Club 80-90 Forums

this is more a 'sense' - than a specific technical problem -
but over the last week or so - ye olde van seems to be slightly lower on the passenger side?!?
checked the tyre pressure -
which is fine - road holding - steering - braking - all fine -
cursory look at suspension/steering - looks ok?
but can't escape a strong sense of the van feeling slightly lower on the passenger side - than usual -
any ideas where to start looking? possible causes?
all thoughts appreciated -
edoh

tails of a spring broken?

thanks for the quick reply covkid -
will try n take a photee today to see if i can place this -
suspension/steering on the van - a complete unknown to me

Pay particular attention to tops and bottoms of springs and anywhere suspension appears to be mounted to the body. We should be able to glean plenty from that. See if you can spot any obvious differences from one side compared to the other when looking under the front.

Also, measure between top of tyre and wheelarch. Not a perfect guage, but also measure between front bumper and ground at either end.

thanks so much for these details
really helpful -

my van is a LHD westfalia and it is always lower on the left side, because all the heavy equipment such as the sink cooker water tank and gas tank are all mounted on the left.

You need:
http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/l ... shims.html

Although you might want to examine the general condition of your springs, particularly the lower rear spring plate which can become very corroded over the years leading to the spring not sitting where it should be. Brickwerks do a repair section for this although in my case I had a local guy make me one up.

The other option is to start eating pork pies and try and balance it out.

ok - had a looksee underneath -
compared both sides - and couldn't 'spot the difference' -
but honest guv - its not me wonky eyesight! -
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a definite tilt to the passenger side - lhs -
facing the van straight on - i can notice it -

so -
had a measure up - a la covkids suggestion -
drivers side - 4 inches from top of wheel arch to top of wheel -
passenger side (the droop) - 3 inches from top of wheel arch to top of wheel -
drivers side - top of wheel arch to bottom of wheel - 27 inches -
passenger side - top of wheel arch to bottom of wheel - 26 inches -
the things you didn't know yesterday - eh?
so - deffo - an inch lower on the passenger side -
i took a couple of photees - (difficult when you dont know what your looking for) -








the only one that looked vaguely suspicious - was this one - on the bottom left - there's a shiny piece of metal - unlike anything else on either side - where everything is covered in 25 year old encased grime -

just running behind the hose -

so - if anyone has any ideas of what to look for next -
possible causes? - be grand to hear from you -
edoh

Bottom pic is the speedo cable rubbing - just use a cable tie to hold it away slightly.
Spring tails look intact to me. (can't see any rust like you usually get on a break)

Yup, just looks like a weight issue then. Its amazing how much some cupboards weigh (see my many comments on chipboard and reducing weight in campervans), particularly Westfalias which seemed to want to set a record for how much weight you could get on one side. The springs could be a little tired but does seem as though its weighted heavily one side. Not sure how easy the units move but you could try removing what dead weight there is on that side and see if it makes any difference. Otherwise the only way is to make or buy shims to correct the tilt.

gonna rejig the many bits n pieces -
n sort out what i really need on board -
(are those 2 cupboards full of spare alternators/batteries/huge bag of tools/ etc etc -
REALLY necessary?) - -
n see how it feels from there -
a big thank you shout - for all your helpful and useful comments -
edoh