How do I use these beam adjusters?

[LuAn]

My van is too low. I like low, but the roads around here are just too bumpy to have her as low as she is (I guess the roads where better where her previous owner lived). I HAVE to raise her up a couple of inches.

I've got her up on axle stands. Front shocks are removed. The wheels are 'dangling' about an inch from the floor. Here's a pic of the adjusters:

As you can see, they are set for the lowest height, so to raise the van up I need to pull those bolts/plates downwards. However, I have undone the bolts, and pulled the plates back off the 'ratchet', and as I say, the wheels are an inch off the floor. How do I do this?

 

[Justin & Muttley]

I hope I'm wrong... but it looks like the adjusters have been welded in to give a really low ride - I suspect that's as high as it will go!
Was there any movement at all when you undid the securing nut? Also, have you tried to jack up a wheel to see if it is all free-moving?

 

[Tofufi]

Agreed with J&M.

That looks like the highest position

How low is it really?

 

[LuAn]

Was there any movement at all when you undid the securing nut?

There was no movement. The adjuster was in that position.

Also, have you tried to jack up a wheel to see if it is all free-moving?

The wheels got lower as I jacked the van up initially. I can lift the wheel up no problem.

How low is it really?

I don't know what you call them, but the lowest bit of the beam are those to vertical blade things that the shocks bolt to - they are a couple of inches off the floor.

I've had her 23 days and have only done about 50 miles however I've had them hit the ground twice and it's not like there was a visible bump in the road on either occasion.

I also discovered, while I was underneath today, that the steering damper is broken in two and has clearly taken a hit from something at some point. She was MOTed about 4 days before I got her. I don't know if that would/should have been spotted on an MOT. Maybe it's happened since the MOT.

I also discovered today (I've had a real crap day), that the boots on all four ball joints are fubar. I thought "those look a bit greasy" so I wiped 'em and found out why they were greasy - because there are blooming great rips in all four of them. No way has that happened in the last month.

 

[Tofufi]

Split balljoint rubbers ought to have been an advisory on the MOT.

And a snapped steering damper definitely should have been noticed.

2 inches from the ground is actually quite low.

Congratulations

 

[67 BAY]

Adjuster is set on lowest setting,it could be stuck due to not being worked up and down after welding or weld penetration.One to move it is to weld avan wheel stud into thick walled small diameter pipe, remove threaded part screw in pipe and lever down.Hope this helps,can lend you one.If needed Ring 07979460118 STEVE.

 

[LuAn]

Adjuster is set on lowest setting,it could be stuck due to not being worked up and down after welding or weld penetration.

That's an interesting thought because as you can see, the welding is not what you'd call neat.

I guess that the way to find out would be to take everything off at the wheels, which I'm going to have to do to replace those boots. With all that out of the way, so I can see the end of the torsion leaves, it should waggle about... unless it's welded.

 

[67 BAY]

If dismantling to do balljoints,when arms are out of axle,use a length of pipe big enough to go over torsion bars but small enough in diameter to gothrough bearings,remove centre locating screw and knock the centre collar sideways it should move pretty easy.Send a txt with aphone number and will ring you back it's easier to explain possble causes using the arcaic method of talking and less long winded than on computer. STEVE

 

[LuAn]

easier to explain possble causes using the arcaic method of talking

Thanks for the info and the offer of a chat. I'm fairly confident that I understand what you mean but have made a note of your phone number. To be honest I'm not too good with phones. Health problems mean I'm generally happier with a mode of communication that allows me to correct what want to 'say' before 'saying' it and re-read what the other person said as many times as necessary. I often find that I can't think fast enough for a phone conversation, especially one about technical stuff.

Today I'm considering whether I want to take this on myself or take her in to a garage and have somebody else deal it. I guess that if I take that lot apart then wheel alignment and stuff will need to be checked/adjusted? Another issue is that she has low profile tyres on the front. I'm thinking that if I take her to a garage I can get them to do whatever needs doing to the adjusters, raise her up a couple of inches, replace the types, and do the checks and adjustments all at the same time. That'd be quite a lot of work for me and as I see it there are at least two parts of the job (the tyres and the checking) that I couldn't do myself anyway.

 

[Justin & Muttley]

What are the profiles on your front tyres? Maybe you could switch to a higher profile and gain a little extra height that way (unless you'll foul the arches of course!)?

 

[LuAn]

What are the profiles on your front tyres? Maybe you could switch to a higher profile and gain a little extra height that way (unless you'll foul the arches of course!)?

I don't understand the numbers but the front tyres are marked 175/55 while the ones on the back are 175/65. I guess I could swap them over and see how they fit however I have a feeling that they will foul.

I called by the local garage today. It's a Renault dealer but the father of one of the guys who works there owns a VW camper (I saw him working on it and we had a chat about it months ago). He gave me a phone number of Wooley's in Hingham (about 20 miles away) where they take theirs.

I phoned Wooleys and he suggested that (worse case scenario) if they have to cut out the adjusters and weld in new ones I'd probably be looking at around £300 and that they'd do the ball joints at the same time.

 

[Justin & Muttley]

What are the profiles on your front tyres? Maybe you could switch to a higher profile and gain a little extra height that way (unless you'll foul the arches of course!)?

I don't understand the numbers but the front tyres are marked 175/55 while the ones on the back are 175/65. I guess I could swap them over and see how they fit however I have a feeling that they will foul.

I called by the local garage today. It's a Renault dealer but the father of one of the guys who works there owns a VW camper (I saw him working on it and we had a chat about it months ago). He gave me a phone number of Wooley's in Hingham (about 20 miles away) where they take theirs.

I phoned Wooleys and he suggested that (worse case scenario) if they have to cut out the adjusters and weld in new ones I'd probably be looking at around £300 and that they'd do the ball joints at the same time.

It looks like that could be an option - I think £300 is OK but at least you'll sleep soundly in the knowledge that it's been done by someone that knows what they're doing!

 

[speedwell68]

WHS^^^, The welding on that adjuster don't look to clever.

 

[LuAn]

Today I took the nut and bolt off the adjuster on the lower beam. Then I put a loop of thick cord around it. The other end of the look went through a 3x2" piece of wood about 5' long. Then I crawled underneath and lied one the wood (I weigh about 17st) and pushed myself down towards the ground. It didn't move. If that bugger ain't welded, I'll eat my hat.

I'll take her along to Wooley's next week and see what they reckon.

 

[LuAn]

I'm not a happy bunny.

I decided to swap the wheels around today to see if the ones on the back would go on the front. As you will recall my tyres are 175/65 on the back and 175/55 on the front.

Now the guy I bought her from supplied me with a spare but mentioned that he'd never bothered to carry it. I thought at the time that it was an odd thing to do but we had lots of other stuff to talk about it so I didn't question it. Now however, I can see why: the spare is too big.

The only number I can see on the spare is 185 but it's clearly bigger than the 175/55s on the front. I did however manage to swap it for on of those wheels and lowered her back down. It didn't touch, but there is no way you could drive it like that. There was a gap between the top of the tyre and the top of the wheel arch but not enough to get my fingers in.

However this did give me a 175/55 that I could try on the back in order to get a 175/65 to try on the front... or so I thought. I jacked her up at the back and undid the bolts only to discover that she's too ***-****** ******-******* low to get the wheel out from under the arch. Can you tell I'm ****** off?

I believe that the way to do it is to deflate the tyre however by this point I'd had enough and put everything back where it was. I'll take her to Wooleys next week and have a chat however I'm thinking that if they charge £500 to lower a van it'll cost £500 to raise on up. Given that there are people out there who are probably about to pay £500 to get their van lowered, I'm wondering if it doesn't make more sense to put mine back on the market and look for on that hasn't been lowered, than to pay £500 to raise her back up?

Anybody want a lowered panel van? :x

 

[Justin & Muttley]

I can see why you're fed up - changing the rear wheel on a lowered van can be tricky if it's too low...

It shouldn't cost you £500 to sort though, although the front adjuster issue could be £300 the back is relatively straight forward to raise up a bit - see what Woolies say...

Also you could get a can of that aerosol tyre fixer for emergencies rather than carrying a spare - at least on a temporary basis!

What size rims are you on (sorry if you've explained this already!)?

 

[speedwell68]

Like J&M said it shouldn't cost as much as £500 to raise it back up. This is why I don't like lowering, it opens Pandora's box.

 

[LuAn]

What size rims are you on (sorry if you've explained this already!)?

I guess that's the R15 bit of the spec?

 

[Justin & Muttley]

What size rims are you on (sorry if you've explained this already!)?

I guess that's the R15 bit of the spec?

Yep - 15 inch rims

 

[Araon]

Its no great shakes to raise the rear a touch fella...try and see if theres anyone on here near you who'll work for beer :wink: It works for me