Beam Concerns/possible swaps?

[Old_Nell]

Hi all.

I'm looking to get my 72 X-Over at a normal-ish(factory) height.
I believe the front has been lowered by cutting and welding the beam.
Can anyone please confirm this from the picture I've added?

Can this be put back to factory without cutting and welding again?

If not does anyone want to swap a perfectly good lowered beam for a perfectly good factory beam, preferably by taking mine off and putting yours on...?

The rear I can sort out as that's easy. I've done that before.

 

[Old_Nell]

Anybody please confirm?

 

[ozziedog]

No mate,, I`ve looked and looked, but I just can`t tell from that picture. Yes it is lowered,, I think we can all see that. But can you get a picture of the middle ish of the beam but from the front and if you could clean it up a little we might be able to see. Exactly where are you and the bus and maybe someone could pop around and have a look for you, or just a little clean up and some piccies from the other side bud.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Also a better shot or two of the spindles and ball joints :mrgreen:

 

[Old_Nell]

Thanks Ozziedog.

I'm away at the moment, not back until mid October.
The only thing of note I could see from any angle, was the nut protruding from the centre of both beams, which can be made out in the pic and a weld all the way around the circumference of the beam, either side of the nut.
Does that ring any bells with anyone?
As for where she is, I'm literally 5 minutes walk up the road from Dead dubs, in Riddings, Derbyshire, but I know they are mega busy and was hoping to solve the issue via EB.

 

[ozziedog]

It does sound from that description like the beam has been cut and turned, then obviously re welded. If you can see a nut on the top and the bottom sort of middle ish you may actually have some adjusters in there as well for a bit of fine tuning. Is there anything you can see behind the nut possibly something toothed ?

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Once you get back to the van of course :mrgreen:

 

[Old_Nell]

Hi mate,
No there was definitely nothing behind the nut, I remember checking as I've seen a lot of vans with those adjusters, aren't they called sway-aways or something? (Is there normally a nut on the beam? I mean as factory?)
The only thing I can come up with is that the nut is on a threaded grub screw that screws into the beam and the leaves inside of it. This could then have been used to hold them in place during the cut and re position...

Anyone know how the leaves are usually held in place? I take it they are a torsion type thing like the rears?

Next plan is to see how she looks with stock tyres as there's a right old mix of sizes on her at the moment, then decide what to do from that. I would like to have a standard ride bus for a change though after 2 lowered ones in the past.

Right, thanks for the heads up Ozziedog.

 

[Graham L]

There is always a nut on the bottom of the tubes as thats what holds the centre collets in place that the leaves pass through. If your beam has been 'Cut & Turned' they cut either side of the centre and rotate the whole centre section to alter the angle the leaves sit at and then reweld it back at the new place.

On a standard beam when looking from the side the nut sits at approx the 5 o'clock position, your look like they are higher than that indicating the beam has indeed been 'Cut & Turned', hope that helps

 

[Old_Nell]

Thanks Graham, You're a star!