So Rudolph had a leaky heart and was in need of a new hip. As always the GRM following was very helpful. Turns out though as fate would have it a few phone calls lead to 'almost' the right parts landing in Santa's workshop for next to nothing..
So a 3.9L V6 full size van is being converted to four wheel drive with power from a 5.9L Magnum. These 4x4 conversions are normally expensive, this one is being done on a challenge budget.
We start with a 1997 van.... and a 1996 5.9L 4x4 1500 Dodge truck.
The truck was purchased for less than the cab, bed, and some old washing machines I had laying around brought for scrap.
Many of the 4x4 van conversions die in the planning stage. The common thought is the van is or shares a bunch of parts with the truck... It doesn't. The Dodge van is a unibody construction with a number a challenges we will get to in detail in other posts, but the primary problem is the frame rails and crossmember of the van drop down to the control arm pickup points right where a 4x4 conversion need clearance for just about everything. The other feature unique to the van platform is the engine is offset to the passenger side dramatically.
This is a "work" van so just looking to add some ability and a little style without going overboard. The idea is to end up with something easy to service with readily available parts and drive and handle well in daily service, again though, this conversion being done at or near a challenge budget.
Starting at the front this is what it looks like with a Truck suspension placed under the van.... (most of truck frame removed and van strut rod bracketry removed) As you can see at almost 10 inches of lift (including 32" tires) the upper arm of the 4 link would only leave about 1 inch of travel as it lands exactly under the frame member of the van. The sway bar connection removed because even if the rest of the plan comes together that location is simply not going to work. Target lift height is around 7 inches over stock including the 32" tires so clearly there is work to be done.
The spring buckets are near the same distance apart, but the truck uses a larger diameter spring.. There is also the issue of when the perches are centered over each other you end up with something like this, it might be a little further back in this photo than need be..... but you get the idea, with perches in stock locations on both the truck axle and the van the are a number of issues.
Stay tuned!
I'm intrigued by this process and your love for furry automobiles.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
The fur started YEARS ago as a way to take a beat up old van and inexpensively make it "presentable" for work use on projects in upper middle class neighborhoods. It has since evolved into almost a county landmark. It does its job perfectly, and I LOVE watching people laugh as we drive by. Once the 4x4 conversion is complete the next phase(which has been a long time coming ) is a set of air horns which play the first seven notes of "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" . I have a couple sets of "dixie" horns and a stack of horns from the same type of sets and have disassembled the compressor and made a new disk that hits the notes and timing pretty close, but haven't nailed it. I think given it is 2019 instead of doing this "modified JC Whitney" I need a proper electronic control to time the horns only once through using proper onboard air. This must be air horns, no reproduction noises.
Anyway... First things first. Keeping the a challenge budget in mind instead of sourcing a Dana 60 or something from a 1 ton or 3/4 van the decision was made to use the 9.25 Chrysler from the truck. This is for a couple of reasons. First... not upgrading to 8 lug, and the van and truck axles are different widths so it would have to be a truck axle anyway.. The track width on production vehicles ends up about the same thanks to different offsets and centerbores in the wheels.. So in order to keep things simple it makes sense to just use a truck axle in the rear, and I already have this one....
The problem is the spring perches for the Van are wider than the truck... and shock mounts also need relocated. Nothing to see there really except if you embark in this yourself don't forget to take all things into consideration when setting the pinion angle...
For example... To lift the rear with leaf springs is simple, even on a challenge budget. The spring perches I used gave me about an inch. The other options were a shackle flip or using factory lift blocks from the truck or re-arching some springs. The lift blocks are 3 inches and generally not a great idea. I may source some heavier duty springs later, so I passed on hammering on the springs which leads us onto the Shackle flip. On the van this was VERY easy... Simply unbolt the bracket from the van, invert the shackle and bolt it back up. Moving the rearward end of the Spring eye down 8 inches nets about 4 inches of lift. This plus the inch from the perch puts me exactly on target... The only concerns at this time are a slight loss of functional spring rate, a slight reroute of the fuel filler neck and of course consideration for pinion angle.
Before it hit the road I intend to beef up the shackle some just because, but this should work just fine either way.
All that leaves us right about here.... Perfect for setting to work on the front end....
What kind of disk does it take to play songs on those horns? Is it a MIDI version on a 3.5" floppy or what?
In reply to GCrites80s :
It is like a fiberglass disk with holes/slots drilled in it. When you hit the switch to powers on the compressor and voids allow pressure past to the manifold on top.
I'll try and grab some photos later...
