Quick question. The rear of out van is just a tad too low so lookign to add some hight by turning the spring plates. In daunted by the sound of adjusting the inners but the outers sound easy enough so: How much lift / drop will i get by turning one spline on the outer? A big Cheers Chaps in advance
Do you mean the rear's a bit low, or the front looks higher with nobody sitting in the cab (which is normal)? It's a lot of work for a small amount of sag (if you are sagging).
Thanks guys. Yeah its a bit saggy. Ive got 3" lowered spring plates but the weight of the diesel engine means it sits a wee bit too low. 65mm is probably going to be too much. How much is an inner spline? Is it as difficult as it sounds?
Just to say the front is real low even empty. Will be jacking it up a bit at the weekend (weather permitting). But this will make the back appear even lower
You've got finer adjustment on the inner splines. If you use the "official" method (one outer spline, then one inner in the opposite direction), you can get even finer adjustment (which is what VW intended). Have a look in your Haynes. If you've got a non-stock engine in, you'll have to experiment. Hassle, but doable. VW splined the rear torsion bars at both ends so that folk could adjust out butt-sag as the bars become older and tired-er, so the mechanism is there.
If you got for adjusting inners and outers, check that both sides of your bus are level. Some lean even as stock, due to the weight of the cabinets down one side and you can correct that at the same time.
That's a good point. Our van is empty at the moment (and still saggy). Perhaps I should wait until we have fitted it out over the next few months before attempting this. Is raising the rear ride height easy to do? I sort of know what's involved but are there any special tools required or things to be wary of that could go horribly wrong?
Haynes explains it quite well. They mention using a protractor but if you use the table above you can adjust to within 5.5 mm either side. The hardest bit I found was unbolting the spring plate from the hub. Get good axle stands in place as you'll be exerting a fair bit of force on the nuts.
I followed the protractor thing with a digital inclinometer and the back ended up too low, but at least it was level so a good start point.
Lower the front to get it level, then if you go too far lower the back a bit, thats how my van ended up so low!
Bit the bullet and gave it a go over the weekend. Went for two inners in the end. That measures 29cm between the bumpstop mount and the upper rear hole in the spring plate. Looks two high now (looked two low on one inner!) Will have to raise the front now (easy as it Red9 wishbones). Rear view mirror full of the sky Hopefully it will regain some of its squat when its fully loaded up
How many splines did you raise it by? How easy was it? I'd like to give it a go but worried I'd cock it up, not be able to put it back together and end up with an undriveable van.
Went with two inners. Overview of process:- Take wheel off and leave it on the floor to the rear of the arch Remove the lover damper bolt Slacken the handbrake (actually remove the nut from the adjuster at the front) Remove the four bolts which hold the drum on Move the drum to the rear (Watch the brake cable!) and rest it on the wheel Remove the 4 bolts from the spring plate cover Take up the tension in the spring plate with a jack Tap the springplate until it clears the lip Release the tension in the jack. This is where i went wrong - I pulled the spring plate and it came away with the torsion bar Fortunately id made a measurement from the bumpstop mount to the upper rear hole in the spring plate Jiggled it around and got a two inner spline raise. As they say reassembly is the reverse.. Think ive gone too far back up though. Does anyone have the stock measurement from gutter to floor?
I found this thread useful when trying to get an idea of how much mine had been lowered - http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/stock-ride.19387/page-5. As it says you want to compare the wheel arch to wheel centre measurements to eliminate any tyre variations (pressure, size).
Inners and outs are within 5mm. By going up 2 inner splines you've raised it 120mm = almost 5". I bet it doesn't look saggy at the back now!
