Ke70 Suspension Upgrade... Anyone Done This?

[rjenman]

Fellow rolla enthusiasts

 

I have been encouraged to upgrade the suspension of my KE70 by a shock absorber snapping in two. Has anyone done this to a KE70 or AE71? Basically I just want my car to handle and of course to look phat.

 

If anyone has done this with king springs and/or monroe shocks definately please reply to this post! These are the brands I want to use. Part numbers would also be helpful for reference if you did use these brands.

 

Apart from that, any advice? If you suggest chopping the springs I will pretend you are a computer glitch and hit my moniter. :y:

 

 

 

Hehe I like it how googling suspension and KE70 brings up a rollaclub hit first go..

[Xany]

chop them...you know you want to....:y:

 

(it had to be said, plus i want him to hit his monitor) bwahahahahaha

[rjenman]

lol *hits moniter*

 

error exists between keyboard and chair..

[ke70panelvan]

i have used monroe GT gas shocks in mine

is works a treat

 

cost me $300 installed :y:

[Super Jamie]

i would suggest using good shocks like pedders or kyb, not supercheap rubbish like monroe or gabriel. i had monroes in the front of my ke25 and i hated them, too soft

[Felix]

i had monroe GTs allround in my old ke30. gave an extremely stiff ride. lasted for ages.

 

i have ke30 monroe GTs in the front of my ke15 now. the ride is fairly harsh with them as well. this is with cut down ke20 coils, making them probably 20% stiffer than original, plus they also carry less weight. on the back i have non gas Tokikos which are also very firm.

 

becs ke16 has ke30 monroe standard duties in the front. they are way softer, and transfer weight a lot quicker. don't like them for spirited driving. nice for cruising, without the bone jarring ride.

 

i have also had monroes in my EH, and HQ holdens, and have had good experiences with them. i did have a set blow out the seals on the front, when Bec used to drive Gap Creek road everyday in the Quey. it was like the worst corrugated/choppy road i have ever experienced. could only idle along it in second in my ke15. would make your vision blur.

 

jamie, were yours GTs, or just standard duties? big difference between the two.

 

i'm not saying monroes are the greatest or anything, but they do provide acceptable results for the dollars spent, so long as they are matched to the application. like anything i guess. pretty much all of my cars i have driven over the last 15 years have used them.

[Super Jamie]

mine were GTs

 

most monroes i've seen were pretty stiff at first, but wore out within 40000km or thereabouts. my tafe teacher put some in his ke70 wagon, and he's a big of a spirited driver, and it was dipping down in the nose again after a couple of years

 

other more expensive brands seem to last longer. rob would flog the absolute ass out of his pedders, and have them tested every 18 months, and they were less than 5mm different deflection from stock. that's pretty good :thumbsup:

[Redwarf]

Pedders, as used and recommended by Redwarf Motorsport.

 

(Shameless sponser plug.)

Edited August 23, 2005 by Redwarf

[coln72]

Used Monroe GT strut inserts in my KE35 for year with no problems. Used to break the bottom of the LHS when I ran Monroe GT's on the rear. Never happened when I replaces them with a set of old pump up shocks from my old mans HK Monaro :thumbsup:

 

This was 10 years ago so I expect that the quality has changed if people are having problems now.

[Super Jamie]

actually, the old monroes are known to be better than the new monroes

[rjenman]

i have used monroe GT gas shocks in mine

is works a treat

 

cost me $300 installed :thumbsup:

well actually as a matter of fact i bought a pair of monroe gt gas shocks today for $80 just for the rear.... so now its just an issue of springs

 

Does anyone know if king springs LOWS are decently low compared to superlows? king springs don't make a superlow for ke70's but make a low...

[TRD ke70]

Can't wait to try these Comfort Gas Shocks :thumbsup: Have been hearing many good things.

i reckon the pedders comfort gas are good, brought a set of sport riders for the van and they seem to be good as well.

my last corolla had comfort gas in it and it was fantastic.

[kangaroosa]

I picked up my Lovells Super Low springs yesterday. Along with a pair of Boge strut inserts. Hopefully i'll fit them this weekend and i can tell you what their like.

 

Lovells Super Lows are 45mm-65mm lower than standard and $150.

Lovells Springs

[rjenman]

might look into lovell's

[Super Jamie]

the thing is, you lower a corolla more than 2 inches and you start to f@$k with the ideal geometry of the damper insert, so it becomes necessary to run short stroke inserts. so you don't get "ricer bounce" and you don't wear your shocks out within a few thousand km

 

now you can be dodgy and space your short strokes like half the idiots on toymods do, or you can do it properly and have your struts shortened. and while the spring seat is off, you may as well spend the extra <$200 and get coilover sleeves welded on, which means you need small diameter springs, negating the need for superlows in the first place

 

superlows are the stupid ricer spring that might make your car look good (depending on what it is and what you consider good) but ideal for handling, they ain't

 

personally, i think most brand name springs are too soft if you're serious about handling. if you're buying new, it only costs an extra $20 or so to have customs made up to any rate you like

 

so i'd just do that, and keep it at a sensible, useable ride height so you can still use stock dampers and have a good setup but keep the costs down at the same time