Chevy & GMC Vans

My van has quite the "Rake" as the rear end sits much higher, i would like to put the front end pucks in there
to level things out some and maybe add shocks later, just wondering if this would cause any pinion angle issues, i don't see anyone lifting just one end so figured i better ask and see what you guys think about it.

Cheers

Adding pucks to the front should not have any major effect on pinion angle. In fact you will be making the drive shaft less angled by essentially dropping the tranny down.

How the heck did you get so much rake? Do you have a towing package leaf spring back there?

10th edit....you may want to just replace your worn coil springs in the front. Then you maintain stock angles and will probably end up with a better ride.

Ive only had the van a few weeks and am the second owner ,I'm not exactly sure how it ended up with so much rake, I removed the rear seats and the photo was taken on level ground with the van empty, i loaded the van up once with around 1000lbs of wood and while i could feel the weight while driving the rear end took it well, you couldn't even tell it was loaded while standing outside the van.
To be quite honest i don't know alot about these vans other than it will cover a wide range of things i need it to do, so i went out and bought the latest model i could find with the lowest miles (117 kilometers). I have seen a few others around with some descent rake so i know i'm not the only one but i suspect you may be correct and my front coils are now soft. I do know in 03 and 04 GM beefed up the rear suspension etc.
This is from Wikipedia:
"In 2003, GM upgraded the chassis of both the Astro and Safari with certain suspension components, larger brakes, and six-lug, 16 inch wheels from the full-size Chevrolet and GMC half-ton pickup trucks. The modifications improved the handling and braking of the vans".
And here is a quote from another owner:
"Just picked up my project vehicle last week, 03 Astro AWD hi top conversion with 124500 miles, got lots of plans and lots of questions so here goes #1. the front end sits alot lower than the rear and I would like to do a 2" body lift but if I did only this, wouldn't it still sit lower in front? Don't I need a leveling kit of some sorts as well? I'd rather not have to mess with the torsion bar adjustment. It came with tow/haul package and my mechanic seems to think that it came stock with a beefed up rear for the tow capacity, what do ya'll think?"
And here is a photo from a 2004 brochure i think, it sits almost exactly like mine

Both my 2003 and my current 2005 sit high in the rear and neither had the factory tow package. I just use the torsion bars in mine to lift the front about 1" so it's not at such a rake. It still is a little but not as much.

I did the 2" body lift today, 3 hicups
first one was the front driver side body mount, i had plenty of room to fit the new puck in there but could not thread the new bolt in, the angle was just off a little too much, so i put the other 5 pucks in then was able to get the bolt threaded. This wasn't really that big of a deal i just had to move the jack back and forth a couple extra times thats all.

Second problem was the parking brake bracket, i have stock running boards so the brake bracket is 3 times as big as the one which comes in the overland kit, one of the supports for the running boards bolts to the side of it so i just drilled a new hole in the existing bracket after removing the support for the driver side boards.

The third problem is the bumper brackets
I cant get the grill to fit, i used the bottom holes of the brackets but the bumper is too high and i couldnt use the second hole up as the bracket makes contact with the frame, i managed to mickey mouse the grill on enough to put the signal lights in so i could drive home, i also could not close the hood latch completely, so my hood bounced around a little on the way home. I will have to tackle this tomorrow

Engine light came on on the way home aswell, pulled code p0102 from scanguage,
i had stuffed a clean rag into the air hose after removing the airbox so maybe a piece of crap got in there somehow, anyways i pulled into the gas station, checked all the hoses etc. wiggled em around and no more engine light or code after startup.

Took me about 6-7 hrs and i'm gonna spend a coulple more on the bumper i figure cuz i'm not exactly sure what i'm gonna do yet

If you can fabricate, you can weld on some angle iron and re-drill the holes where you want them. We need pics too!

I can't weld, have to figure something else out, maybe grind something who knows, $125 bucks for custom brackets and they don't fit worth a shit, what's the point i may aswell have the local metal shop make something that actually works. $250 for something that works is a better deal as far as i'm concerened, maybe i should give it another look before i spaz, there has to be a way or else how do they sell these things ?

You bought the overland vans brackets? If so they should work fine. Throw some pics up and maybe we can spot something for you.

Yes overland brackets, not working on the van today but had time to snap a couple pictures as it sits. Basically i don't think i can get the grill on without breaking it.

Re: OLV Bumper brackets?
Have you tryed slacking off the bolts that hold the brackets to the bumper, as well as the bolts that hold the brackets to the frame, so they are all really loose, and thenn trying to wiggle the whole works around till it fits better before you tighten any up?
Or, you could take them off and return them to Gerald, and just use the stock brackets but shift them up 1 hole. I always just modified mine with a welder and some band iron.

Vanboozin wrote:i couldnt use the second hole up as the bracket makes contact with the frame

Can you show us what you mean by this?

Gonna give it another shot tomorrow if i have enough daylight,
Will post a pic of where the bracket makes contact with the frame if i have the bumber off or can sneak my camera in there, hopefully it goes back together though and i'm done. Thanks for the suggestions i will try and loosen everything up and see how that goes first.

Loosen the four bolts that hold the bumper to the brackets and slide the bumper down a bit. There should be about 1/2" (12.5mm) of play there so you can slide the entire bumper up or down. And if there still isn't enough play, file the holes in the bumper a little more oblong. That bumper is thin, like 16 ga. steel maybe even 18ga. You can also drill new holes in the brackets in between the ones already in it for 1/2" adjustments.

Also, I remember I had to chop off the nice little rounded bit on the bottom inside part of the bracket. It was hitting the cross member that has the SRS sensor.

You can see that here:



I also have mine one hole lower than yours, and I also have 2" pucks:

Thanks guys, the help is much appreciated !
I now i have a few things to try, Crawler you nailed it, that piece you trimmed on the inside bottom of the new bracket is what i was thinking when i tried the second hole, yes i'm hitting the cross member before it fits the second hole, i will do this if other suggestions don't work for me, thanks for the pics they are a big help.
Too cold here i can't get motivated for this tonight my fingers have been fricken frozen working with cold pipe all day @ work Brrrrr !!
Poor van might not be back together until the weekend.

Bumper & grill now fit perfect, Modified the brackets just like CargoCrawler's above.
Everything goes together nice and neat on the front end now.

While installing the brackets i had a good look at the two front lift pucks and noticed they were not lined up very nice, they are torqed to spec with a good wrench, i drove around some after doing the lift but not much, a little bit on paved country road and some slow dirt road driving.
I think i better remove the bumper and try to straighten things out, looks like the body is shifted slightly towards the driver side.
Is there an easy quick fix for this ?

front passenger side puck




Front driver side puck