What Did You Do for Your Van Today?

feetforbrains

feetforbrains

Active Member
So, I've been hearing a squeaking sound, at start up and especially under load, when driving my van of late. At first, I suspected my turbo was going bad, but I investigated that right away because I wanted to be sure and avoid the very costly replacement or time consuming rebuild. Good news, my turbo is fine. My belts however are dry. Today I got out in and under my van and lubed most of them with Gunk Belt Conditioner.

The squeak went away almost immediately, so there's that. I may need to go back in and adjust the double belt on the alternator in the future, but I'll wait to hear from it again before I start wrenching.

In other news, I started this thread as a place to put your day-to-day van related projects. Honestly, you see this sort of thing everywhere and I'm surprised that one of you guys didn't beat me to it.
 
I was going to use conditioner on my belts that had a super loud squeak/whine on cold days but the more research I did made it sound like conditioner could actually hurt the belts. causing build up. I think this only applied to certain types of belts though
 
DustyDelica said:
I was going to use conditioner on my belts that had a super loud squeak/whine on cold days but the more research I did made it sound like conditioner could actually hurt the belts. causing build up. I think this only applied to certain types of belts though
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In my case, I was 99% certain the squeak was coming from dryness. I just completed a ~7,000 km road trip into the desert south-west and the rubber felt dry. Otherwise, my van has been working like a champ so it seemed like a great plan. YMMV
 
Ordered some misc. parts from Coombs recently. Things like a center console, window curtain clips, those rubber caps for the rear bumper bar, etc. Small crap. It all arrives today and will be installed. I'm really excited for those arm rest/cup holders, going to be a game changer.
 
Going going to be pulling out my stereo and speakers today. Been looking at difffernt head units. Think I’m just going to flush mount an IPad mini 4 with a small amp. We mainly listen to pandora, Spotify and pod cast. Be nice to watch a move if it’s pissing down rain too. It Looks like I can fit 6x9’s in the rear if I do some trimming. We’ll see.
 
About 1/2" or so with the air shocks... the leaf springs are pretty tired. Adjusted the torsion bars for pre-mod body height but that caused the bump stop measurement to go from the specified 45mm to a touch over the 51mm 2wd spec... not sure why. I'll probably relax the torsion bars to the previous 45mm 4wd measurement so I don't have to get the alignment redone.

Had to press out the pins from the 708's and bore the bushings to 5/8... otherwise it's a pretty easy job. My rear shocks (original) were in VERY bad condition.

I suppose I could get some pictures, but there's not much to see.
 
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How does it feel with the upgraded bars? Tried to order from the site you bought yours from but they never got back to me.
 
natematos said:
How does it feel with the upgraded bars? Tried to order from the site you bought yours from but they never got back to me.
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Currently a little too firm up front... it's nice on the road as long as it's relatively smooth, but a loss of articulation and ability to float through things like washboard. I'm going to set them back to 45mm today.

My second order (replacement for mis-ordered rt bar) was taking a long time so I inquired about the delay... got a response pretty quick and the order followed fairly soon after.
The headquarters is in Michigan so it's not too hard to call them.
 
Some pics of the air shocks install.

This is them w/o any air in them... theres a bit of a reverse curve to the springs, about where it sat on the OEM shocks.

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This is with about 45psi (20-120psi rated)... it's not very obvious in the picture but now there is a bit of upwards curve and they're off of the overload leaf (most apparent in back) this resulted in about 3/4-1" ride height increase I would guess.
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This is the air hose running up into the body behind the passenger side tail light... the larger line is the rear diff breather.
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And this is where I located the schrader fill valve above the tail light and protected by the tailgate.

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I just received these air shocks today, hopefully get to them this weekend. BTW, if you're going to purchase these only buy 1 as they come in a set, unlike any other shock you buy. I thought the box was a bit big and heavy... time to send a set back
 
feetforbrains said:
Guessing here, there are little plastic things that run in a race on the top and bottom of the curtains (which I can't locate a part number for). Might this be a "curtain clip"?
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Ah yes, perhaps. I call those “noisey fuckers,” because when I had my curtains off, they slid around with every acceleration the van made.

How many do you need Nick? I’ve got a few spares.
 
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