My Ke70 Weekend Play Thing

[snot35]

Initial spring assessment was wrong. Here's some details just in case anyone ever searches for details on rear springs:

 

AE86 3.8 free coils, 11mm wire, 130mm OD, 342mm free length, 250mm installed length,120lb/in (TRD bible claims 105?)

KE70 7.3 free coils, 12.2mm wire, 130mm OD, 365mm free, 250mm installed, 105lb/in

 

The above is as installed in a KE70 with what seem to be stock Monroe shocks.

 

Ride height is actually the same between springs, so it would appear that the KE70 coil is softer, which is what I was expecting. I'm having trouble reconciling the springs though. The bible claims 220mm or so installed length and 105lb/in for GT AE86 springs. I doubt that the rear of the '86 is that much heavier to compress them that much more.

 

I must be missing something.

 

Also, an SC12 may have made it's way into the shed....

 

:pulp:

Edited May 31, 2012 by snot35

[snot35]

More work, grabbed some dry ice to try my hand at tar stripping. It actually works really well. I haven't quite finished yet, still have to do the firewall and the drivers foot well. I suspect the firewall will be a pain in the arse. If I ever do it again I'll make sure absolutely everything that can get in the way is removed, you have to work quickly. 5kg of tar taken out, plus another 5kg of rubber/felt sound deadening. I reckon on about another 5kg of tar. I'm also planning to do the next khana sans passenger seat which is about 15kg I think. Also haven't yet tried the car without rear sway bar. Hopefully, along with the softer springs, it will add up to a bit more traction and a bit less weight vying for that traction.

Edited May 3, 2012 by snot35

[snot35]

Not much has happened. Life and family is getting in the way! :) I do have some rose jointed trailing arms on the way, but they probably won't go in the car for quite some time. I'm going to have to work out all the travel arcs on the suspension, because there will be binding with a full rose jointed rear end as the arms are unequal length. I'm not sure how to get around that one yet, but it will probably involve fabrication. I'll probably do a heimed panhard rod first to see how easy it is.

[swampgarage]

Just read through all of this. Quite a few khana cars on here. Amazed you drive it to and from events. We're always impressed if we've got anything left to put on the trailer at the end of the day! I'm still using the massive t18 steering arms, but if I read it right, the ae86 arms will fit the t18 struts too?

[snot35]

I reckon the '70 is a great choice of khana car. Fortunately I haven't had any incidents that prevented me from driving it home, I hope to keep that up!

 

Yep, AE86 arms bolt on making PS arms a good option. I also believe you can put a quick rack in, or both depending on what you want to do :)

[snot35]

Some new bits finally. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them yet, I believe they're not going to work so well with the rear end for off road purposes. I'll come up with something. :)

 

I'm thinking of having a shot at fabbing a panhard road fully rose jointed first as I'll need it to take advantage of these. That's probably a month or two off though.

[snot35]

So, I've been thinking ride height a lot lately, basically it's giving me the sh!ts. I reckon I'm about 30mm above where I should be on the back and around 50mm on the front. I ripped out the front springs to try and work out options for lowering. I was thinking about a chop, but I'm not sure that's going to be the best way. To get the rate that I want with choppies I'm still going to have only lowered it about 15mm tops. On the back the rate is going to get too high as well and still not give me enough drop. I might have to head to upullit some time with the tape measure and verniers. There has to be some vehicle that I can pilfer springs from.

 

For future reference, here are the front spring details:

 

Late TE72 (Series III, 81-83) 4.5 free coils, 12mm wire, 145mm OD 387mm free height and 260mm compressed.

 

So I'm getting around 25% sag on the front and around 30% on the back. I need closer to 40-45%.

 

Based on spring compression I get around 492kg on the front axle and 392kg on the rear axle for a total of 884kg on a '70 with no interior or seats and stripped sound deadening.

 

I expect that's a very rough weight. I'm not sure how accurate my measurements are, plus the car is on a bit of a slope!

[B.L.Z.BUB]

I have Celica ST front super lows in the rear of mine, they are tight over the bump stops but they fit, stiffen it up a bit. They give me a legal ride height (check it in my sig). Just an idea, if you want I can get you the part number to do some research? Pretty sure I'm sticking my Konis in this weekend so will be under there anyway.

 

Here ya go, with 15" s http://imgur.com/oqvd5

 

EDIT: Fronts are chopped for now, coil overs being built.

Edited June 8, 2012 by B.L.Z.BUB

[snot35]

Yeah alright, if it's no trouble I'll grab the part number for some investigation. I'm actually not aiming to stiffen the rear at all as for off road it takes away traction. I started with choppies in the back and they were way too stiff. Changed to AE86 and it improved things immensely. I'm now going to try KE70 springs which are softer again and should give a bit more traction. The only thing is the ride height. I love the ride height on yours, I'd probably want a tad more though.

[B.L.Z.BUB]

I'm sure you'd get more height as I have a full interior and stereo install.

 

Just had a look at the catalogue Part # KTFL-45SL which is actually the ultra low not super low. So if you went the super low you'd gain an extra 10-20mm ish.

 

Unfortunately they don't have specs in the catalogue :( Surely they could tell you over the phone though.)

[snot35]

Yeah I've emailed them spring rate queries before and they're very responsive. Thumbs up for King springs on that one!

[snot35]

Nothing interesting to report. Currently it's just amazing that I'm even getting to do anything on the car. I'm putting up posts so I keep momentum. :) Next event is July 22 and I'm hanging to get there. There's still a bit to do on the car. Last night I managed to swap over the rear springs to something softer. The rear sway bar has also gone and I've given the new radiator mounts a quick coat of etch primer before paint. I also found a few new holes in the floor that I've tried to seal. I also looked into refitting the heater but I'm not sure that the core that I scored won't leak. There's a bit of cracking around the tubes so I might pressure test it first. I'm trying to decide whether to bother with the heater or not. It would suck to get to the event and find I have no demisting!

 

Other than that I just need to remount the seat and harness and we should be good.

 

If I get the time I'll have a shot at putting in the new radius rod bushes that I have. The threads need a clean and I need to clearance the guards so I can wind in as much castor as possible. Having already done a bit of work on the back I'm a little hesitant to change too much at once.

 

I also had a look at mounting mags that I've got. I picked up some 3mm spacers so they will now clear the front caliper. The only thing is the mags are much thicker so I'm definitely going to need some longer studs. This may have to wait for a little bit as I suspect I need to pull the axles out of the diff to change studs. What a pain in the arse!

[snot35]

Obviously July 22nd didn't happen (had the flu) but I made it out yesterday. Conditions at the start of the day were awful. There was foot deep slush on some parts of the track and I was expecting to be one of the guys towed out. Fortunately, that didn't happen!

 

I didn't get a chance to do much to the car, but we experimented with lower tire pressures and no rear bar. She'd also lost some weight since last run. Over all it went pretty well. It was hard to tell how much difference the bar made as it was so soft out there compared to the last time I ran it. Times seemed to be OK (except for the run where I left the handbrake on!). There was a Smallport 4AG out there that I was only slightly slower than, so I'm reasonably happy. I think the main area that needs improvement is the driver at the moment!

 

I'm hoping some pics turn up somewhere, if they do I'll post.

[snot35]

The event has gone. The car did well in abysmal conditions. I managed 16th outright and 3rd in class behind two people in a pretty heavily worked mini. I doubt I'll ever be able to catch them. I was happy all up though. Looking forward to the next event at the end of the month and hoping to get some mods done in between. It was a bit hard to tell what difference no rear bar made, it was so muddy out there traction all different. It probably helped though!

[snot35]

 

Finally got an action shot!

 

I've just realised that I'm two rounds behind in posting. Both rounds were state rounds. There aren't a whole of people in my class so I did pretty well. First round I won due to attrition, and it looks like it might be the case for the second round too! Second round was very rough. I ended up sharing my car with some guys that turned up with a completely gutted excel which the scrutineers were having trouble accepting to run. They were allowed eventually, but it took a while. Then they busted the radiator and ended up in my car again.

 

Sadly, I think that was a bit much for it and on the way home it popped the cap off the overflow and emptied all the coolant. It had been using a bit of coolant during the day and I think having that many runs put into it finished it off. I tried to refill it a few times, but sadly it got hot enough to temporarily seize, so it came home on a trailer the following day. I'll have to inspect the spare motor and look at putting that in before start of season next year.

 

Still, she got me to the end of the event which I think I may have won again through attrition!

 

The picture is the result of an end of the day "lets do the biggest skid we can on the final corner comp". As you can see by the angle, I was never going to make it :)