Chevy & GMC Vans

So tonight as I was cutting my fan shroud and drilling my ebrake bracket in prep for throwing on my 2"spacers tomorrow, I decided to crank the t bars to see if I could get an extra inch of lift...much to my dismay, I found that they were only about three threads from bottomed already. After I tightened the bolt in as far as it would go, I got less than a half inch of lift.

So the issue with this is that now the front is sitting between 29.75" and 30" high, while the rear is at 29.5. From everything I've read, the s10 3+1 pack I have waiting will give me between 3" and 4" in the rear. This means that I'm realistically looking at like a 2" differential in the front with no way to crank it further.

Is there any way that I could source slightly longer bolts for the front bars to get a little extra out of them? I've got a big trip in a cople weeks and really wanted to get the van lifted and put 30"s onit prior to leaving. Not sure if there is any other timely solution at this point, but I figure I'm going to need at least one more inch in the front. THanks in advance for any good ideas...

I should ad that the van is a 97 with 117k and isin really amazing shape otherwise. It seems a bit odd that the stock bars would be that sagged

Overland Vans offeres re-indexed torsion keys. I'm not sure if you can bring the alignment back into specs with them though.

Otherwise, you will need more subframe lift and the only safe way (in my opinion) is with welded in spacers.

Also, if the torsion bars have sagged that much, maybe you should buy new torsion bars.
Just like worn out saggy old leaf springs make for a poor handling van, so will worn out saggy old T-Bars.
New T-Bars should give you more lift and better ride quality, at least, it sure did for me !

mdmead wrote:Overland Vans offeres re-indexed torsion keys. I'm not sure if you can bring the alignment back into specs with them though.

Otherwise, you will need more subframe lift and the only safe way (in my opinion) is with welded in spacers.

I agree.



It is the safe and practical way to still use a warmed over stock suspension and ride.Anything over 2" you either have to find a full size van intermediate steering shaft like a Express or buy the Overlands one.Notice how I on purpose left out welding one yourself.

I would say the re-indexed keys are the way to go for now and then as time and money permits, go with new torsion bars.

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like I'll be ordering up a set of the indexed keys. I'll probably throw the rear leaves in first just to get a sense of whether I will need new keys or not, but I suspect that if the rear gives me closer to 4" I will be needing them.

Does anyone know which set of keys a 97 would take from Airbagit? They list a 1.5" hex, and a 2 1/8" hex at the link below.
http://www.airbagit.com/category-s/2067.htm

For anyone who has ordered from them in the past, do they tend to ship pretty quickly?

nick. wrote:Does anyone know which set of keys a 97 would take from Airbagit? They list a 1.5" hex, and a 2 1/8" hex at the link below.
http://www.airbagit.com/category-s/2067.htm

You can easily lay eyes on this just by crawling under with a ruler and looking at it.
I suggest you do before you order, but I bet its the small one.