Adjustable beam won't raise beyond certain point

[shea]

Just installed my creative weedeater 2 beam and TransporterHaus dropped spindles today. When I undo the adjusters and raise the bus on the lift the furthest the adjusters will move down is around the middle of their range. I should be able to raise the bus a lot more than this but it looks like the balljoints on the flipped spindle are at their maximum angle and stopping the torsion leaves from rotating any further.

The wheels at the minute are touching the tubs and would probably want too drop more if the lift it's on would go lower.

So I'm wondering if anyone knows how to move the adjusters down more to raise the bus?

 

[mattyd72]

Cant help mate, but am interested as I have the same set up ready to fit.
Got any pics of the issue.


Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

[aspro]

What size tyres you running to be hitting the tubs? Maybe the adjusters already at their highest setting.

 

[shea]

175 65 14, I rang creative before buying the beam. Dave confirmed that the beam can be adjusted back to stock height so I should be able to raise it more. There's plenty of range left on the adjusters, they're actually further towards a lowered position than a raised position. So I'd expect to be able to raise it up quite a bit.

If I were to take a guess at what's wrong I'd say the angle of the balljoints when the not under load are stopping the trailing arms from being able to drop any further. If I disconnect the top balljoint from the spindle, adjust and then use a jack to raise the spindle up to reconnect the balljoint it could work. Problem is I tried this with the TH spindles on a stock beam and I couldn't get the top tailing arm to move up enough to get the balljoint bolt to line up.

 

[Clem]

You need to disconnect the ball joints, the tension means the adjusters wont move when all connected.

When I undo my beam adjusters the bus defaults to lowest setting and there is no moving it! PITA, but you get used to the rigmarole :lol:

 

[shea]

yeah that's what I thought, the problem is if I disconnect the top balljoint, to get the spindle back on i need both balljoints to be pointing up completely straight more less. That's fine for the bottom trailing arm because I can use a jack to push it up but the top trailing arm is too high for the jack to push it up all the way up. Even if I had a long enough jack I can't get both in beside each other to raise both trailing arms at the same time.

Maybe I'm making sound harder than it is but last time I tried to do it this way I spent two hours at it and got nowhere. Add to that I might need to adjust the beam 2 or 3 times to dial it in, it means I have to do this every time!

 

[shea]

Or am I doing it the wrong way around? is it easier to disconnect the bottom ball joint, adjust and then reconnect that one?

 

[Clem]

Or am I doing it the wrong way around? is it easier to disconnect the bottom ball joint, adjust and then reconnect that one?

Yes Agreed about it being a pain though, height can only be done in a painstaking way by trial and error.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry for sounding so thick, but did you say at you can get stock height with drop spindles, I'll be interested to see how you get on, I don't what to go back to stock height but want to raise it a bit to stop my wheels hitting the tubs when I've got three up front. At the moment I'm running Stock beam with TransporterHaus dropped spindles and 175/60/15 and want to know which is the best way around it

 

[gvee]

Hi Dani, drop spindles on their own are a static drop. Shea has an adjustable beam as well as drop spindles, which give them a little wiggle room up or down to fine tune the ride height.
What size tyres and what shocks are you running? You may find that lower profile tyres and/or stiffer shocks are the solution to your rubbing issues.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi gvee,
I've got coilover shocks and running 175/60/15 tyres
it wasn't rubbing when I first installed them but I didnt have the added weight of my furniture,and fridge just behind the bulkhead,
Thanks for getting back to me,
Nigel

 

[gvee]

Here's how I adjusted my ride height:

1. Up in the air on axle stands
2. Both wheels off
3. Support the lower trailing arm with a jack (ideally both sides if you can)
4. Mark the position of the adjusters and undo the bottom one (remove the nut and plate if you can)
5. Loosen the upper ball joint nut on both sides. Leave it on a good few threads!
6. Lower the jacks. Hopefully the tension will be enough to crack the top ball joint. If it's not, you may need to use a splitter/gentle persuader; just be careful of the top of the threads as this is actually a hex-head that you don't want to damage!
7. Once the balljoint is cracked, you should support the lower arm with the jack again and raise it up slightly so you can now undo the top balljoint nut completely.
8. Now support the upper arms, and undo the adjuster bolt and plate.
9. Lower the top arms gently using your jack.
10. You should now have completely free movement on both arms. Set the desired height on each arm - remember to use the marks we put on at the beginning as a reference point on both arms so you adjust them evenly.
11. Tighten up the adjuster bolts.
12. Now it gets difficult, so pause and have a cup of tea and a biscuit. You've earned it!
13. Position your jack under the end of the lower ball joint
14. Slowly raise the arm, supporting the spindle, until you clear the top ball joint. Be very careful, we're dealing with a lot of dangerous tension!
15. Pop a hexkey through the top of the spindle hole in to the top ball joint. This will help you with aligning things,
16. Lower the jack very slowly until you get the ball joint to engage. If you have trouble with the alignment, be patient and grab yourself a helper. Arm them with a large bar (I used a scaffold pole) and get them to use it as a lever to raise the upper arm to improve the geometry. Make sure that you don't lower the spindle on to the threads, because you'll ruin them!
17. After lots of struggling and swearing you'll have enough threads showing on the upper balljoint to pop the nut back on. Use the jack and nut to finish the job.
18. Stand back and admire your workmanship.
19. Realise you have the other side left to do. It's okay to weep a little at this point.
20. Go back to step 12

I hope I've included all the steps there! I've done this far too many times on my own bus, sadly. It's a pig of a job.

Good luck!

 

[shea]

Here's how I adjusted my ride height:

1. Up in the air on axle stands
2. Both wheels off
3. Support the lower trailing arm with a jack (ideally both sides if you can)
4. Mark the position of the adjusters and undo the bottom one (remove the nut and plate if you can)
5. Loosen the upper ball joint nut on both sides. Leave it on a good few threads!
6. Lower the jacks. Hopefully the tension will be enough to crack the top ball joint. If it's not, you may need to use a splitter/gentle persuader; just be careful of the top of the threads as this is actually a hex-head that you don't want to damage!
7. Once the balljoint is cracked, you should support the lower arm with the jack again and raise it up slightly so you can now undo the top balljoint nut completely.
8. Now support the upper arms, and undo the adjuster bolt and plate.
9. Lower the top arms gently using your jack.
10. You should now have completely free movement on both arms. Set the desired height on each arm - remember to use the marks we put on at the beginning as a reference point on both arms so you adjust them evenly.
11. Tighten up the adjuster bolts.
12. Now it gets difficult, so pause and have a cup of tea and a biscuit. You've earned it!
13. Position your jack under the end of the lower ball joint
14. Slowly raise the arm, supporting the spindle, until you clear the top ball joint. Be very careful, we're dealing with a lot of dangerous tension!
15. Pop a hexkey through the top of the spindle hole in to the top ball joint. This will help you with aligning things,
16. Lower the jack very slowly until you get the ball joint to engage. If you have trouble with the alignment, be patient and grab yourself a helper. Arm them with a large bar (I used a scaffold pole) and get them to use it as a lever to raise the upper arm to improve the geometry. Make sure that you don't lower the spindle on to the threads, because you'll ruin them!
17. After lots of struggling and swearing you'll have enough threads showing on the upper balljoint to pop the nut back on. Use the jack and nut to finish the job.
18. Stand back and admire your workmanship.
19. Realise you have the other side left to do. It's okay to weep a little at this point.
20. Go back to step 12

I hope I've included all the steps there! I've done this far too many times on my own bus, sadly. It's a pig of a job.

Good luck!

Legend! thanks so much for the detailed guide. I'll give it a go, I doubt I'll be lucky enough get the height dialed in first go so I'll probably have to do this 2 or 3 times! should have ran my red9 kit with this instead of going back to torsion leaves.

Maybe tubbing and notching would be the easier option

 

[shea]

Just an update on this managed to get the bus adjusted what I did was

1. Removed the spindle, just used a hammer to carefully hit the spindle and pop out ball joints.
2. slackened the adjusters and moved them equally further down (went by the amount of notches left on each adjuster)
3. Put the spindle back on to the top ball joint and secured with nut
4. Used two small 2T jacks, one placed under the track rod arm of the spindle and the other under the bottom trailing arm
5. raise track rod arm jack first until ball joint is facing perfectly upwards
6. carefully raise the trailing arm jack and the ball joint should go straight through the bottom of the spindle
7.secure with nut.

So similar enough to above but in hindsight I didn't even need to remove the spindle entirely, I could have just removed the bottom ball joint from each spindle, adjusted then reattached.

I now have another issue though, the steering rod was very difficult to reattach because the adjuster nut is in the way. I did manage to get it reattached though but now the gear change is very stiff and won't go into gear easily. This is because the rod is rubbing off the nut now. Any ideas?

Starting to think the higher regions of adjust-ability on these beams are just for show.

 

[Graham L]

Yep thats how you have to do it, remove the tension off the balljoints and the adjusters should move, the issue of your adjuster being close to the front shift rod is quite common but should clear it, may need a little 'manipulation' to clear

 

[shea]

Thanks Graham, I'm learning slowly haha. I managed to hook up the gear rod but the gear change is near impossible. I've been looking into it and people have beaten the rod so that it clears, others have cut and welded the area that fouls. I'm leaning towards beating it so that it clears, any dangers doing it like this?

 

[AD4M]

My brother cut and welded his gear linkage and that is what i intend to do.

I guess it depends where abouts your adjusters are fitted and much clearance you require.