Oh yeah definitely, im only trying to fit 205/75/15's, mmmayybe 215. I was just referencing the title of that thread where coronan talks about the aerostar springs.
Can't wait for vanco to release some more knowledge nuggets on modding the vans.
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Oh yeah definitely, im only trying to fit 205/75/15's, mmmayybe 215. I was just referencing the title of that thread where coronan talks about the aerostar springs.
Can't wait for vanco to release some more knowledge nuggets on modding the vans.
To those who have Aerostar springs, how do you like them? How's their firmness?
i have them and they're great. no complaints so far. They do feel a little firmer than the previous ones but I actually like it better than OEM personally, and they perform much better off road and give more travel than using spacers. fully loaded with camping gear the van doesn't seem to sag noticeably.Quote:
Originally Posted by wbradley
Rear Shocks:
Toyota / Blisten TRD Tacoma 48530-A9680
I have run 28 to 30 inch tires for 12 years on my Van. About a year ago I got tired (pun haha) of the front rubbing so I made my final modification, cut the hell out of the door and floor pan, to make my Hankook Dynapro Mt's fit. When I made the modification I went big. I can probably fit 33's in the front now. Only problem is the 30's bottom out on the door now. If I went with a bigger tire I would need more suspension lift.
For the lift, I cut the spring perch off the rear and fabricated some 3 inch blocks to raise the perch. This way I was able to maintain the factory ride in the rear. For years I ran 27 inch skyjacker shocks. They would allow the axle to drop to the point the spring would just start to get loose. Recently I just replaced the skyjackers with some fox shocks my brother gave me. I lost about an inch of drop, but now the spring doesn't get loose on the perch. Plus, the fox shocks ride so much better.
In the front I cranked the torsions to match the rear. At first I hated the ride. There was no downward travel and every pothole felt like it would pop the dash into my lap. To fix this I cut the downward bump stop off and relocated it about two inches lower. I then bought a big poly bump stop for a jeep axle and replaced the factory tiny rubber one. I cut the poly bump stop to give about a quarter inch before the CV would bind on full drop out. To allow for the added need for shock travel I cut the top of the shock tower off and raised it a few inches using 2x4x1/4 steel. I now run a longer skyjacker shock.
For the front I did remove the rear AC stuff to cut the wheel well behind the tire on the passenger side. If you have the airbox in on the driver's side 30's will rub it. With the turbo I was able to relocate the air box. Basically, there is a lot of sheet metal cutting, but it can be done and look good.
Oh, for the rear sway bar I did have to fabricate extended links, but the sway bar broke in half in death valley 7 years ago and I have run without one since then. I have a replacement, but the difference it makes without one is negligible. I did also make a 3 inch extension bracket for the brake proportioning valve. I just barely did that, so I drove 12 years with a 3 inch lift without it. There is a noticeable difference in braking, with vs without the extension bracket.
I have been running the lift like this the entire 12 years I have owned this van. It has been great, with no excessive wear due to the lift itself. Any wear has been due to my driving habits.
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I have seen this van in person and its every bit as amazing as it sounds. the level of effort and attention to detail is astounding. He should get an award for this - oh wait - he did! :rol:
Hey thanks man! :)
I installed mr gasket spacers about 18 months ago. Van looked great! until recently. The rear end recently started sagging and rear tires are pretty much inside the wheel well :( I have added 300- 400 lbs of cargo to the van. Which I've been carrying for the past month.
Today I pulled some Aerostar springs from the junkyard. They were considerably longer than the original yota coils. I cut off just enough of the spring top and bottom for them to fit the Toyota 'mounts'.
After the installation was finished the vans rear lift was identical. Saggy :(
Could it be my original springs 'went bad' and I installed a set of bad springs from the junk yard?
Or am I missing something?
Also my van was rear ended badly 18 months ago😞. The body damage on the rear passenger side seems to be getting worse with time. Could this play a part in the rear sag?
Thanks! Look forward to getting her sitting level again. I still have another 150lbs of cargo I need to add
Also how do insert pictures with my message?
Trying this in this older thread:
So I've seen several people that have used the Aerostar springs, and invariably they say they cut 2-3 coils off (gradually)
I seem to recall also people saying the small end bits were the first to go. Makes sense if needed to fit!
My question is this for those that had used the Aerostar springs: The Aerostar coils are Dual rate springs, meaning they have a soft section for a nice ride and a stiffer section for heavy loads . Are you cutting the well spaced (I believe that is the soft side) coils, or the tight coils? are you counting the tight cutoffs?
I went with the CC841's (still waiting for the Bilstien's to get here) as those are softer (should be better off road) and 18.69 inches free height, vs the CC845's I see most using, and at 20" I won't be cutting as much off.
I didn't see the need for the 616# Load rating when I'm going to be empty or lightly loaded most of the time even when camping. If I go for a week, or with more people I tow a trailer (so finding or adapting a receiver hitch is high on my list), and that takes the bulk of the weight, so the 482# load rating should be fine for my use.
So last weekend I finally got enough dry weather to do the lift on the new to me Project van. This allowed me to do the taller 215/75R15;s on some Samurai rims.
This is My take on the Aerostar lift, but I did NOT use the commonly used CC845's. I used the CC841's instead (new from Moog)
Why? lets look at the specs:
Attachment 8782
The 41's are 18 " tall the 45's are 20 - Everyone cuts about 3 coils off - I'm not sure which end, and that matters as these are dual rate springs. If installed with the tight coils up as per the directions for an Aerostar, its the tight coils as that goes up and the coil needs to be fully open without a pigtail The bottom needs part of the pigtaii left.
I only cut the partial Pig tail on the bottom, then the full pig tail and one more coil off the top.
The full load rates are 482 for the 41;s and 616, for the 45's
The Spring rate "per inch" is 101 for both BUT these are dual rate... so either the extra 2" in height adds the 128 lbs, or the spring get stronger as they compress, BUT if 3 coils are chopped by others, then they must be close to my finished height?
In any case, softer springs are better for articulation, so I went with the 41's and only took 1 full coil off (not sure if others count the pigtail...)
This is what I needed left for the bottom Pig tail for best fit in the bottom:
Attachment 8783
And what was left after the cutting:
Attachment 8784
Other than that it was a pretty conventional remove and replace. I took the shocks off and that made more space for getting the springs out, then back in, and I did not need spring compressors to remove, but did for installation (taller spring, Someone mentioned you could disconnect a link and get more drop and do without the compressors, but I elected not to)
I reused the stock spring pads, one probably needed replaced but it's in now. I'll keep an eye on it and replace if needed. If I do I may look at a smaller upper "cup" as the Aerostar springs ARE also a bit smaller in diameter.
This was eyeballing the new tires after the lift. It did come up about 2" or so. I could probably have lived with leaving that one full coil in other than needing more compression to install (or dropping the link as mentioned)
Attachment 8785
And how it sits after the lift with the old "rollerskate" wheels, but Aerostar springs and Toyota/Bilstiens from a Tacoma:
Attachment 8786
About 4 hours all told for this part of the job.
The following Sunday I did the tires:
Tire day was a LONG day; I had to remove a wheel from the Donor sami, dismount the tire (all the old tires went to a neighbor that converted then to raised planters), Prep and paint the rim, replace with the "roller skate" wheels, and do the next...
So some time spent "watching paint dry" -Not really, lots of other things needed done...
On the front I had to trim a corner of the door as expected, and then beat the body corner to match, as well as hammer a seam flange flat and make some space in the back. I got by with less than others have that have done this and I still haven't jacked the front torsion bars up.
Roller skate wheels off!
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All the tire dismounting and mounting was done manually.
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Painting the rims:
Attachment 8789
Ready to seat the bead:
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As soon as my ancient Compressor comes up to pressure - Made this ages ago from parts, the little one lunger is WAY too small for this monster...
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The Tire Balancer I use:
Attachment 8792
So I went from this:
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To this - I still haven't cranked the Torsion bars, probably needs about an inch? - The PO MAY have done a little as the roller skate wheels were hitting, (and the deep dish mags prevented the side door from opening - All fixed now!:
Attachment 8793
I also need to install the Gabriel shocks up front.
Nice job. Any pics of the front door trimming and hammer massaging to the front? Still have my 15” Suzuki wheels waiting for the final color coats and need to order new tires.
thanks
Getting back to this - I'm NOT happy that the mods arbitrarily moved my thread start for a nice clean "How to lift the Toy van" into this thread. (When so many other "lift" threads have been left alone)
Josh I didn't take pics of the hammer Forming, but I need to do a little more and make some adjustments to the front suspension so its a better ride, so I'l get some then
The purpose of this post is a cleaner way to fix the rear brake Load sensor for the lift. There is an adjustable part of it, it's simply not long enough. so I made an extension for THAT part, rather than the bracket, and it does the job just fine!
Pic is worth a thousand words but it took a threaded coupler, and a cut off section of a suitable metric bot and it was done! I can still adjust it as needed (and I used maybe 1/4" of that to get a full 2")
Attachment 9020
Can I lift a 1984 Van with this way?
As long as you also have the torsion bars for the front on the earlier 2WD, I don't see why not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bikerjosh
Hi Josh, Sorry for the late reply here.
I actually had to come back and trim a bit more and much higher. Mostly on the door.
Here is a pic, and its was a combination of pounding on the lower edge to flatten the actual wheel well edge/corner (I used a 2 LB Engineers drilling hammer - you NEED the weight), and trimming the door edge back to match. You can see how high I cut compared to the door trim piece. This was because I was still barely hitting on deep compression of the suspension in front. I Took it hunting and it was clearing for most everything then if just barely... (I think it barely kissed 2X and I wasn't' being very gentle..)
Attachment 9799
This was with Ohtsu AT 4000 215/75 R15 tires. Other makes the same size may not fit the same...
If I had to choose a better fitting tire size, I would go with 215/70 R15 tires. Why?
2 reasons:
- almost 1/2" more clearance on the radius, so less trimming or more clearance.
- Lowers the gearing a tiny bit. With the Auto, and no Low range, the steep hills at a crawl were difficult... (One hill I had to make three running stabs to get back up.. and that was a MUST DO to get back out...)
The calculated difference in diameter is about 1/2" - 26.85" for the 70's; 27.7" for the 75's (again YMMV on a different brand)
These actually MEASURE about 27.5 as mounted on the Samurai rims on the round, and closer to 26 accounting for the compression of the tire with weight on it. (on the fronts as there is more weight up there ordinarily...) -Yes, they have the proper amount of pressure in them.
Report on the Ohtsu AT4000's: I love them - Quiet, and great traction (getting up that hill was not a traction issue; it was usable power and AT slippage at low RPM's as it grunted down.)
Comment on right height in front:
I have my torsion bars set pretty high in front now. I started probably an inch high (from the PO' original cranking..) I will be letting that down about 1/2" as the height they are now give s harsh ride.- this is because their is almost NOTHING left for the tire to drop. The suspension NEEDS rebound in BOTH directions for a decent ride, and this ain't it...
I do not see this impacting ground clearance as the rear diff is still way lower than the front bottom plate clearance. However I did need to clear the tires to be able to do this...
Does the Ford Aerostar spring conversion work on 2wd models?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bushcat
Look at posts 53 and 54?
I didn't know what exactly those posts were referring to. Whether it was a 4wd with 2wd torsion bars or what. I have an 84 cargo van 2wd with springs in the back. Going to order the same springs you ordered. Will this require the LSP valve to be relocated?Quote:
Originally Posted by outlawmws
Same Q as you. I assume the earlier (pre 1987) 2wd vans used similar torsion bars if not the same.
The 2WD vans do ride lower, so you may get more effective lift from the springs than I did as I'd guess the stock springs on 2WD are shorter than the 4WD springs. I'm not sure of the changed the springs or the mounting to adjust rear ride height from 2WD to 4WD (the chassis ARE different, unfortunately. I have passed one several nice but DOA cosmetic 2WD vans that I'd have been happy to get, then use my rig as a donor for engine and 4WD gear...)
Yes you will need to adjust the LMS for height. I recommend measuring from the axle to a known point on the frame, before and after and make up that difference, it DOES matter. (I need to adjust mine a bit longer yet, the rears will lock up much earlier that the fronts still in wet weather... I did NOT measure first, so am guessing as I go...)
Also since you are raising a 2WD, measure the length of the drive shaft before the lift, and remeasure after. if it gets too much extension it could decouple as a possibility. (this happens on extreme lifts on 4WD rigs fairly routinely if not taken care of)
2" on the 4WD Tvan doesn't seem to be an issue. but you may get more lift...
Thanks for info outlaw. I just received my Moog CC841 from RockAuto on clearance. I have a 1985 2wd cargo van. I'll take pictures along the way and post results.
My original? pads for the shocks are very brittle. Do you guys recommend adding a Mr gasket in its place?