Raising front adjusters

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fallingoffalot

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Just got some original wheels from a very helpful chap on the Late Bay forum, they are 14" with decent Yokohama van tyres on.

Anyway, the diameter is 2.5" more than my current setup, so that's 1.25" less clearance. To check this would be ok, I made 2 bits of polystyrene 1.25" thick and glued them to the inside of each wheel arch (with current wheels on). Went for a drive, speed bumps an all, and the tyres brushed the polystyrene, it actually removed one of the pieces, but the "no nails" hadn't set.

I've got a narrowed front beam with adjusters so was thinking I need to raise the front by 1". How easy is this? is it just a case of jacking up then loosening the adjusters and letting the wheels drop to the ground by the required amount?

Or maybe a better solution would be to firm it up somehow to stop the suspension traveling so far?

Happy New Year
Andy

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Just raise the suspension by loosening the adjusters, but the wheels won't just drop unless you're extremely lucky.
You'll need to apply some downward pressure on the wheels and trailing arms.
You may have to split the spindles if that won't work and do the upper and lower trailing arms separately.
 
Right I'm motivated, I'm going to have a go at the adjusters to add an inch or so to my ride height.

I have a few questions, I'm sure it's basic stuff for you guys, but I don't want to end up with the van slammed on my garage floor.

Do I just remove the lock nuts and the toothed plate and move the wheels down then tighten back up?

What is the reason for loosening the bolt with the Allen key?

Why is one adjuster higher than the other?

Can I put the axel stands under the beam to do this job or would they prevent something moving?

Would it be a good idea to take the load off the springs with a jack under the wheel?

If I'm only raising it by an inch or so do I need to worry about wheel alignment?

Anyway here's some photos.. thanks
79bcf82cc0fa32f1591b8f8789f5f0d3.jpg
e5bcb1fee3a1cc021f57ed7f9412f863.jpg


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Get the beam nice and high on your axle stands so that it gives you plenty of room to manipulate the suspension. If you’re lucky, the leaves will rotate with minimal effort, but if the dimples weren’t properly drilled in the centre boss, you’ll need some effort to move everything.

From your photos, it looks as though the leaves are set at different heights - they should be about two notches different. This ensures that at least one of the leaves is always under tension throughout the suspension travel. When you loosen each middle nut, the leaf will try and spring in the direction of the other adjuster, so the top would move down, the bottom would go up. So in this case, slightly jack one of the lower arms and start with the top beam. The jack will help remove some of the tension and it won’t spring off and chop your fingers off. Then jack can be removed and lower beam can be removed.

Adjust the lower to where you want and tighten up, then jack the lower arms up again until the upper adjuster is where you want it, and bolt the adjuster up. That’s how I do it anyway! If your leaves are not easy to rotate, you may have to split the ball joints and work on one tube at a time without them joined by the hubs.


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And yes, any height adjustment will change your tracking - the track rods travel in an arc, so effectively their length changes (pushes / pulls the wheels out) as the wheels go through their travel.


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The bolt with the Allen key is I’m guessing the actual adjuster ?
If so it should have a lock nut on it. The original beam would have a dimple to fix the centre of the torsion springs and each side will work without influencing the other side. That dimple has been replaced by the adjuster with this Allen key bolt so that you now have a new dimple that you are trying to move around the beam to lower or raise your suspension . Most of these have been fitted by different people in slightly different ways and some are already as high as the suspension can be or as low as the suspension can be depending on how they wanted to set it up with a view to future adjustments.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, I hope that’s right :mrgreen:
 
The Allen/hex screw is the adjuster screw, the nut is a locking nut. So you need to loosen the locking nut and the back out the Allen grub screw.

Jack the bus up and support it with axle stands under the lower beam tube. Make sure it wont move as you'll be using some force on the trailing arms.
Remove the shock absorbers, they'll just get in the way and stop and downward travel.
Loosen the adjusters, and the trailing arms will drop. Well, actually they wont, and will need a bit of force to move. It's actually easier to split the ball joints and let the spindle hang loose.
 
fallingoffalot said:
Great thanks, so why would I need to loosen the bolt with an Allen key?

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There's no need to loosen / remove the bolt. It just screws into the centre boss, which in turn holds the leaves and makes the central point the pivot for the leaves on either side. Once the top part of the toothed adjuster is removed, the Allen bolt 'should' be free to move within the confines of the slot in the toothed section welded to the beam. This is when you'll find out if you'll need to remove other suspension components to allow you to actually move it. As mentioned (and a good point) drop your shocks off the lower mount to ensure you can pull the arms lower than the travel of the shock. I'd have thought you'll almost certainly have to split one of the trailing arm ball joints to reduce the resistance on the assembly.

It's a lot easier to lower the suspension than it is to raise it! You might also find that you run into issues with your shift linkage fouling the adjuster bolts, so that is something to bear in mind.
 

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