Shit Box Ke70

[KETURBO25]

The thing that stopped me from doing it believe it or not was the

steering arm bolt (the one the has a split pin through it) are you

saying that i can get the strut out without having to undo that?

If so then that would mean its just the too bolt at the bas os the

strut then wouldnt it? :lolcry:

[SLW42]

yeah you don't have to take out the tie rod ends out of the steering arms mate, all you need to do is undo your brake lines, the previously mentioned 17mm bolts at the bottom of the strut, if you turn your wheel around to full lock have a look where the strut meets the steering arm, there will be two bolts under it undo them and then the strut will lift off the lca :lolcry:

[KETURBO25]

yeah you don't have to take out the tie rod ends out of the steering arms mate, all you need to do is undo your brake lines, the previously mentioned 17mm bolts at the bottom of the strut, if you turn your wheel around to full lock have a look where the strut meets the steering arm, there will be two bolts under it undo them and then the strut will lift off the lca :lolcry:

 

well that settles it then, i might go out and have another crack at it if thats the case,

cheers for your help.

[SLW42]

well that settles it then, i might go out and have another crack at it if thats the case,

cheers for your help.

 

no worries man, I think it's good to help others aslong as they wanna learn :lolcry:

 

don't forget the top 3 nuts on the strut top too :lolcry:

 

hope it goes well for ya bud

[KETURBO25]

Thanks dude, i got the struts out with ease this time, every other car ive taken struts out of

(pretty much all commodores) the first thing i go for is the steering arm bolt and split pin.

I can't believe how easy it was to get them out of the KE70! Other then the two 14 mm nuts

on the back of the caliper, theres only 2 17mm nuts behind the wheel hub and the three 14mm

nuts on the strut tower under the bonnet and thats it!? Why can't every car be this easy to work on?

 

Anyway pics will be up later today of the final height of the car, also took the tailshaft and

the radiator out and undone every bolt and wire that holds the motor and box in except the two gearbox

crossmember bolts, all i need now is a engine crane and that suckers coming out, very shortly

it will be replaced with a 5 speed k50, can't f@$king wait...

[ke70dave]

nasty bit of rust there!

 

good to see its manual.

 

please don't paint it matt black :rolls:

Edited September 6, 2010 by ke70dave

[KETURBO25]

please don't paint it matt black :rolls:

 

Lol, when i paint it I'm gonna do it in white, simply for the fact that its just that much easier

to go the same colour as the original because that way i wont have to worry about the inside

of the doors and the engine bay, but thats not to say that i don't like matt black cars.

[KETURBO25]

Okay ive finally finished putting the struts back together, it was pretty easy to do

as i said earlier all cars should be that easy to work on. i went for lowered king springs

all round which i bought cause they were going cheap.

 

Theres a noticable difference in the height of the car but i just don't think its low enough,

I'm thinking about taking a coil off the springs to bring it down a little. Everyone says

that cutting springs is a bad idea but why? what does it really do to the car? ive done it heaps

of times and ive never noticed anything 'bad' from it, only thing ive noticed is that its lower.

If youve got any feedback as to why it might be a bad idea or vice versa id love to hear it.

 

before

 

After

[altezzaclub]

That height is great for the moment- wait until you've sorted rims & car seats and see what it rides like... depends how much you like your kidneys & your lower spine.

 

i've never had a problem with cutting springs, but I've never run cars as low as I see on here. They obviously get a little stiffer as they get shorter, but they will never be anywhere near stiff enough to stop you hitting the bump stops if you cut too much off. Once you hit the bump stops the tyres just let go, instantly!

 

The cops have the problem of idiots cutting so much off they are not held at full drop and fall out in a yump so they lose control when the car lands. At the same time the shocks bottom out over bumps and smash the foot valves to pieces.

 

Not to mention that lowering a car upsets all the wheel alignments, even the angles that most people on here know nothing about, so you get weird bump steer at high speeds and rip the treads off tyres in no time flat. The more you lower it the worse those problems become, and some are not recoverable in adjustments.

 

I do, of course, drive on cut springs every day! :rolls:

[KETURBO25]

lol, its like smoking in a way, you know its bad and potentially dangerous

yet the angle grinder pulls trumps over reason, but having said that i think

your right, theres a fine line between cutting 2 coils and then deciding its

not enough and then you cut another coil and before you know it your car is

unable to drive over a speed bump without bottoming out and becoming just

plain annoying to drive. Theres nothing i hate more then being behind some

yuppy in a low as ride and having to wait 10 minutes for them to navigate

their way through a spoon drain all cause they went ape shit with the grinder.

 

but what i really want to know is there any difference between buying lowered

springs and cutting the ones you allready have to the same size? I'm just asking

cause I'm not sure why anyone would spend up to $400+ if they really don't need to.

[altezzaclub]

The difference is that the lowered springs are stiffer, they are designed not to let you hit the bump stops with your reduced clearance.

 

However they also have to allow you to load the car to its max 5people plus luggage and still be safe, so there is a lot of safety margin in there if you are using cut springs and never load the car.

 

I don't know how much you can cut off stock sprngs without a problem, but some guys on here have gone pretty crazy with them.

 

You can probably find the spring rates of stock springs and lowered springs with a bit of work, you'll just have to cut your own springs and measure the rates yourself....

[MattyZ]

i cut 2 loops out the back and 1 out the front of my KE70 and with a full boot of shopping and just ma dad driving it was low enough to attract the useless 5.0 so i wouldnt go anymore than 2

[KETURBO25]

i cut 2 loops out the back and 1 out the front of my KE70 and with a full boot of shopping and just ma dad driving it was low enough to attract the useless 5.0 so i wouldnt go anymore than 2

 

well for now ill guess ill just leave the car as is then since it allready has the king springs,

hopefully with new wheels itll tuck under the guard a bit further, thanks for answering.

[ke70dave]

yeah thats pretty low already mate!

 

wait till you get some wheels/tyres to fill up those guards.

 

ive had cut springs in the back of my car for ages, but i have short stroke shocks so the springs can't physically become un captive.

 

i see no problem with it, especailly in the rear where you have the whole spring....tower? that the spring sits up in, spring seriosuly has no where to go. i run mine with the cut end "up". and the un cut end on the diff. i don't know why people ever run it the other way around...

 

new shocks are the key, stiff enough bump so you don't hit the bump stops, and short enough stroke so the springs don't become un captive.

 

the front howeer, I'm not a fan of cutties in there, as once an end of the spring falls off the spring seat, its all over!

 

having said that, my mate in his 86, we cut the springs all round, didnt change the shocks for a while, knew it was "bad", drove around like that for a while, i think we even got it airbourne (or close to), hit this huge bump on one of hte mountain roads, springs were perfectly fine...

[SLW42]

If you have king lows in the rear of your car if you take a coil off the lows it will just tuck the rear on a standard 175-70-13 rim and tire on both sides :rolls: , if you wanna keep the stock springs and want it as low as the cut kings take 2 and a half off the spring, when i cut stock springs in my 70 i start by taking off 2 and a half coils and take off a quarter from then on if it's not low enough, but you start to run outta spring by then, and you must remember to put a short stroke shocky in there if you cut springs, if you like your body take a bit of the bump stop off too, i hate mine so i prefer to bounce down the street, i have had springs come un captured before but never fall out, IMHO I LOVE GOING DIAGONALL OVER SPEED BUMPS THERE IS NOTHING BETTER,