Anyone tried to lower a T&C? I know the rear end arrangement makes this difficult but hey, in the USA anything is possible!! Not quite so much here in the UK. Maybe someone makes a kit?


JJ.

 

Well last week I loaded up my GV with 20 x 50kg bags of sand and 5 x 50kg bags of cement. She sat nice and low.

 

Yep, Alan, I've done the same myself. It sat low and was better driving as well - not that lowering would achieve that though. With the 2nd & third row seats out, and loaded to the gunn'les, it rides real sweet.
As I've finished all my building work and got another daily driver, I thought I might play around with it a bit......Air ride maybe!!!!


JJ.

 

Those Gas Monkey's and the like do the low ride thing with air bags. Add an accumulater here and there and it jumps fences. May need to loose the cart springs though, chop rear half off or add trailing arms. Panhard rod maybe required though.

 

Thanks Goggs - I watch Gas Monkey and wish I was younger to get into all that. Did a lot in my day but I'd struggle now (lol).
The last job I did was convert my Mark 8 to springs to get rid of the tired air ride.
Had a '95 T/Bird as well, so good reference point. Wish I had them both again though.
If I could get re-tempered & shaped cart springs for the GV, maybe that would work?


What about another motor/tranny in place of the 3rd row seat......6.6ltr...!!!!!!!...or a North Star front end conversion.....I'll phone Gas Monkey.........................


JJ.

 

Would something like this fit the bill?

 

I would think a pre 'Stow and Go' would be easy to modify/change rear suspension on. Track width would need to be considered because anything too wide would prevent the sliding doors from opening.

 

Hi Alan,
A bit too noisy for me but nice to have a bit extra 'boost' (lol)......you'd get a ticket(!!!) for that over here but, in my favourite country in the world, car is King!


Mine's a '04 pre s&g but I'd not thought of the sliding doors.


I've seen an ad over here about re-profiling cart springs so I'll give them a call.
Not had the front end apart but if the coils can be cut maybe it'll all work. I know some say that's a no-no but I've done it loads and never had a problem, going right back to my 1960 Ford Zephyr. Yep, I'm an old geezer!! Did over 60K miles in my '95 T/Bird with chopped coils.


Regards, JJ.

 

Its something I'd looked at a few time and these were my thoughts.

Rear: This would be quite easy. Simply remove the axle, cut off the mounting plates and re-weld them to the underside of the axle which would allow you to mount it above the spring. Now you will have to replace the spring hanger with something a little longer, I was thinking of an adjustable set which would give better control over the final ride height. Then its just a matter of finding a shorter shock!

Front: this is a different ball game altogether. The greatest issue up front is that the springs are quite short to begin with. So cutting of fitting shorter units are going to give a horrendous ride. My thought however was to find a shorter strut, or remove the original cut it down and go with a suitable shock insert. This would allow you to maintain spring rates.

Finally is the oil pan. This sits low on the V6 models and would prove difficult to protect without going for something like a skid plate. Although my though was to cut the lower section off and fabricate a much flatter but longer pan with a windage tray and baffling to prevent oil surging and starvation, then modify the pick-up to suite.

 

Another option is to have a set of low profile tyres fitted to the standard rims. This will have the same effect, lowering the car by 25 to 50 mm but probably wouldn't help the looks of the car much, I think the wheels look too small for the car already.

This has low profile tyres but on 22" rims. Not sure if it's been lowered too but it looks nice.