robj

Ha!, Hey Roger, will take you up on the offer. I'll make sure the KE25 doesn't have much fuel in it, thanks for the warning :D Catch ya when you're down this way. Took a tidy 3series BMW for a test drive, wasn't overly impressed.

Thanks. I've left a message on the guy's phone. Yeah Roger came down, the Caldina looks like a very practical family car, obviously I didn't get to test drive it though ;). Seen one less than a km from my house too, a Gtt or something to that effect.

Cheers Taz Rx. My 2 KE20's got picked up just yesterday by a guy with a Caldina, a black one just yesterday. He is from L'ton way, so I guess it may be him. So the cars will be up at the 'top end' of the state. Rob.

Caldina.... I haven't driven one of them. Must consider it. A 3 series with an RB..... that's good. That would be nice..... I haven't thought of checking the papers, only been looking at the net. More keen on a smaller car than larger, a 3 series might be good. Thanks, Rob.

Yeah, was a hard decision. Practicality for family is needed. Considered the BMW, but yeah ongoing costs are a concern. To get the same acceration requires the biggest straight 6 to start with (non M3) and they are expensive too. Maybe I'll have to compromise something.... Thanks for your thoughts! Rob.

Have my KE25 for sale, with many spares including spare complete KE25. Will consider swap/trade for a good condition 4 or 5 seater (family needs) that is still retains some enjoyment in driving, eg WRX, Silvia. Asking $18000 http://www.rollaclub.com/board/index.php?showtopic=41484 Some of the build thread can be found here.... http://www.rollaclub.com/board/index.php?showtopic=11909 Cheers, Rob.

This rego'ed white KE25 is now for sale, with another complete spare (not rego'ed) mustard KE25, plus many spare panels, windows, boxes of parts, brakes, etc etc. I've got it in the FOR SALE section. Link is here. http://www.rollaclub.com/board/index.php?showtopic=41484 I will need to replace/swap it with a 4 seater for the family. Been test driving a few other cars such as WRX and Silvia, but they don't drive as nice as this. Any ideas for great driving cars that I have missed, keen to hear from you. Thanks, Rob.

Thanks! Yeah, the hose is actually a plastic one on my car, and feels like it's been softened by the petrol. Sounds like an easy fix. Master cylinder: I run a 15/16 inch, hilux. Used to run a 1inch with a remote booster. Either way a adaptor plate is needed, which we made out of metal. FYI it is either the Datsun 240k or 240z master cylinder that is a straight bolt on, I think it is a 13/16 inch? could work quite well without a booster, maybe would be a bit soft in my car with the brakes. Could possibly work well with somewhat smaller brakes.

Ahh, it's been a while since I've been able to drive the car properly, due to a knee accident. In the last few weeks I've been finding any excuse to drive it. Today I drove through the same road works 8 times. Obviously finding plenty of reasons to drive it. I've been driving it to physio and hydro therapy, a great winding road to get there! Loving it. Must say, it's one of my finest pleasures: driving a well sorted and balanced car on a great bit of curvy road, with the knowledge that if need be, I still have grip left and smooth transitions if I need to change inputs halfway through a corner. AND it doesn't cost the earth. Strangely enough, With my motor ticking between 3000 -5000rpm, I still always get high 8litres/100km. Try that in a late model car AND try keep up with it! (All within speed limits of course.... :dance: ) Haven't tuned it since the new manifold. Just adjusted the idle via the handcontroller to settle it. Seems good!

If my leg is better (got hit by a TOYOTA while crossing the road at 80km/h)edit: I was jogging, the TOYOTA was doing 80km/h, I can't run that fast.... I'll be keen to take the KE25 out if it's a Saturday. Be keen to meet some more rolla club members. I'm down south.

Excellent footage John! Thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Loved the similarities between the Datto coupe and your car. Looked liked heaps of fun.

Hi. I've had 3 spare cars to do my KE25 up with. I can get rid of 2 of them now. Got a mustard 1974 KE20 which is complete bar 1 radiator hose,speedo and a seat belt. Fairly rusty, too rusty to rego as is. But no rust holes. Comes with a spare 1972 (early) shell (which has no guards or bonnet) but 12 inch hotwires no motor in this one. But has tail lights, boot etc. The spare shell is in EXCELLENT order, not just excellent order for age. I drove the (then rego'ed) KE20 and parked it. Hasn't been running since then. The motor is a 4k. Seats are good, body too rusty for rego. The spare shell's body is in excellent condition, no rust at all, all straight and from what I see no bog either. Sorry, no pics at present. They are 10 minutes from Hobart. Pick up only. Hobart. PM or reply to this thread if you are interested. Sorry, not really prepared to part it out at the moment, as I have stuffed my knee and can't move around that much at the moment. If you want the 4k, it's $300 and the cars come with it.smile. Cheers, Rob __________________

Hey Ryan, part number is ETX20L, it has 270cca (cold cranking amps) and is a sealed battery like motorbike ones. Positives: It's been in the car for 3 years. Cranks the 3sge (10-10.5 compression?) good enough, even when I've run it out of fuel a few times so all the lines had to be bled through again. Light too, 7kg if I recall correctly. Negatives: If I leave the battery in the car without disconnecting the battery it for a week or more, will notice there is not as much charge in it. Have had to charge it up. This is probably more to do with the wiring than the battery though.... When I have unhooked the battery, still been fine after 3 weeks to start it. Also starts well on those cold Tassie winter days too. Cheers, Rob.

Thanks for the advice Luke. Doogs, it's made of steel. I've heard that a lot of custom 3sge manifolds develop cracks much easier than 4ages etc. Hence the steel, and a brace going to the engine mount.

A few pics of the boot...

Very tidy! Must be so cool driving around in that KE25. Top colour too. Would take you back to such an oldschool feel when driving. Was thinking about the cartoon movie CARS, just driving for the sake of driving.

Sent you a PM. Just some lathe work really. But remember the shortened rack wasn't good for me, caused bump steer.

Very good Tally! I was wondering what happened to your car. Glad to see you are taking it serious. After all the work, you will be rewarded mate, with a great car to drive. And, the older it gets the cooler it is! Keen to see it's happening. Off topic: noticed you want a KE20/25 door. I believe you know the glass is a different shape between the models, but the sheet metal is the same.

Here you can just see that the little bracket that holds the 'bell' shaped thing on the end of the KE70 steering collumn was used to locate and hold the bottom of the collumn to the KE25 firewall. I had concerns that the universal joint would be too sharp, but not at all. Still a rair bit of travel left. Rob J

Steering collumn placement. This was the easier part, not so much theory and stuff like bump steer etc. And didn't need to be precise. I spent an hour working out the wires and which ones needed to be connected. I also used the KE70 indicator, but left the KE25 light switch on the dash. This part took most of 4 hours, but doing it slowly and thoughtfully. There are only 7 or 8 wires to really connect or extend. Just need a multimetre to work it out which ones short circuit when you turn the key, or turn left or right. I've had no training with electronics, and managed. An Auto Technition could tell you what to connect in less than an hour. I moved the bracket that holds the KE 25 steering collumn to under the dash so that the steering collumn splined end could reach the rack.(NOTE: these splines are of differing length between early and late KE70's). Then got it welded to the KE70 steering collumn. All up, the inside of the car work could be done by one person in a Saturday job. NOTE: I changed to a deep dish wheel, as the steering collumn is slighly (30mm or so) further away from the driver than a standard wheel. With the wheel like this, it is much closer to me the driver than the earlier (Autotechnica) wheel. Cheers, Rob.

A pic of the measurements of the AE86 crossmember I had at my house with rack and LCA's fitted. Note that all the measurements are with the LCA's flat on the ground and fitted on the crossmember. So they may seem slightly longer (5mm or so) than fitted in a car. This is because the LCA's are on an angle (sloping down) in cars, unless lowered dramatically.

Next step: STEERING KNUCKLES. I modified the standard ones, didn't worry about the KE 70 ones. A bit of my car history here to give you a background why. I have XT130 corona struts, with coilovers. Strut/Disc/Caliper setup is the Corona/Peugot/Hilux setup. This setup has worked well on the race track. Check Toymods on the net for how this is done. Anyway, I did this setup for a few reasons. Spoke to an old racer from Melbourne as he used to race these KE25's years ago and is also a 3sg expert, having done rwd conversions over 18 years ago! (Think he still is on Speed week sometimes). He said he chose to use bigger corona struts (not KE25) because they are stronger and less likely to deform. Sure, he's talking racing with sticky rubber. Now a problem is that the KE25 knuckles bolt hole spacing is closer than the strut bolt holes. KE70 Knuckles would fit the bolt holes, but may have problems with disc clearance to the bottom of the LCA. Also, the KE70 /AE86 knuckles will give really annoying amounts of bump steer. So I had the KE25 ones modified. What I did: (well, my mate Jonny Rochester on the lathe) 1. Welded in the rear bolt hole of each knuckle. Redrilled it (lathe) slightly further back to fit the strut and placed the metal locating collar back in. 2. Then on the lathe also redrilled the current 12mm taper into a 14mm (common toyota mitsubishi etc) size. NOTE: I questioned this racing guy (you've probably worked out who he is) about the strength of redrilling the holes, and he said he never had one fail in 5 full years of competitive racing. I've checked mine out a few times, and all looks good. Truth is, I think the bolts and locating collars would be the weak points. The finished product. As mentioned, I use the corona strut pugeot disk and hilux 4pot caliper set up. I have 14x6 12positive offset superlites and 185/60 tires (adrenalin). I use 40mm RCA (roll centre adjusters, commonly used to give lowered cars acceptable amounts of bumpsteer. Got these from David Lawson, the guy on the AE86 drivers club. Whiteline ones are only 25mm high. T3 one are 30 or 35mm). With the measurements in the thread, It all JUST fits. 195/60 tires might scrape the TE27 flares. I use Notec ajustable strut tops (beware, 2 different spacing choices here) and have them set for maximum camber, which is between 1.9 and 2.1 degrees negative. Even without the adjustable strut tops, tires might scrape flares. Be informed that Adjustable Strut Tops on KE20/25 are not alot of use with standard diametre springs, as the strut towers are quite small and the springs would hit the strut tower. Also, I found that KE 70 LCA's are 3-4mm longer than AE86. So I swapped mine over with my mates AE86. This little bit helped the tires not to scrub the flares. Maximum castor I can use is 4.5 degrees before the tire hits the front of the wheel arch with lots of wheel lock. Thanks to Aaron Martin from AZCUSTOM for his excellent work with the bits and pieces, such as the rack and pinion, roll cage, strut brace, Adjustable panhard rod etc. Top work! Thanks Jonny Rochester for your input and work on building this car. It wouldn't have been going without you. Rob J.

This post considers the Position of the LCA inner pivot points. There are two positions that need to be considered here. 1. The height of the LCA inner pivot points 2. The lateral postion (how far from the centre line). 1. The height of the LCA inner pivot points is not that crucial in that if it was 5mm higher or lower than standard it wouldn't make a drastic difference to the Roll Centre. But of course, if you went too high, the LCA's could fowl with the crossmember. And if that didn't happen, you have to remember that the rack does sit higher than the LCA inner pivot points. And you don't want the rack to be touching the motor. What I did: I lowered the LCA inner pivot points to about 25mm from the bottom of the crossmember. Soley for the reason my motor is tall, and therefore hangs low. (see pics of previous post). My rack would have hit the sump if I kept it at a standard height. 2. Lateral position. I located the Lateral postion on a Milling Machine as it was hard to do accurately by hand. I also had them drill the hole on a 3 degree angle, as I knew I would be running about 3 degrees more castor. With the crossmember on the milling machine, (the back of the crossmember pointing up) we drilled the holes at 289mm from the centre line. This resulted with the holes on the front of the crossmember being about 286mm from the centre line due to the 3degrees. One reason I chose to do this was because a toyota guru friend had this done to his TA22 race car and is very successful. Just in the last few months he's won at Philip Island and other tracks around the country. If I didn't do this, I would set it at 286 or 287mm and drill straight, as there is very little room between tires and guards. NOTE: if you measure your rack, you will find that these measurements are alot further out than the standard pivot points. Infact, you may need to extend the crossmember with extra metal as I have on my crossmember. Check out the pics below.

Where I started: Focussed on the Rack positioning. Three positions need to be considered: 1. Distance behind the crossmember 2. Height in relation to the LCA inner pivot points 3. Length of the bar Edit: just realised something after writting this post up. I'm working a bit backwards here. The positioning is relative to the LCA inner pivot points. I'll fill you in on the LCA inner pivotpoints in the next post. So you need to do the next post first, ie before this one. After heaps of 1/2 scale drawings, I came up with this position for the Rack: 1. Distance: The Rack is 85mm behind the Centre of the LCA bushes. Another way of saying this is 85mm behind the centre of the crossmember, looking laterally. So I'm guessing roughly a 20mm gap between crossmember and the rack. Hope that makes sense. NOTE: I had a AE86 crossmember in my garage, and these had the rack about 115mm behind, not 85mm. I chose 85mm for a few reasons, one being it suited what I wanted for ackerman better, and secondly the KE20 steering knuckles (108mm modified) are considerably shorter than AE86 (132.5mm) and AE86 p/s ones (115, 120mmish- can't remember exactly. Also, this way it doesn't put too much strain on the KE20 knuckles and rack ends when turning with lots of lock. 2. Height: The Rack is 6mm ABOVE the LCA inner pivot point. Saying that another way is the centre of the rack ends are 6mm higher from the ground than the centre of the LCA inner pivot points. NOTE: AE86 racks are 7mm higher. So very similar. In my 1/2 scale drawings, this measurement seemed to make the biggest difference to any bump steer, so really try get this to within 1mm either side of 6mm. 3. Length: Did 2 attempts. first one I shortened the rack by how much closer the LCA inner pivot points are in my design, but it didn't work. A lot of bump steer, possibly more than a standard AE86. But it was toe in on compression, not toe out. Yuck. Fitted a spare rack bar I had (standard length) and brilliant! No bumpsteer at all in compression and the in the first 25mm of droop. Then slight toe out with more droop. (this is with 40mm RCA's). NOTE: Without the 40mm RCA's it would still have no bump steer in compression at all, nor at least for the first 65mm in droop. But this isn't much good for roll centres, and understeer would result in hard cornering (due to tire scrub, not bump steer obviously). Besides, a bit of extra ackerman on the inside wheel in turns never hurt... check out the competitive IP cars like the front line escorts. The theory behind that is too much for this thread. OVERALL NOTE ABOUT MY RACK POSTION: i mounted my rack and LCA inner pivot points rather low (because of the tall 3sge motor). The LCA inner pivot points are 15mm below the standard position in the KE25 Crossmember. They are also a lot further out, but I'll get to that later. Below you can see the split lock collars. I had them facing backwards, so I could get the rack out without having to lift the motor. You might notice my crossmember is not very high. Alot has been cut out of the hieght so I could get the motor low. Obviously we put a lot of metal in that crossmember to strengthen it again.

List of things needed: KE 70 steering parts from the steering wheel to the rack ends. AE 86 LCA's 2 x Split Lock Collars (Part number SC 220)- 32mm or 1 1/4 inch I think they were. 2 or 3 sheets of 3mm and 6mm metal, say 150mm square. KE25 (or KE20) steering knuckles. Expert stuff: Welder (and a very good welder guy). 1 hour on a lathe. 1 hour on a Milling Machine.