curse of the van

[keytothestone]

Finally got a good axle housing to swap everything for $200 which I thought was a good deal? Gonna replace the xmember at the same time. Bad news is the shop can't get it on the rack til 7/15. So have a running van I can't use safely and haven’t used since 5/13. Prior to that I have used it 2weeks since 10/1/18. My patience with this has expired. Yes, here goes the bashing, and its honest bashing and pretty level headed. So, if you don't like it TS! I would say about 75% of the work UJ did I have had to fix or replace the guts of the total 4x4 that was added. Bad luck? Poor execution? Shabby work? Or being one of the 1st couple coil conversion guinea pigs UJ did? The MG coil design really not proven? Or a combination of all these? Hmmm I wonder why he's not doing them anymore????? With the amount of work my local shop will do and has done I should have just gotten a kit and had them do it with all the labor I have paid and will be paying. And would have done a leaf if using UJ. Something that is tried and tested. If I were purchasing another van, I wouldn't even look for a van to convert. I would buy a used one already done, and most likely only done by Quigley. I guess you live in learn. I went in to this endeavor knowing full well problems could come up with doing such huge aftermarket additions, but I mean this is just ridiculous. This is the kind of stuff I would expect if I did the conversion myself, and that’s why I paid a lot of loot to have a pro do it. Chris has been pretty good about sending replacement parts but hasn’t covered any labor. But was really wanting to do a sleeve insert on the inner C and that just sounds like a band-aid so just taking care of it myself and going with advice of my local shop and replacing the axle housing and swapping everything.
What I have had to do since I p/u van from UJ in NC Aug 3 2017 25k miles. No problems with Ford factory equipment

1)Relocate sway bar and add longer sway bar hangers. Sway bar was rubbing when turning right on control arm. Making terrible sound and grinding through
2)Replaced original conversion Atlas rear leaf springs. New ones were sent by UJ 3months later after conversion and updating the vans weight. But still not correct. I had to add more leafs to the Atlas replacement pack a few months later because of rear sagging and bad riding.
3)UJ rebuilt the transmission for 4x4. I had to have transmission rebuilt again just 5k miles later because trans was slipping.
4)Replaced Blown N271 transfer case UJ installed. That are supposedly “indestructible??” After just using 4x4 5 times. Nice $700 tow bill to get it to the shop as well.
5) Replacing UJ installed x-member when swapping axle. X-member is flexing and doesn’t support everything properly in the UJ/MG installed location. Drive shaft and transfer case literally bouncing.
6)Cracked tail-house more than likely because of said UJ cross-member location and flexing/bouncing.
7)Replaced the drive shaft UJ installed most likely cause of said x-member
8)Replacing UJ stage 2 axle. Inner C of axle for the lower BJ was wallowed out and won’t seat a BJ safely. Either due to bad axle supplied by UJ? A bad BJ?, or faulty UJ installation of BJ?
9)When axle is out reset the coil springs. UJ installed CS to close to the frame. They are grinding against the frame and shocks. Going to bring the CS out from the frame a little bit to fix this issue.
10) Replacing blown rear shock

[mgmetalworks]

Originally Posted by keytothestone

The MG coil design really not proven? Or a combination of all these? Hmmm I wonder why he's not doing them anymore?????

You've had a bad experience and that's unfortunate. I can understand that it is frustrating and you're well within your rights to post what you feel but I take this statement as you throwing stones at me personally, my design and, at least in part, how I put a roof over my family's head.

I can't speak for how your van was built because I didn't build it. You've had a lot problems that point to the builder though, not the design of my kit. My kit has worked just fine in dozens of vans now, some with several years and 10's of thousands of miles on them. You have a few issues though and my design is suddenly unproven and that must be why I don't convert E-series vans any longer? That really irritates me that you've implied that.

I have tried to help you diagnose the issues you've had and offered guidance and you've basically just brushed it away. And now on top of that, you're implying that some of your problems are in a way due to how radius arm brackets bolt to the frame...

Here are a couple things to think about:
- I don't offer a "complete" 4x4 conversion. I sell brackets that locate an F-series axle and radius arm suspension in an E-series frame. It is intended to take the most difficult part of the conversion out of the equation. Competent shops or DIY'ers can convert their E-series vans to 4x4 using our brackets, some off the shelf parts and in some cases, custom components that they must source or make themselves. The transmission cross member is not part of the brackets we offer, any modifications or customizations for the trans cross member is up to the shop or DIY'er doing the work. Lots of people love that we offer these brackets and a whole community of DIY'ers is growing, along with it a great knowledge base and information sharing. What other conversion shop just gives out part numbers and DIY guides and how-tos so freely? I've shared everything I know about converting an E-series to 4x4 through our informational package (that is sent out to interested parties) and I continue to contribute to the knowledge base whenever I can. I've been very accessible through this forum and others and I'm not hard to get ahold of if people have questions. Rather than reach out to me for my $0.02 you choose to try to smear me? Come on dude...

-We used to offer installation of 4x4 conversions for the E-series. Why did we stop? Because they sometimes take weeks, tying up the shop and the lift, the labor dollars aren't that great and on a van-to-van basis...one could be easy and the next one could be a huge PITA. I have a project list over 100 items long, taking away one thing that sucked up all of my time was a good thing for our business. Since we've "open-sourced" the 4x4 conversion (selling just the brackets and providing tons of useful info to DIY'ers) we've had a much easier time getting things done. I didn't stop developing our radius arm suspension because it wasn't working. I stopped putting all of my eggs in the E-series basket because I have too many things to do and something had to be cut.

-Custom vehicles are not for everyone. 4x4 vans are cool and lots of people love them. They are however hand-built custom vehicles and sometimes hand-built customs are not going to be everything you hope they'll be. Your list of issues would really annoy most people and I get why you've got a bad taste in your mouth. Stuff like this happens with custom vehicles though. You either have the patience to resolve the issues or you don't. I hope that the sting of your misfortune wears off and you can get these items fixed and enjoy the van.