Chevy & GMC Vans

Nice to see I'm not the only one who naturally assumed the coilovers were complimenting the main leaf. Larry intends to do away with the monoleaf. But you never know, he may need both set-ups.

Well,,the move from hell is over. Won't go into the details but can tell ya,,the van fell off loading ramps while loading,,rental truck broke down and several other issues I won't go in to.
Unloaded the van here yesterday afternoon. Rolled right off,,cranked and went around the blocks a few times. Boy, it felt good driving it again even with the IRS all out of alignment. First time driven in almost two years. IRS felt really good, no unusual sounds or grinding,,just smooth and nice. After a couple of turns around the block I took it over to my father-in-laws basement where I'll be setting up shop for awhile.
Only problem I see is the coilovers. The van is sitting to high in the rear so I'll run the coil retainers rings all the way down then see what I get and if that doesn't do the trick I'll have to get longer monoleaf bolts and that'll get me another couple of inches lower.
Should have cable hooked up in a couple of days and then I'll be able to post some pics.

Git 'er dun, son. Git 'er dun

Got some time to get back on the IRS. Discovered today that my coils are to long for my set up so will have to swap them out with Aldan. This was one reason the rear was sitting up so high even after running the retainer rings all the way out. Also replaced the shorter monoleaf bolts with the 10in. ones. After removing the coils from shocks and adding the longer bolts I got the rear sitting the height I want it. Still have a raked look but don't feel like I'm falling through the windshiled when I'm driving.
Here's a before pic,,you notice the tow in rods on each side are at an angle along with the axles.

Before.



After





Passenger side control arm bracket,,gonna have to hit it with a rattle can before that southern rust sets in.


This last shot is of the bracket that bolts to top of dif. and you can see the spacers I used to get the proper pinion angle. This was done very quickly the day I moved from Florence but it rode ok on the trailer cominig down but I'll be replacing it later.


That's it for now but just about got everything the right height and aligned up well enough to ge to a shop for correct alignment.

It looks a lot better with everything straight and level... I t will propably drive better aswell. Have you tried it with out the coilovers or is it way to soft?

No,,haven't tried it without the coils because it sits to low and shocks are to compressed to try and run. In other words my coils are to long and sits to high with them on and without, the weight of van compressing shock doesn't give the shock enough length to keep shock piston from bottoming out. So I've called Aldan to swap my chrome coils for shorter ones with a little less stiffness where I can reduce the chances of bottoming out and also keep it the height I have now which is a little higher in back than level.
By the way,,I may be swapping back to the factory strutrods,,would you be interested in the Brake Products pair I have ? You can see them on the IRS thread on AS.

lookin good