On Sat, 2011-06-04 at 11:03 -0400, Dennis Haynes wrote:
> Normal shocks can be changed without lifting the van at all. For the
>  coil overs you need to lift the vehicle and ramps won’t help.

No but it seems that that putting the front tires on ramps, with the van
pointing nose-down the driveway, should lessen the van's desire to start
rolling when lifting the uphill side off the ground.

> At some
>  point you really should get a real garage jack if you want to perform
>  under car repairs.

Would such a jack be helpful when working on a not-level car? I find
that when all four tires on on the ramps, the van seems mighty stable
and high enough off the ground for me to feel comfortable.

> What you can do is this:
>
> Remove a shock. Attach new shock to top mount. Raise van letting wheel
>  fall until lower shock eye and bracket align up. Do same for other
>  side.

Thanks for that tip.

>
> If only raising the rear you may need a wheel alignment to reset the
>  castor angle. The handling may become squirrelly.

Ah -- more Fun with Alignment!

> Also regularly
>  inspect the rear shock mounts. They were not designed to carry weight.
>  I have seen the lower mounts broken off from these and air shocks.

A poor choice of shock type, then?

--
Rocky J Squirrel (Jack Elliott)

>
> Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Rocket J Squirrel
> Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2011 9:36 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Help the chimp avoid getting crushed
>
> Remember that old animal intelligence test where they put a chimp in a room, and from the ceiling dangled a bunch of bananas out of reach, but they did leave a stick in the room and the chimp shortly figured he could overcome the obstacle (out of reach) and knock down the tasty treats with it?
>
> Well, let's say I am the chimp. Let's say that instead of a bunch of bananas, my goal is to change the rear shocks on my 1984 van. For the obstacle, let's say I do not have a flat place to work on. The driveway slopes sufficiently far that I need to stick 8'' high ramps under the downhill wheels to level the van. For tools, I have the right wrenches, the aforementioned ramps, a couple of cheap little jack stands with 6''
> square bases, a hi-lift jack with Vanagon adapter, and a healthy desire to do the job without (a) the van rolling into the house or (b) getting crushed.
>
> Seems like all I need to do is park the van on the ramps so it no longer has a downhill to roll down. Maybe nose down so the rears are on the pavement. Set it in Park and chock it, then, one side at a time, jack up a rear corner to get the wheel off and do the R&R.
>
> But before I embark, I'd like to check with the group in case there is a safety issue with this plan.
>
> SECOND QUESTION: I've never changed shocks, on level ground or not. The ones I'm trying are Monroe SensaTrac coilovers. I have not opened the box but it's pretty clear from the photo that I need to get the mounting points on the van the right distance apart because these shocks don't look like they are easy to compress or stretch by hand. How does a fellow go about getting the right distance between the upper and lower mounting points?
>
> --
> Rocky J Squirrel (Jack Elliott)
> '84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> '74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) Bend, OR KG6RCR
>