrum...I don't know which would be the closest to a fit. I'm going to assume that a 2WD '97 would be the best fit?
The fenders on a '94 use 8mm mounting bolts..and a lot of them. A '97 uses just a few 6mm bolts. My guess is that the lower braces make up the difference related to front impact. No matter, AWD front frame dimensions are totally different from 2WD.
I noticed that the donor front end sagged perhaps an 1/8" when I sawed thru the inner fender. That will require mounting the fenders with the rad support loosely mounted, jacking the front so as to take a small amount of weight off the frame horns to get proper alignment, and tack the rad support in place?? Then remove the fenders, weld up and pray that they are close when reinstalled. They aren't shimmed. Just bolted in place.
The rationale for doing this conversion is that I've got an LT4 V8 conversion that will not pass OBD II emissions laws in North Carolina. It does easily pass '94 rules.
'94 only requires safety inspection. Otherwise, I would have transferred my powertrain to a nice later model. The newer front ends just look better...and, there's a lot more space between the radiator and engine on '95 and up. The front end of my engine cannot be accessed without removing the grill, evap and radiator.
My donor ain't nice. Has some nice body parts, but the interior is an unmitigated disaster.
I"ll see if I can remember how to post pix and get some together. There's several posts in the archives (good pictorials) but I've not been able to locate them. I will. I'll post links once located.
I'm removing a nice front end from a '94 if anyone needs some sheet metal. Very nice fenders, hood, grill, rad, evap (maybe?), turn signals. The hood needs paint, but it has no rust. That's another reason I'm keeping my '94...no rust, drives good. Solid old van.
Also have the remainder of the '97 to part out. The engine was overheated, but otherwise, the van was operating regularly.
PO was driving and the fan belt broke on the V6...fried that puppy. Shame.
If anyone has any information or ideas regarding this modification, please post. So far, the mod hasn't been especially challenging, but I'll bet that getting all the front end parts (fenders and hood) aligned will be tedious.
If anyone has specific questions on the conversion, I'll be glad to try to answer them as this project moves forward. I'm going to begin disassembly of the '94 tomorrow.
Hope this helps those thinking about doing this modification. More info soon.
JR
In answer to your question, the late model fenders will fit the early door contour. However, the lower part of the fenders are different on my '97 donor. Small plastic covers that cover a nonexistant mount point on my '94. These covers interfere with the '94 fender and door trim. I had not planned on removing all of the side moulding. May end up doing exactly that before I'm done. Bummer.
You really need a donor vehicle. You'll have to cut the fender supports off the donor. Then drill out the lowest part of the donor sheet metal where it joins the rad support. I'm going to try to keep the upper side panels on the rad support. I've not disassembled the '94 yet so there's more to this.
It's a lot of work. You'll have to strip off the obvious...fenders hood, support, grill/headlight/turn sigs, radiator, evaporator (this is different from my '94 and I'm not sure what the AC is going to require to get it hooked up), windshield washer and coolant over flow tanks are required from the donor. And, you'll need the wiring harness from the donor. As prevously stated, the bumper and frame horns are different so the mounts for the bumper must be cut off and welded on the '94. The '97 has a steel reinforcement welded between the frame horns. I'm gonna cut that off and install it on the '94. There's also 2 additional braces that I cannot use due to my van being a 4WD.
To complicate all this, I want to install tow bar brackets on the unit while it's apart. The AWD (mine has an NP231 so it's towable) brackets are different from 2WD, and '94 is different from '97. This is a conundrum...I don't know which would be the closest to a fit. I'm going to assume that a 2WD '97 would be the best fit?
The fenders on a '94 use 8mm mounting bolts..and a lot of them. A '97 uses just a few 6mm bolts. My guess is that the lower braces make up the difference related to front impact. No matter, AWD front frame dimensions are totally different from 2WD.
I noticed that the donor front end sagged perhaps an 1/8" when I sawed thru the inner fender. That will require mounting the fenders with the rad support loosely mounted, jacking the front so as to take a small amount of weight off the frame horns to get proper alignment, and tack the rad support in place?? Then remove the fenders, weld up and pray that they are close when reinstalled. They aren't shimmed. Just bolted in place.
The rationale for doing this conversion is that I've got an LT4 V8 conversion that will not pass OBD II emissions laws in North Carolina. It does easily pass '94 rules.
'94 only requires safety inspection. Otherwise, I would have transferred my powertrain to a nice later model. The newer front ends just look better...and, there's a lot more space between the radiator and engine on '95 and up. The front end of my engine cannot be accessed without removing the grill, evap and radiator.
My donor ain't nice. Has some nice body parts, but the interior is an unmitigated disaster.
I"ll see if I can remember how to post pix and get some together. There's several posts in the archives (good pictorials) but I've not been able to locate them. I will. I'll post links once located.
I'm removing a nice front end from a '94 if anyone needs some sheet metal. Very nice fenders, hood, grill, rad, evap (maybe?), turn signals. The hood needs paint, but it has no rust. That's another reason I'm keeping my '94...no rust, drives good. Solid old van.
Also have the remainder of the '97 to part out. The engine was overheated, but otherwise, the van was operating regularly.
PO was driving and the fan belt broke on the V6...fried that puppy. Shame.
If anyone has any information or ideas regarding this modification, please post. So far, the mod hasn't been especially challenging, but I'll bet that getting all the front end parts (fenders and hood) aligned will be tedious.
If anyone has specific questions on the conversion, I'll be glad to try to answer them as this project moves forward. I'm going to begin disassembly of the '94 tomorrow.
Hope this helps those thinking about doing this modification. More info soon.
JR
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54 Posts
Found some additional info.... http://archives.astrosafari.com/ikonboa ... =8;t=11553
This is in the archives. Enjoy
This is in the archives. Enjoy
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54 Posts
Well boys and girls, I've almost made the jump to '97 front sheet metal.
This isn't a 'bolt-on' mod. However, it's doable with some mechanical skill. And a welding skills..and a good many tools to work with.
I ended up taking the sawzall to the '97 and removing about 12" of inner fender (double panel in some areas) and about 4" below the battery and window washer tanks.
Since I didn't want to lose any metal on the '94, I drilled out all of the spot welds. This process is a major PITA due to no knowing exactly where the welds are located. Managed to eventually drill them out and the front rad support pulled out.
I've got a good many pics that I'll post soon for those interested.
Be advised, the '94 and down have much more support built into them. The '95 and later are downright flimsy in comparison. If you're safety concious, don't go down this road. A fender can be removed from a '97 in 4 minutes. A '94 is going to take 30 minutes to remove. '94 bumpers have a lot of solid metal with corner braces....'97 has no corner braces, and is only supported by the frame horns. BTW, the frame horns on my '94 AWD are identical to the '97 RWD donor. I've referenced having to cut the frame horns to accomodate the later styled bumper mounts....and I've seen this process, but FWIW, a '94 AWD is the same as a '97.
There's also been a lot of discussion on spacing the biscuits under the radiator support. I've used the biscuits and they fit without major difficulty. I jacked up the van and set it on jack stands between the two rear subframe mounting bolts and that gave enough room to easily work with the '97 radiator support.
The '97 fenders have only one mounting bolt that matches a '94. The rearmost bolt is a 6mm on a '97 and an 8mm on a '94. So the useable fender mount bolt must be drilled out. The two front fender bolts are going to fit since the '97 rad support is used. However, none of the inner fender panels are really useable.
I trimmed the 12" that I cut off to fit the 94 fender inner panel. The contours are the same, but the '97 is longer by 5" or so. So rather than cut the rad support clean, I used the sawed off inner fenders and welded them together. Had to cut a small 3"X4"X2" triangle to fill the remaining area.
Had to cut about 1 3/4" off the panels below the window washer tank and the battery. The lower part of the rad support is further back than the '94.
Measured and tacked the inner fenders so that the mount dimensions were the same from the '97. Worked out well. The fenders fit nicely and the hood looks great. This is only because my donor had not been wrecked. DON'T buy a previously damaged donor. That could doom your project.
Spent about 3, 8 hour days on this project. All of the panels are welded in place, the fenders and hood are mounted and fitted. The grill fits well.
Now I'm going to replace the serpentive belt and hoses. The hoses are required due to the wider radiator. Transmission cooler lines are different too. Haven't sorted that out yet.
AC will require some lines to be made up. The AC is entirely different. Bummer.
Headlight harness will work as-is. The turn signal wiring will have to be cut off the donor and grafted ontly the '94 harness. No biggie here. Window washer plug is the same.
I'm gonna look for some new headlights and turn signals on Ebay or something....the donor units are a little 'aged' looking.
One other item is that the front end must be a little lighter with the '97 sheet metal. The van is sitting a little higher.
BTW, the front biscuits fit as intended. If they don't go fit, something's wrong. Once the radiator support is welded into position, the front end is supported by this sheet metal. The subframe is rather flexible until the whole front end is complete. Don't support the van by the frame horns when the front sheet metal is being cut off. The van will drop as the front sheet metal is removed. I would not weld the rad support to the subframe under any circumstance. That isn't going to stay welded in any event. The thin rad support metal will quickly fatigue and crack. The biscuits will fit.
When welding the inner panels into place, use a jack on each frame horn to set the dimension between the fender mounting points. Measure up these dimensions before cutting the donor. Once they are welded in place, that's where it's going to be.
Changing the front sheet metal is easier than changing my LT4/4L60E into an OBD II van. Much less work...but still plenty of work.
I'll post some pix soon.
JR
This isn't a 'bolt-on' mod. However, it's doable with some mechanical skill. And a welding skills..and a good many tools to work with.
I ended up taking the sawzall to the '97 and removing about 12" of inner fender (double panel in some areas) and about 4" below the battery and window washer tanks.
Since I didn't want to lose any metal on the '94, I drilled out all of the spot welds. This process is a major PITA due to no knowing exactly where the welds are located. Managed to eventually drill them out and the front rad support pulled out.
I've got a good many pics that I'll post soon for those interested.
Be advised, the '94 and down have much more support built into them. The '95 and later are downright flimsy in comparison. If you're safety concious, don't go down this road. A fender can be removed from a '97 in 4 minutes. A '94 is going to take 30 minutes to remove. '94 bumpers have a lot of solid metal with corner braces....'97 has no corner braces, and is only supported by the frame horns. BTW, the frame horns on my '94 AWD are identical to the '97 RWD donor. I've referenced having to cut the frame horns to accomodate the later styled bumper mounts....and I've seen this process, but FWIW, a '94 AWD is the same as a '97.
There's also been a lot of discussion on spacing the biscuits under the radiator support. I've used the biscuits and they fit without major difficulty. I jacked up the van and set it on jack stands between the two rear subframe mounting bolts and that gave enough room to easily work with the '97 radiator support.
The '97 fenders have only one mounting bolt that matches a '94. The rearmost bolt is a 6mm on a '97 and an 8mm on a '94. So the useable fender mount bolt must be drilled out. The two front fender bolts are going to fit since the '97 rad support is used. However, none of the inner fender panels are really useable.
I trimmed the 12" that I cut off to fit the 94 fender inner panel. The contours are the same, but the '97 is longer by 5" or so. So rather than cut the rad support clean, I used the sawed off inner fenders and welded them together. Had to cut a small 3"X4"X2" triangle to fill the remaining area.
Had to cut about 1 3/4" off the panels below the window washer tank and the battery. The lower part of the rad support is further back than the '94.
Measured and tacked the inner fenders so that the mount dimensions were the same from the '97. Worked out well. The fenders fit nicely and the hood looks great. This is only because my donor had not been wrecked. DON'T buy a previously damaged donor. That could doom your project.
Spent about 3, 8 hour days on this project. All of the panels are welded in place, the fenders and hood are mounted and fitted. The grill fits well.
Now I'm going to replace the serpentive belt and hoses. The hoses are required due to the wider radiator. Transmission cooler lines are different too. Haven't sorted that out yet.
AC will require some lines to be made up. The AC is entirely different. Bummer.
Headlight harness will work as-is. The turn signal wiring will have to be cut off the donor and grafted ontly the '94 harness. No biggie here. Window washer plug is the same.
I'm gonna look for some new headlights and turn signals on Ebay or something....the donor units are a little 'aged' looking.
One other item is that the front end must be a little lighter with the '97 sheet metal. The van is sitting a little higher.
BTW, the front biscuits fit as intended. If they don't go fit, something's wrong. Once the radiator support is welded into position, the front end is supported by this sheet metal. The subframe is rather flexible until the whole front end is complete. Don't support the van by the frame horns when the front sheet metal is being cut off. The van will drop as the front sheet metal is removed. I would not weld the rad support to the subframe under any circumstance. That isn't going to stay welded in any event. The thin rad support metal will quickly fatigue and crack. The biscuits will fit.
When welding the inner panels into place, use a jack on each frame horn to set the dimension between the fender mounting points. Measure up these dimensions before cutting the donor. Once they are welded in place, that's where it's going to be.
Changing the front sheet metal is easier than changing my LT4/4L60E into an OBD II van. Much less work...but still plenty of work.
I'll post some pix soon.
JR
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134 Posts
I took a look at the old thread in the archives but there is not much left of it after its conversion. LT4 you have done a great job on your write-up, how in the world did you remember everything that you did. I have had all the parts hanging in my garage to convert mine since 2004, I guess I will get to it someday.
Nice write up! And thanks for finding that old thread. I didn't think it exsisted anymore. In the end all my body mounts are as original. Placing the jack stands as you mentioned is very important. I used my original tranny lines. Can't remember exactly how. I think it was just a matter of changing the fitting on the new radiator by swapping the old ones. I used the original AC lines with a modification to the line that runs to the condeser. Mated the old line with a line from a newer van. I also had no problems with the bumper brackets. My 97 AWD donor mounts boolted right up to my 92 horns.
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54 Posts
As y'all can see, I didn't cut all of the rad support out. The contour of the inner fender on both cars are the same. However, the inside panel is not. So it cut around the inside panel and retained what you see in the welded area. Welding that crap is like welding paper. Stitch is ugle, but it didn't burn holes in the fender panels. The panels overlap.
The late model front end has solved on of my big headaches. Now the belt, hoses, and other bits will be available for service. When the '94 front end was in place, I couldn't reach between the fan (Black Magic 150) and the water pump. There's plenty of room now.
Yeah, the headlight wiring, park light wiring, and horns have to be grafted onto the OEM harness. I have not done so yet, but the wiring is ready to be installed.
The window washer plug is the same for both years.
Be advised that the engine and transmission cooler lines require alteration too. The '94 lines are 5/16" while the '97 is 3/8". The engine oil cooler lines, which I'm not using, are not long enough to reach the wider '97 radiator.
Had to make up some new radiator hoses too...due to wider '97 rad.
Got to looking around for the upper radiator mount today. Couldn't find the sucker...finally did. Its part of the upper fan shroud. Duh.
Don't need a fan shoud with an LT4. Plan to cut off the upper rad retaining part and use that.
The above pix don't indicate such, but the fenders are not bolted on tight. They ended up pretty much fitting.
This fit is going to be fixed by proper location of the donor rad support. Screw that up, and you'll have to cut it off and start over. And obviously, keep the weigh off the front subframe when setting these dimensions.
I made a small hook to bolt into the front hood hinge mount and attached a ratchet strap so that I could pull the rad support up to where I wanted it. A comealong would work too..but the increments of adjustment are too great.
Major alignment of the hood and fenders is retained by using the donor rad support. Since it's bolted to the subframe, you are only working on one plane. lateral and fore-aft at the lower section of the rad support is done with the subrame bolts. That makes this much easier than say welding a front end on a car.
It's about driveable again. Take it and steam clean everything, disassemble the fenders and hood and paint. For the time being, I'm going to try to match the OEM paint. This might not work. The sides of the van are good. The original hood has clear coat issues....so something was going to get painted either way.
Now if anyone needs some pretty decent front parts for an early body style, feel free to make offers! Even the rad suport is useable.
I posted another pic that shows the location of the spot welds...this is sorta tedious to sort out. There's one weld that you won't be able to access. Just have to pull out the old rad support. These body panels were not built to removed.
Cheers, JR
View attachment 2
The late model front end has solved on of my big headaches. Now the belt, hoses, and other bits will be available for service. When the '94 front end was in place, I couldn't reach between the fan (Black Magic 150) and the water pump. There's plenty of room now.
Yeah, the headlight wiring, park light wiring, and horns have to be grafted onto the OEM harness. I have not done so yet, but the wiring is ready to be installed.
The window washer plug is the same for both years.
Be advised that the engine and transmission cooler lines require alteration too. The '94 lines are 5/16" while the '97 is 3/8". The engine oil cooler lines, which I'm not using, are not long enough to reach the wider '97 radiator.
Had to make up some new radiator hoses too...due to wider '97 rad.
Got to looking around for the upper radiator mount today. Couldn't find the sucker...finally did. Its part of the upper fan shroud. Duh.
Don't need a fan shoud with an LT4. Plan to cut off the upper rad retaining part and use that.
The above pix don't indicate such, but the fenders are not bolted on tight. They ended up pretty much fitting.
This fit is going to be fixed by proper location of the donor rad support. Screw that up, and you'll have to cut it off and start over. And obviously, keep the weigh off the front subframe when setting these dimensions.
I made a small hook to bolt into the front hood hinge mount and attached a ratchet strap so that I could pull the rad support up to where I wanted it. A comealong would work too..but the increments of adjustment are too great.
Major alignment of the hood and fenders is retained by using the donor rad support. Since it's bolted to the subframe, you are only working on one plane. lateral and fore-aft at the lower section of the rad support is done with the subrame bolts. That makes this much easier than say welding a front end on a car.
It's about driveable again. Take it and steam clean everything, disassemble the fenders and hood and paint. For the time being, I'm going to try to match the OEM paint. This might not work. The sides of the van are good. The original hood has clear coat issues....so something was going to get painted either way.
Now if anyone needs some pretty decent front parts for an early body style, feel free to make offers! Even the rad suport is useable.
I posted another pic that shows the location of the spot welds...this is sorta tedious to sort out. There's one weld that you won't be able to access. Just have to pull out the old rad support. These body panels were not built to removed.
Cheers, JR
View attachment 2
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54 Posts
Those Safari front ends look good! Looked around for a good donor Safari and never found one. Lucky to find the one that I've got. Ended up buying a whole van to get what I wanted. Looking at yours, the front sheet metal looks the same? Are they?
Now that I'm looking, the headlights and park lights appear to be the same too...just that Chevy has the divider between the units.
I don't know about 'composit' lights, but they look like what you have posted in your pix...but they are divided into a typical Chevy Van/truck style. Rather than the old 3 pin headlight plug, the donor has a weatherproof locking connector. Same for horns and park lights.
I'm going to replace the headlights and park lights. They look pretty aged from sun damage.
Anyone familiar with the projectors that are avail on Ebay? About $120 bucks per pair?
I'll probably stick these old lights on it to verify everything works...
Reckon that chrome center bar on the grill can be painted? Never thought painting over chrome was a good idea. But I've seen it done on one of the Astro picx.
JR
Now that I'm looking, the headlights and park lights appear to be the same too...just that Chevy has the divider between the units.
I don't know about 'composit' lights, but they look like what you have posted in your pix...but they are divided into a typical Chevy Van/truck style. Rather than the old 3 pin headlight plug, the donor has a weatherproof locking connector. Same for horns and park lights.
I'm going to replace the headlights and park lights. They look pretty aged from sun damage.
Anyone familiar with the projectors that are avail on Ebay? About $120 bucks per pair?
I'll probably stick these old lights on it to verify everything works...
Reckon that chrome center bar on the grill can be painted? Never thought painting over chrome was a good idea. But I've seen it done on one of the Astro picx.
JR
Everything between the Astro and Safari is the same except the parking lights and the grill. The Safari also has two trim pieces underneath the parking lamps that you would need. I have never tried the projector lights but I have friends that have them and they think they suck. I have also heard people say that they thought the composites (the ones in the pic) sucked compared to the old style. I disagree. I thought the lights were much better after the conversion. Mine weren't yellowed though. Just the parking lamps. I got new ones from Rockauto.com fairly cheap.
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I ordered a set of lights that I found on Eplace...I pray for good outcomes! Bought the 'Diamond' headlights (I liked the looks of the things), new corner lights, and park lights. That'll freshen up the front end.
Found a grille on 'Rockauto' for $83 bucks and about $30 for shipping. May do that too.
Unable to work on the van Friday or today, but tomorrow it'll probably be driveable again. Not exactly ready for prime-time, but we'll see if the radiator holds water, the lights work, and if any other gremlin pops up.
The poor old engine don't look the same as it did when new. Still runs great. I'm amazed that the Optispark is still working! Installed a new fan belt and spark plugs while working on the front end. The old spark plugs were in excellent condition.
Cannot keep the engine clean. If anyone drives an Astro Van as a daily driver, the engine isn't going to stay clean. And there's no room to get into the engine area to clean it.
When this van was converted back in '01, I figured it would be nothing but trouble. That's not been so at all. The only breakdown in about 25K of driving with the LT4 was a fuel pump failure. Not a biggie, but I was up in the NC mountains. Had to put it on a rollback and bring'er home. I knew what was wrong, but there just wasn't any way to repair the sucker on Sunday afternoon. Other than that, the van has been great. I'm a musician too and the van is quite useful for carrying 'stuff.'
It still gets driven a good bit, although my daily driver is now an electric conversion Nissan 200SX. No gasoline. Very cool toy if you aren't in a hurry. When gasoline bumped up last year to almost $5 bucks a gallon, the 93 octane sucking van was set aside for a bit. Didn't drive it much.
Whatever--I'm attached to the van and plan to keep for a bit longer. I really like the looks of the newer styled front ends (95 and later).
I'll post some completed pix when it's painted. As these projects go, I'm looking for a tow-bar baseplate to install while the front end is going together.
I doubt that anyone makes a towbar baseplate for an AWD Astro since they cannot be towed 4 down. Not typically anyway. Mine can be towed.
The only remaining 'problems' I've got with the front end swap relates to the AC. Anyone got any ideas for making up lines for the AC? Lockoc?
The '97 AC has three lines on the evap while the 94 has only two. So that rules out using the '97 AC plumbing. The '97 uses an import compressor. Cannot use that. The AC ain't a showstopper, but I'd like to keep working.
Anyone noticed how the serpentine belt runs around my engine? An LT4 has odd accessory mount points (way too wide), so the brackes are modified from both V6 (driver's side), and an LT1 (pax side) to keep everything functioning.
Does anyone know if the 'slanted' brake booster on the '97 has any advantages over the '94 booster?
I'm going to remove the steel springs from the '97 and replace my composit springs. My composits look good...just not sure after the age and abuse if I want to risk the composit springs de-constructing. That would be very bad....
All ideas welcomed! JR
Found a grille on 'Rockauto' for $83 bucks and about $30 for shipping. May do that too.
Unable to work on the van Friday or today, but tomorrow it'll probably be driveable again. Not exactly ready for prime-time, but we'll see if the radiator holds water, the lights work, and if any other gremlin pops up.
The poor old engine don't look the same as it did when new. Still runs great. I'm amazed that the Optispark is still working! Installed a new fan belt and spark plugs while working on the front end. The old spark plugs were in excellent condition.
Cannot keep the engine clean. If anyone drives an Astro Van as a daily driver, the engine isn't going to stay clean. And there's no room to get into the engine area to clean it.
When this van was converted back in '01, I figured it would be nothing but trouble. That's not been so at all. The only breakdown in about 25K of driving with the LT4 was a fuel pump failure. Not a biggie, but I was up in the NC mountains. Had to put it on a rollback and bring'er home. I knew what was wrong, but there just wasn't any way to repair the sucker on Sunday afternoon. Other than that, the van has been great. I'm a musician too and the van is quite useful for carrying 'stuff.'
It still gets driven a good bit, although my daily driver is now an electric conversion Nissan 200SX. No gasoline. Very cool toy if you aren't in a hurry. When gasoline bumped up last year to almost $5 bucks a gallon, the 93 octane sucking van was set aside for a bit. Didn't drive it much.
Whatever--I'm attached to the van and plan to keep for a bit longer. I really like the looks of the newer styled front ends (95 and later).
I'll post some completed pix when it's painted. As these projects go, I'm looking for a tow-bar baseplate to install while the front end is going together.
I doubt that anyone makes a towbar baseplate for an AWD Astro since they cannot be towed 4 down. Not typically anyway. Mine can be towed.
The only remaining 'problems' I've got with the front end swap relates to the AC. Anyone got any ideas for making up lines for the AC? Lockoc?
The '97 AC has three lines on the evap while the 94 has only two. So that rules out using the '97 AC plumbing. The '97 uses an import compressor. Cannot use that. The AC ain't a showstopper, but I'd like to keep working.
Anyone noticed how the serpentine belt runs around my engine? An LT4 has odd accessory mount points (way too wide), so the brackes are modified from both V6 (driver's side), and an LT1 (pax side) to keep everything functioning.
Does anyone know if the 'slanted' brake booster on the '97 has any advantages over the '94 booster?
I'm going to remove the steel springs from the '97 and replace my composit springs. My composits look good...just not sure after the age and abuse if I want to risk the composit springs de-constructing. That would be very bad....
All ideas welcomed! JR
On my AC I was able to take the 92 AC line to the condenser, cut it and splice the other side from the 97 donor. The other side fit OK. I haven't done my LT! swap yet but so far I have the pass side bracket from a Caprice the will hold the alt, an AC delete pulley and the idler\adjuster. For the drivers side I have the bracket from a later model full size van that had a 5.3. It holds a top mount style compressor and ps pump that is basically like the stock Astro pump. From what I measured I will just need to space it out about an eighth inch. I will not be installing an air pump.
Splicing the AC line was very unconventional and I didn't think it would work but it worked well. I cut the rubber lines to fit. Inside the rubber line is a thicker plastic hose. I took a piece of pipe of the right diameter to fit in the hoses very snug. I then heated the pipe with a torch. Then slid it into the hoses. The hoses melted to the pipe for a leak proof fit. And then added some hose clamps for good measure. That was then covered by a piece of rubber hose sliced down the center which hides the splice. I was way over budget at the time and had no money to get custom lines. This spliced line has yet to fail. Everthing I purchased was for a 95 Astro which has the new front end and still used the same basic engine setup as the 94 and down which matched what I had. I had to run to the junk yard to get the correct plug and pressure sensor for the 95 accumulator.
Splicing the AC line was very unconventional and I didn't think it would work but it worked well. I cut the rubber lines to fit. Inside the rubber line is a thicker plastic hose. I took a piece of pipe of the right diameter to fit in the hoses very snug. I then heated the pipe with a torch. Then slid it into the hoses. The hoses melted to the pipe for a leak proof fit. And then added some hose clamps for good measure. That was then covered by a piece of rubber hose sliced down the center which hides the splice. I was way over budget at the time and had no money to get custom lines. This spliced line has yet to fail. Everthing I purchased was for a 95 Astro which has the new front end and still used the same basic engine setup as the 94 and down which matched what I had. I had to run to the junk yard to get the correct plug and pressure sensor for the 95 accumulator.
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Thanks! The info on the '95 air conditioning might be useful. If the compressor lines will fit up, the rest is easy.
Drove the van today. Needs paint, and some new lights, but the project has worked out better than expected.
The front end is sitting an inch higher than with the '94 front end. The '97 bumper and sheet metal weighs a good bit less than the '94.
Anyone have a '95 and can tell me where the hood latch opener is located? Doesn't the '95 have the same dash layout as a earlier model?
A '97 hood latch cable and release mechanism isn't easily installed on a '94. Especially in my situation. The cable will exit the firewall where my ECM resides. And I ain't gonna move the ECM and it's associated wiring. A '95 hood latch, if the release handle is located center dash, would be a solution to the hood latch problem. I've got a temp solution now. But, it isn't a nice solution.
Got all the lights wired up and all works as it should.
Don't have the little trim pieces on the lower rear of the fenders, but I've got'em. Still have to change out the flexible panels between the fenders and inner finders. They're different between the two year models.
A couple of pix below show the outcome.
Drove the van today. Needs paint, and some new lights, but the project has worked out better than expected.
The front end is sitting an inch higher than with the '94 front end. The '97 bumper and sheet metal weighs a good bit less than the '94.
Anyone have a '95 and can tell me where the hood latch opener is located? Doesn't the '95 have the same dash layout as a earlier model?
A '97 hood latch cable and release mechanism isn't easily installed on a '94. Especially in my situation. The cable will exit the firewall where my ECM resides. And I ain't gonna move the ECM and it's associated wiring. A '95 hood latch, if the release handle is located center dash, would be a solution to the hood latch problem. I've got a temp solution now. But, it isn't a nice solution.
Got all the lights wired up and all works as it should.
Don't have the little trim pieces on the lower rear of the fenders, but I've got'em. Still have to change out the flexible panels between the fenders and inner finders. They're different between the two year models.
A couple of pix below show the outcome.
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