Have you looked at your shocks. Uneven worn shocks can give you a false
feeling of a uneven suspension as you described. My 83.5 westy has a pair
of uneven worn shocks in the front. Whenever I brake hard the driver side
always sank a bit more than the passenger side.

Just a thought. I am no expert in suspension.

David

--- Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET> wrote:

>   I know, "Check the Archives"...but my dial-up connection is so slow that
> when I try to get something odd-ball out of the List Archives, it sometimes
> takes me all dang morning to not succeed anyhow.
>   Problem: My 84 2wd van seems a bit 'off' in it's "stance".   It is not
> exactly 'even' in how it sits.  With our racecars, we called it
> "Corner-balanced".  Ideally, each wheel would share an equal weight, giving
> you an equal amount of traction at all four tires.  In reality, most cars
> are heavier at one end or the other..Examples would be...say,. the Olds
> Tornado for a heavy front end weight bias and the Porsche 911 for a heavy
> rear/front bias..  You can't do much about the F/R balance, but you can
> adjust the side to side/corner to corner balance by adjusting ride height at
> the wheels.  That is what you always hear about on NASCAR TV broadcasts when
> they talk about "loose, tight" and making an adjustment during a pit
> stop..Those cars have easily accessed ride height adjustments that allow a
> crewman to 'tweek' the ride height in a few seconds.  Many vehicles have
> 'coil over' suspensions,  where the springs sit around the shock body and
> rest on a threaded spring perch, allowing you to adjust the ride height by
> moving the spring perch up or down.
>   So my van, if you look closely or pay attention as you drive in low
> traction situations, it seems like the left rear and the right front wheels
> are taking more load than the other diagonal corners..If you can picture the
> van as a table with four legs, it would be like a table with un-even
> legs..The table, you'd stick a matchbook under one or two legs and it would
> be steady again..The vehicle, you need to extend the suspension at one or
> two corners.  Or, you would cut off one leg of the table to make it stable
> again, or lower a corner of the van..
>   Mine, the right rear wheel (or the left front)  seems "light", so I want
> to either extend that and put more of the load there, or lower the left
> rear/right front to allow the right rear and left front to carry more load.
> It is a bit difficult to visualize..but hold a book parallel to the floor
> and rotate it around a bit, you will see the relationship between the
> corners.."corner balance"  In a racecar, we used four scales and actually
> weighed the load on all four tires, and then adjusted the suspension for the
> best balance we could achieve...
>   So on  a van, is there any way to influence/adjust the suspension for
> "length"...Not the right term, I know.."extension?"  Ride height is the term
> used for racing..but  a van is hardly a race vehicle..
>   Sorry if this has been discussed before and it's "in the archives"...
>   Don Hanson
>

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