V8 Caravan?

Diplomat_Wagon

Diplomat_Wagon

Hiding In The Bushes While
What do these involve and how hard is it to do?

Might be able to pick up a decent '93 Caravan for cheap with a fried trans.


Don't you have one XL?:huh:

Pics?

How to's???
 
as i recall xl still has it...its a aspen front end if im not mistaken..or maybe it was an M body front.....bah one of those 70s mopars where the whole front end, cross member, torsion bars are all 1 unit and require 4 bolts to bolt it in....i belive the rear was a b-body unit or one from a dakota
 
wonders if I should be looking for a nice caravan instead of a fender, hood, maybe a door and misc. for the AspeLareWagoon.

Still not getting too serious with the f body in case I stumble into some old iron.
 
welded. :D
the rear leafs were really simple due to the partial frame underneath. Get on a train and I will show yah. :)
 
XLR8R said:
welded. :D
the rear leafs were really simple due to the partial frame underneath. Get on a train and I will show yah. :)
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But that costs money and requires time off work, pictures are free. :D

I can see the rear being easy because don't they already use a leaf setup back there?

What does the front attach to, is there front frame rails?
 
the rails under a minvan are about the same but beefyer as most of mopars unibody cars.(there actualy MUCH beefyer than a-bodys)..only issue i could ever see in the rear was the requirement to lift the van a little for pumpkin clearance on bumps and yes they run NORMAL leaf springs out back....as i recall you have to sledge or cut a little bit of the firewall for the very top few inches of the tranny......i paid fairly close attention when v8 voyager was doing it.....and eyeballed everything up on my own van as well as while i was cutting up the parts minivan....the front rails on the minivans are quite stout and have all sorts of intenal renforcments
 
So making and welding on mounting brackets for the front clip would not be that hard then?

The rear will probably be an 8.25 since I have scads of them.
 
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dippy if you want i can go pull a piece of the front rails out of the scrap trailer and take a pic....those front rails are at minimum as beefy as the ones used in mopars full size vans...i actualy think the minivan rails are beefyer.

welding to the front rails should be a cake walk unless your van is rotted to hell...i had to litteraly cut the rails off in sections cause of all of the re-enforcement sections that the factory built in
 
69.5CUDA said:
dippy if you want i can go pull a piece of the front rails out of the scrap trailer and take a pic....those front rails are at minimum as beefy as the ones used in mopars full size vans...i actualy think the minivan rails are beefyer.

welding to the front rails should be a cake walk unless your van is rotted to hell...i had to litteraly cut the rails off in sections cause of all of the re-enforcement sections that the factory built in
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That would be great 69!


I think this project will be a go if I can get that van.

Even if I don't I'm still gonna build one! :giggedy:
 
ill measure up the stock ..uhh rear? uhh i beam?...and get ya a size so at the least you will know what rearend ya need for it

some of the front rail sections are so re-enforced there 1/4 inch thick in long sections
 
Mine is an 87 (XL on Orvils comp), I am not sure the 93 is the same. sure to be close though.
It has an 8.25 rear, but I don't think the floor is bumped to accomodate....I will go there tomorrow and take pics, if I can.
 
It's not that tough a conversion, really. The rear rails do look a lot like the old Mopes, and the L-body pickups (Rampage/Scamp) did just fine with leaf springs.

The front suspension from any F-body or variant (M and J-cars) will work; I'd just make mounting tabs for the K and use aluminum or poly bushings instead of welding it solid. As far as the rear goes, if memory serves the van axle is actually wider at the lug pattern than most Mopar RWD axles.

I think you'd need to do something about the fuel tank, though... isn't it right in the path of the driveshaft?

BTW, this conversion process is nearly identical for all the K-based Mopars--Shadow/Sundance, Daytona/LeBaron, Caravelle/NYer/400/600/Aries/Reliant, and the vans.
 
Dr.Jass said:
It's not that tough a conversion, really. The rear rails do look a lot like the old Mopes, and the L-body pickups (Rampage/Scamp) did just fine with leaf springs.

The front suspension from any F-body or variant (M and J-cars) will work; I'd just make mounting tabs for the K and use aluminum or poly bushings instead of welding it solid. As far as the rear goes, if memory serves the van axle is actually wider at the lug pattern than most Mopar RWD axles.

I think you'd need to do something about the fuel tank, though... isn't it right in the path of the driveshaft?

BTW, this conversion process is nearly identical for all the K-based Mopars--Shadow/Sundance, Daytona/LeBaron, Caravelle/NYer/400/600/Aries/Reliant, and the vans.
Click to expand...



Ok, I kinda figured you would just make brackets.

Isn't the gas tank off to one side?

A fuel cell wouldn't be too hard to stick under there.

Yeah I could do a smaller K-car but I think the van would be WAY wilder! :giggedy: :D


Aren't the other K based cars alot narrower?
 
acyualy i always thought going "under glass" on a minivan would be more fun..start with a long wheel base and leave the front end untouched..drop a V8 in the middle of the van like an a-100/108...ya got your milage master up front and the brute force out back

while searching for the "ideal" setup for the lloyd i measured every FWD i could find and most of the mopars are the same size ..i belve the omni was the smallest only being something like 4-5 inches narrower than a minivan....so yeah there all basicaly the same give or take a 2 inches
 
the rear spring mounting centers are ruffly 50 inches...outer edges of "stock" tires is 70 inches......sooo as long as your offset puts you not past 70 you will be fine.....on a side note..when i was cutting up the parts mini i loped out the wheel wells and checked how far in you could tub it befor hitting the frame..it was something like 7-9 inches ..so yeah you can tub the hell out of one without modding the frame...corse tubbing the drivers side would be a semi ugly task as the wheel well is extra long as the filler neck goes thru the wheel well...passenger side is a "normal" wheel well

as for the tank ..yes its offset but totaly in the way..(so in the way that they routed the exhaust to the passenger side on 2 90 deg bends to clear it) HOWEVER..i think if you found the tank from an AWD minivan that the tank is longer and skinnier by design to allow for the drive shaft of the rearend...dount quote me on it but im 90% positive that the AWD tank is totaly out of the way and that ALL vans have provisions for it...so essentialy it "should" be a direct bolt in...

ive seen a few "conversions" of normal minis being made AWD useing factory parts and was sure that everything to do it was a direct bolt in..with the exception of a few guys who did it to the "short" vans as the AWD was only availible on the long wheel base

some time this week/weekend ill end up out at the wreckers and ill see if theres any AWD's i can have a look at
 
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