Eurovan T4 suspension lift kit installation DIY

[markcm2]

I haven't seen a dedicate thread for "how to lift your eurovan" so I figured I'd write up my experience. This was performed on my 2001 weekender, I assume it is similar for others but I'm not positive. For reference, I have discussed some of this in another samba thread here.

I would rate this as an easy job, probably 1-2 hours, assuming your torsion bar nuts are not seized which could take longer to deal with.

I would recommend new shocks if you are going to raise your EV, I installed Bilstein HD and they are amazing.

The only parts you need to raise your eurovan is a set of spacers for the rear springs. You can either buy these from a few online outlets, or make them. I made mine, UHMW can be purchased on eBay for fairly low cost (I paid about $40 for a square foot of 3/4" thick, good for two vans).

The dimensions of the spacers are 6" outer dimension and 2" inner dimension. You need the full 2" ID, and could skimp a little on the OD if necessary. To be honest, you might not even have to cut the outside circular, it would probably work just fine as a 6x6" square. The thickness is up to you. I started with 1.25 and found it was taller than I needed and added a bit of sway to the ride, we are at .75" now and happy for the time being. I would say even a .5 would be a nice little bump up with minimal if any effect on ride/handling.

You might want to read the whole thing and then start by checking your front torsion bar nuts to make sure you can adjust them (details on this in the write up). If they are seized, you might want to know before you do the back end_
So here is the process.

Here is some data on the ration of turns on the front swaybar nuts to the amount of lift you will get: the torsion bar bolt to ride height is not equivalent. For 1-1/4" (about 30mm) lift I think I did either 11 or 12 threads. As I recall they are a 1mm thread pitch. I guess you could say it's about 1:3; for every 1mm (1 full turn) that you raise the torsion bar nut you will get about 3mm lift. Remember you probably need to drive a bit for things to settle out as well. When I changed my spacers to 3/4", I backed the nuts off 5 turns leaving me at about 7 full turns from stock.

Ok, so buying pre-cut or buying sheet and cutting is your call. Now let's assume you have a set of spacers.

Measure ground to fender height and document is somewhere for reference of stock height.

The order doesn't really matter, now that you know how many turns you will need, you could do the front first although I did the springs in the rear first both times so I will document in that order.

Again, this is just documentation of what I did, you are responsible for your own safety and all that.

REAR spacer installation:

Jack up the rear of the van so that both tires are suspended, hanging freely from the van. Support the van with jack stands for safety.

Work on both sides at the same time so the swaybar does not create extra effort in dropping the control arms to make space for the springs to come out and back in.

With the wheel suspended I removed the clips holding the emergency brake cables to the calipers and then released the cables from the calipers because they did not have enough slack to push the control arms down when removing the springs.

With an additional jack under each control arm, I removed the lower shock bolts on each side. The jacks were there to prevent any unwanted excessive travel when the shock were unbolted.

Next, I lowered the jacks to let the control arms hang free. If you don't loosen both sides, this is where the rear torsion bar will fight you.

Now, the control arm can be physically pushed down and the spring can be removed. This doesn't require much effort for a stock configuration.

I then removed the upper spring seat, placed my spacer and then replaced the spring seat. Repeat for the other side

Now I replaced the spring making sure the upper and lower seat pads aligned with the end of the spring coil. This required a little more pushing to get the control arm down and I had a flat prybar at the base of the spring which easily leveraged it into position. Repeat for both sides.

Re-assembly was the reverse, check that the shock bottoms are aligned with their holes in the control arm, use the jack to lift the control arm, install the bolt, re-connect the emergency brake cable and clip, repeat for other side.

Removed jack stands and lowered van.

ADJUSTING THE FRONT HEIGHT:

I suspended both sides again (for the same reason, to equalize the sway bar). Placed jack stands under van for added safety.

Applied some WD-40 or similar to the threads on the swaybar nuts.

Tightened the nut on both sides the desired amount (12 full rotations for 1.25", or 7 full rotations for .75")

Removed the jack stands and lowered the van.

Drove around for a while and then checked the new height.

Adjust if needed, keeping notes of the adjustments and the changes from them. Repeat if necessary until satisfied.

What do they say, a thousand words is worth a picture... OK, here are some pictures:

IMAGES:

The left spacer is the 1.25" that I removed, the spacer on the right is the .75" that I installed

This image shows releasing the emergency brake cable from the caliper

This image shows removing the lower shock bolt

I did use a flat bar to remove the spring when I had a 1.25" spacer although stock should just pull right out:

This is with the spring and upper spring seat removed:

This is with the new .75" spacer installed and the upper spring seat replaced:

Here is the spring installed with the .75" spacer:

The front is just two nuts, I didn't think that would be appropriate family content to post

Here is our 2001 EV weekender with the .75" spacers installed and the front adjusted:

[IdeaNerd]

Super-interesting, @markcm2... thanks for posting this.

[Blaque Jacques]

I am about to tackle this. I just lifter the rear of my full camper 1.5" and installed koni shocks. the rear fender lips are about 18" from the center of the hubs. My unlifted fronts are about 15.75". should I shoot for about 2" of lift" 1.5" enough?

also, there is about 2.5" of threads sticking out below the adjusting nuts on the torsion bar. seems like a lot. anything to worry about?
_________________
86 2wd Westy GW2200. 97, 99 02 EVC. Lots and lots of bikes

[Joshwa]

[Zeitgeist 13]

There isn't much clearance between the axles and the subframe. The next time you jack up the front end, check out how close the axles are from the frame, even at stock height.
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[markcm2]

[gsjack1966]

I also did the 1.5" spacers and will change to either a 1.0" or a .75" after driving it for a few hundred miles. At first, I thought it looked great, but after some time, I have decided it's just too high.
Tough call to make when deciding which spacers to buy, but it seems at least a couple of us have made the same decision to go with a shorter spacer after some experience with the tallest offered.

[bcolins]

Those of you that have done 1.5" lift then decided to go to 3/4",......would you have been ok with a 1" if you had started with that"

Also, is there a 3/4" spacer comercially available?

Brian

[shirk]

Cole at Cavevan should have spacers.

https://shop.cavevan.com/collections/eurovan/products/eurovan-lift-spacers

[bcolins]

Cole only makes 1” and 1.5”

[shirk]

Sorry. I think he used to do the 3/4.

https://www.t4-wiki.de/wiki/Schraubenfeder

There is a 19mm spring seat available.

Part # 7D0 511 147 B

Put one of them in along with what you have now.

[markcm2]

I have a set of 1.25" spacers available. I just posted them in the classifieds.