A108 Revival project

Did you have to cut the rear floor to flip the axle? how much drop is that? Bump steer?

No road report yet. Next week gents.

The rear shocks were something I found at autozone. There is plenty of travel with the stockers if they aren't blown (mine were).

The floor doesn't appear to need to be cut. The rear has tons of tire clearance, the frame is the problem. The front may have some tire rubbage on hard turns. I am going to downsize to 15" wheels with smaller tires on front to solve it. I am currently running 16"ers.

If anyone out there has two 15x6 cragars with 3"-4" offset and 5x4.5 bolt pattern, give me a shout!

I unfortunately didn't measure before I lowered it. I estimate 5"-7"drop. Ground clearance wise, it's totally driveable. I will eventually have to notch the frame to get some more suspension travel.
It's worth it to me. It looks soooo much better.
Here are the measurements from the ground to the highest point of the wheel wells:
Front:
Rear:

Mine is 28" in the front and 26" in the rear.... WOW!

On your brakes, i think you put the brackets on the wrong sides. The welded nut needs to be on the inside, i did the same thing, i cut the bolts but mine still rubbed on the right side. If you switch sides, the bolts don't need to be cut and you'll have more room. Scarebird has two different sets of manuals, one says inward the other says outward.

I'd like to know about any bump steer.

What size are your tires now? looks good.

Can you post a picture of the axle to frame space in the rear?

Stoopid john wrote:
On your brakes, i think you put the brackets on the wrong sides. The welded nut needs to be on the inside, i did the same thing, i cut the bolts but mine still rubbed on the right side. If you switch sides, the bolts don't need to be cut and you'll have more room. Scarebird has two different sets of manuals, one says inward the other says outward.

Is "Stoopid John" like the big dude nicknamed "Tiny"?
I think you're right about the brackets. Luckily mine have clearance with the trimmed bolts.
I did install my calipers on the incorrect sides I think. The GMC1500 has a trailing caliper I think putting the bleeder on the bottom when you put them on an A100 with the scarebird kit. The bleeders need to be on top to bleed correctly. I'll swap them and report back.

My pic of the day!

I should have a road report within the next couple of weeks.

LOL! I didn't see the bleeder!

Here is a pic when i did mine and it's wrong in the picture. This is the driver's side and the bracket should have been on the pass side.



Your van looks so good down on the ground! I want to do mine so bad now.

Stoopid john wrote:LOL! I didn't see the bleeder!
Here is a pic when i did mine and it's wrong in the picture. This is the driver's side and the bracket should have been on the pass side.
Your van looks so good down on the ground! I want to do mine so bad now.

Thanks Man!

If this is incorrect, my brackets are installed correctly! I still had to cut the bolts.

3/18/12 - Brakes finished today. Washed it for the first time. Went on a long parts run to find radiator hoses - no luck until too late. One more weekend...
I am going to run 15" wheels on the front and keep the 16's on the back to level it out and buy me some clearance.

Anyone have any experience with replacement rockers and front wheel arches? Are the aftermarkets any good or should I make them?

Ok, ok it looks better clean...

What size are the tires on it now? Where is the front tire size a problem? (inside, outside, top)

You need to remove the side step before it removes it's self. lol

Ride report from the side streets - no bump steer!
Very springy, rigid ride with blown front shocks. As suspected, I need to notch the frame for a little more suspension travel.
New Monroe shocks are on the way.
More info to come!

Transmission problems are killing me!
I diagnosed a blown front clutch seal, I rebuilt my tf727, installed it to find a bad torque converter! Luckily autozone sells a rebuilt one for $90.
One more weekend in the garage...

It's been a while. This week I had to bite the bullet and buy a new driveshaft to eliminate the obsolete and poorly designed front trunion. They won't last long if you lower your a108.
I drove it 200 miles to Rust Revival in Waylon, MO. She did great.

http://greatamericanchromeshop.com/store/55-steel-flange-mount-lights-p-46.html

I contacted the shop that sells these and they are actually closer to 5.25" O.D., they should work in the stock taillight location.
I ordered a set, and will report on the fit.
The chrome ring should add a nice detail.

Put a new hat on her today. It was too hot to really lay down gloss well, but the goal was to get it 1-color and protected. Mission accomplished.

You can see my new taillights here.

Looks awesome! Did you install the drive shaft already?

These van are bitchin lowered! I did the same thing to mine as you can see (avatar) Mine had factory power steering so no bump or "strong steer" for me either! I did not have to notch the front but I did have to notch the rear. What shocks did you order? I was wondering... when go over recessed man holes or even any mid range irregularity in the road i hit it with a bang!. it is not the suspension hitting, it seems like the shocks are bottoming out. I was thinking about going with stiffer shocks from a different vehicle that would fit. What did you use? And if it was stock ones how are they performing?

I think everyone should drop everything that drives! Praise the lowered.. amen..

The new driveshaft is in and spinning fine.

Yep, my front shocks are bottoming for sure - I think shorter ones will partly remedy the front end crash. The front shocks are stockers and are totally useless with the axle flip. The rears are something I found at my local autozone. I took my bolts in and my old blown shocks and found something shorter.
I need to do the same for the front.

Just wondering, are you going to weld those spring perch brackets on or are they fine just U bolted on?

O.H.surfboards wrote:Just wondering, are you going to weld those spring perch brackets on or are they fine just U bolted on?

I put a very small weld on the fronts and rears. It's a small enough tack weld that if they want to move, they will break. Since there isn't a ton of info on these vans, trial and error is necessary.
The welds haven't broken with 1000 hard miles.

agentwilliams wrote:

O.H.surfboards wrote:Just wondering, are you going to weld those spring perch brackets on or are they fine just U bolted on?

I put a very small weld on the fronts and rears. It's a small enough tack weld that if they want to move, they will break. Since there isn't a ton of info on these vans, trial and error is necessary.
The welds haven't broken with 1000 hard miles.

That's great to hear, because I did the exact same drop to mine but I haven't installed the new wiring kit to drive it around yet. Thanks for the info!

Any of you find the right shocks yet?
The ride up front is brutal on stockers.

I'm close to doing the same on my 69 A108, perches are in the mail and the ubolts are just across town. Figuring out which shocks to use seems to be tricky. I've never bought shocks that aren't stock, and I'm wondering what to look for.

Welcome to the site Vanopolis!
For different shocks, first measure the distance between the mounting points of your van at it's current ride height.
Next, find that good old local parts shop. The one with older guys manning 10+ feet of catalogs instead of a Chain store with a kid driving a $h!tbox Honda manning(?) a computer terminal.
Find a full catalog for Monroe, KYB, etc. Look up your application. Then go to the back and look at what is usually caled the buyer's guide. It will give you the stock ends, extended length, and compressed length and hopefully ride height length. Write all this down.
Take the stock height and subtract your current height.
That will give you the difference. You need to subtract this difference from the extended and compressed lengths.
Now look through the rest of the buyers' guide with the new numbers. Find a shock that has your mounting points and lengths. Hopefully, there is more than one application. Try to get one that is a similar or more weight, a Caprice not a Civic, for example.

Wow, that was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for breaking it down and sharing, I have a parts shop just like the one you described with the old guys that are knowledgable on the slant sixes and older rigs.
I'll take lots of pics and post my progress when I get started on the suspension and lowering.

cant wait till you guys figure out all the tricks on lowering i'm close to makeing up my mind on doing an axle flip, they look sweet lowered and i could get it in my garage with no clearance issues.