Suspension needs Attention, on a Budget. 1986 Chevy Van G20

I take my 1986 Chevy G20 and replace some of the front end parts with known good used parts. Usually i would replace with all brand new parts, but we're on a budget. So I picked up the used parts from the local junkyard for 5th of the price I would have bought on amazon. I'm trying to keep cost down to a minimum if I can. Thanks for watching the video hope you enjoy.

[@johnharmison8090]

My grandfather had one of these vans. Super dope I’ve been looking for one for a while.

[@waynepierce7305]

Wanna buy mine?

[@charlesparr1611]

When I went to do my control arms and ball joints, none of the parts were available anywhere, and those control arms are not actually designed to be rebuilt. You can do it, but it's a really nasty job, as you need to disassemble that which Gneral Motors decreed should never come apart, lol. If you look around you can find the methods for tearing those control arms down and rebuilding them, but supposedly someone is making the parts again, I assume they also fit some older pickups and we all know how old pickups are a huge big deal these days. There are two different sway bar sizes, and the sway bar bushings everyone sells are for the larger size. I ended out making my own bushings by enlarging the hole in some other bushings I found and jabbing up quick and dirty clamps to fit those ones. Worked fine, and it was easy. I replaced the entire front brakes assembly with a set of rotors from power stop, and rebuilt callipers from rock auto, and I'm going to do new brake lines shortly, be careful buying brake line off eBay or amazon, I got sent copper tubing for plumbing fridges lol. Still haven't gotten my money back, and I think I would just buy from Summit or jets for brake parts next time.

[@dre83cpt]

Yes indeed, getting it done on a budget! nice work

[@thatguysgarage323]

Yes! Thank you!

[@airmech5083]

Love the engine sound @ start up !

[@sarahgarnett8021]

It’s almost impossible to find videos on this van 😭😭

[@lmora91]

That big ole tree casts amazing shade

[@beebong1]

Again liking the content. However I thought I saw a lift in your garage. If that’s true why you didn’t you put it on the lift? Keep going on the project. You’re doing great!!!

[@thatguysgarage323]

Yea I do have a lift but they were taken by another project

[@racer67]

I bought a 1982 chevy g20 its Smurf blue the previous owner was paralized and his wife drove him around in it it had a v6 but he didnt think it was fast enuf so he had a shop put a 350 in it and 300 miles onto the new engine some1 ran into the dr side fender so it sat and he ended up passing away so his wife n son put it up for sale wen they used it they had a little top put on it for $3,000 so his wife could stand in it becus it had a hospital bed and a wheel chair lift in it personally i wish it didnt have the top id rather it have the original flat roof but i bought it cus new engine and it has a posi rear it has th350 trans so i bought it and welded a new fender on cus there welded on from the factory i put a new muffler n exaust pipe on it and i had to put a new headlight bezel on and 1982 musta been a 1 year only for that style headlight bezel cus it took me forever to find a set but i did in virginia at a old junkyard but i fixed it put a new water pump on engine cus from sitting it developed a small leak so i just put a new one on and thermostat i got rid of the hospital bed n wheel chair lift cus the lift was old n the wiring was rigged it went down once n got stuck i had to jiggle all the wiring around n finally got it back up so i ditched it but it runs like new the engine has maby 500 miles on it if that,,ive owned it for 1 year now n i only use it to pick up engines and stuff n i drive it to work once n a while but it really would make a good van life van. Ive been debating on selling it cus i dont drive it that much n its a shame to leave it sit thats why i drive it to work at least once a week but i have alot of projects going on and i might sell it just to fund another 67 impala i got. Anyway nice van! When they run good there cool to drive they have a captains chair not a driver seat 🇺🇲

[@charlesparr1611]

The rotors can be turned a bit past spec, in my experience, so don't toss those, you might need to find a friendly brake tech to spin them, but they will do for spares. You NEED a fan shroud on these motors, they overheat easily, probably because the doghouse is so close to the motor that the heat gets reflected back and the motor runs hotter. Cold air intake makes a big difference for these engines for the same reason. in 87 it comes stock with a cold air intake built in.

[@charlesparr1611]

I also really wish I had the vcarbureted motor rather than the TBI, but I'm not set up to do an engine trans swap, and its kind of involved making a carb engine play nicely with the electronic controlled 700r4, or so I am told.

[@ndfleet3601]

@@charlesparr1611 I just bought an '87 G20 and really enjoying tinkering around with it. Paid $1250 for it and it runs and drives nicely. Clearcoat/paint is a little rough, but that seems to be pretty common on these year chevies.

[@adamharlow8124]

@@charlesparr1611 why do you wish you had the carb over the TBI? Just curious.

[@charlesparr1611]

@@adamharlow8124 It's both very expensive and very labour intensive to make anything like adequate HP on a TBI engine. You need at minimum vortec heads, an expensive intake manifold, a new tuneable ECU. Conversion to carbureted requires an expensive transmission controller, and while you're still replacing heads, you can find performance heads and intake manifolds at 1/2 to 1/3 the price of the more expensive stuff that works with the factory TBI, the cost of that controller is ridiculous. If you have an ordinary pre-tbi abc, however, the world is your oyster: You can choose to incrementally replace components rather than having to pony up 1800 (Canadian dollars) for factory vortec heads and the GM performance tBI manifold plus anther 1200 for an ECU and that's stage 1. You can't get useful a upgraded on the heads without a better flowing manifold, and the only TBI head that provides much in the way of improvement is 1000 Canadian. There is an edelbrock ( I have one installed) but its not capable of supporting much past 250hp, although it does make the response a lot better and turned out to improve mileage in concert with headers and my throttle body porting efforts, so that was nice. Sure you can take the TBI up to 350 hp, but its incredibly expensive and requires a lot of work and trial and error, and unreliability on the way, whereas the recipient of four barrel and fuel heads has worked for decades. In a G20 boogie van weighing 7000lbs, anything less than 300 hp just doesn't cut it. There may be a carefully built 350 in the vehicles future, if so it will assuredly not future an electronic controlled transmission, nor any non programmable ECU. given the price of even relatively cheap full service ECU systems, and the learning curves,I'd rather go luddite. SBC can safely produce 500 to 600 hp without a microchip in sight, and I will be pleased as hell with a mere 400 which should give reliability with maintenance and scrupulous build.

[@fgoindarkg]

Don't ever install an old brake hose that's been sitting for years. Chevy hose fittings are famous for rusting and collapsing, locking your brake caliper.

[@thatguysgarage323]

I totally get that, but I more or less need a temporary replacement for the time being before I moved on to the next part of the build so that I could at least move it around the yard. I was going to replace the entire brake system when I get to that point, just have to wait on that part though