Chevy & GMC Vans

OK, I finally took a couple of days off work to get my Overland 4" lift (mostly) installed. I was working around a sick kid on a sloped driveway on the first day, so I only managed to get the front lift (body pucks, bumper brackets, etc.) installed on Day 1. Day 2 was the rear springs and shackles.

However I'm trying to figure out if I have a problem or if my expectations were too "low" (literally). I was expecting some rake, especially since I haven't done the front torsion bars yet, but I've got a serious Mystery Machine thing going here. By my measurements, the rear is almost 4" higher than the front!

I'll post a more complete install thread with more pictures into my main build thread, but here are before and afters:

Before front lift:


After body lift:


After rear spring lift: (middle hole on the shackle)


Caveats:
Yes, I know I have the original size tires, so it'll look weird. Yes, my driveway is double-sloped, which contributes to the weirdness, but here's a shot in my buddy's shop (with a flat/level floor) so you can see there's still plenty of rake:


As I said, I'm on the middle shackle hole. Obviously I'll probably have drop it to the top hole. I had planned to turn the stock keys but not install the re-indexed keys after all the talk around here and looking at Tom's nearly identical van on stock keys. I need to take a better measurement on flat ground again, but I think I have at least an extra inch or more in the rear over Tom's van right now. He was kind enough to go measure for me:

I've got 21.5" rear, and 20.25" front. Remember, FWIW, my kit has had over 3 yrs of good fs road "use" on it, to say the least.

He's right that his has probably settled some, but the difference seems bigger than that.

FWIW, I knew I'd screwed up the torquing procedure at the shop, so I took it back to a flat parking lot and loosened and re-torqued the shackle and spring-to-shackle bolts just to make sure I hadn't tightened things down with any pre-load on.

So, does this look excessive to anyone else, or is this just a matter of my expectations being a bit off and it looking weird because I haven't done the torsion bars and I have teeny tires on?

I would drop a hole on the back.
The springs will settle after awhile.
Then you can pop it back up a hole.

My two cents, Jim

What was Gerald's reply?

Olivia is not quite crawling yet, but we can crawl under there together to measurement the blocks themselves.

And if I remember correctly, Jason did crank the torsion bars a bit while I was mounting shocks.

You could get away with that look in Bakersfield, but not San Diego.

And definitely check the rear measruement; they could easily have misshipped the springs or mis made them or?

I only emailed Gerald this morning, so haven't heard back yet. I snapped a picture of the part# from the spring maker during installation, so I'm asking him to confirm the part#.

Not sure what other measurements to check. During installation I wasn't sure which part of the spring was the "front", so I confirmed the distances from the bushings to the locating pin, and that seemed to line up with the stock spring.

Yes, my understanding was that you had 2" blocks and cranked stock keys - I had planned to do the same. My blocks are definitely 2". My current rake is about 6" front vs. rear, so there's no amount of torsion lift that will even this out, even with the replacement keys.

Looks about right to me.

The rake is OK because you sit level and see better when climbing hills.

timelessbeing wrote:Looks about right to me.

The rake is OK because you sit level and see better when climbing hills.

OTOH, I feel like I'm going down hill most of the time...

Did you have a chance to measure your rear hub to fender yet?

Looks like the wrong springs to me. I have never seen anyone with their ass so high in the air without going to a custom high lift set of leafs.

Herbie wrote:

timelessbeing wrote:Looks about right to me.

The rake is OK because you sit level and see better when climbing hills.

OTOH, I feel like I'm going down hill most of the time...

Don't change a thing!

(You'll get better gas mileage if you are always going down hill. Duh!)

T.Low wrote:I've got 21.5" rear, and 20.25" front.

T.Low wrote:Did you have a chance to measure your rear hub to fender yet?

OK, finally got the van to flat land again to measure:

Approximately* 22-5/8" rear, 18" front.
So it looks like I'm down a bit more than two inches in the front (not surprising given stock key settings), and about an inch high in the rear.

*Here's the thing: My van still has a measurable right-side lean. I mentioned it in this previous thread, but wanted to wait until I had the new springs on until I worried too much about it. Here are my actual hub-to-fender measurements: I'm hoping this is just down to torsion bar settings and can be evened out when I crank the bars (and that there's enough adjustment to get things both even AND up a couple of inches).

Also, I heard back from Gerald, he confirmed the part # on the rear springs and says they're correct and should eventually settle. Fingers crossed.

I'm going to try to duck out of work early today and swing by my friend's shop and drop to the top hole on the shackle (could do at home but sloped driveway means I'd have to drive it elsewhere to re-torque anyway). Will need to take another day off work to tackle the rest of the front end stuff (still need to replace/relocate ball joints and do knockouts on upper arms, etc. while I'm in there).

How much fuel do you have in the tank when you measure?

Jim

astroturf wrote:How much fuel do you have in the tank when you measure?

Jim

Just measured this AM on a Full tank minus about 25 miles or so worth of gas. And this is with my battery box and Group34 AGM battery mounted where the 3rd row should be, plus some tools in the back.

Herbie wrote:

astroturf wrote:How much fuel do you have in the tank when you measure?

Jim

Just measured this AM on a Full tank minus about 25 miles or so worth of gas. And this is with my battery box and Group34 AGM battery mounted where the 3rd row should be, plus some tools in the back.

That sounds OK to me. The Manufacturer recommends over 3/4 tank of fuel to align, so you should be in good shape there. I hope the torsion bars level it out for you.

Jim

Wow, that's a big difference! Hopefully you get it leveled out!