Ke70 Cranking And Steering Problem

[Dudfield_xd]

Hey guys, I just bought an 82 KE70. just have a few questions. the previous owner also has an ae86 sprinter and i was told that he had swapped custom knuckles for the front suspension in and out of the car, as well as coil overs and lower control arms. After i picked the car up and was on the drive home i found the steering to be way to light, aside from the fact that the steering wheel is 90 degree's out it clearly needs a wheel alignment. In my experience i have never known a wheel alignment to affect the feel of the steering, except for the given fact that the car will pull either left or right. I'm new here and havent really had much experience with these old corolla's and was just wondering if anyone could offer some insight to what the problem could be? could the steering wheel being loose have anything to do with how far out of spec the toe is? or could the parts in the steering have been fitted wrong? I'll be giving it a wheel alignment at work tomorrow to try and fix it (fingers crossed).

 

Also, when trying to start it the car seems to crank slowly and for a rather long period of time, not all the time, but just sometimes. feels almost like the battery is dead? But obviously because its so tempermentle and will start sometimes that can't be the case, I'm thinking maybe something to do with the ignition or alternator? i havent really looked into it myself as yet because the weather is a bit shitty out there and its dark lol. but was just wondering if you guys have any info?

 

cheers, nathan

[love ke70]

id be checking your earths and all the connections, taking them off and cleaning them, all the earth you can find, and connections of + to alt and starter.

 

i would suggest the car doesnt have enough caster at the moment, not enough caster will make it all very flighty.

ie the further the wheel is to the front of the car the heavy the steering feel will be and the more it will stay in a straight line.

 

maybe old mate changed steering wheel, and didnt put it back on straight. should be easy enough to work out when you do your wheel alignment?

[Dudfield_xd]

your full of info dude :) haha cheers,

Yea well it was an alright drive the other day when i checked it out. But now the wheel feels dodgy, it feels like the car skips going over bumps? like the wheels aren't done up or something is loose, but i checked all that. Also the handbrake now barely works and the brakes are super spongey, i think someone gave the car a going away party from the feel of things, just hope i didnt buy a dud.

Oh, and KE's have a castor adjustment? i thought it was only toe you could adjust with standard suspension?

[love ke70]

yeah, the arm that drags the strut forwards, got two nuts on it, one behind the bracket, move it further down the arm to drag the strut further forward...

 

they probably never bled the brakes when they changed all this stuff over maybe?

 

did they also change the diff? handbrake not working well could just be rear shoes needing adjustment?

 

cheers, andy

[Dudfield_xd]

yea I'm gonna adjust the shoes, depends how hard he was on it, might have stretched the cable. the diff does have a winde in it, nothing major but you notice it at 80 lol especially when i drive 145km every friday to my girlfriends. i'll bleed the brakes up, check the earths, do this alignment and see what happens, chers for the info bro :)

 

Nathan

[love ke70]

mmm might be worth just checking the shoes and if not just tighten the cable up a bit at the handbrake.

 

amazes me people would do this :blinks:

[Dudfield_xd]

Yea it's a bit annoying but she sits nice and low and the engine runs fine (when it finally starts haha) not bad for 1500 considering I can fix the outlined issues myself for no coin, I'll post up some pics when I've given her a scrub :)

[altezzaclub]

Check timing & points gap too- might be quite retarded so doesn't like to start. Easy fix if you're lucky.

 

If it cranks slowly maybe starter brushes or earths, as love says, and also check the crank position of the ignition key actually sends power to the coil. You should feel it if it doesn't, it only catches as you release the key, but maybe you haven't noticed it.

 

Post up the before and after wheel alignemnt specs. We need a laugh and it is a good lesson in what people will sell you with a straight face!

[Dudfield_xd]

Had a play tonight, the steering is dog shit because the two front wheels are like this \ / lol, way too much toe in, fixing that on wednesday. thinking the starting problem is a simple battery problem because i charged the bad boy thats in it, and its started every time since, maybe something is draining the battery overnight, or the cold morning (its winter) are draining it, i dunno. see how i go in the morning, fingers crossed :) keep you posted

[Dudfield_xd]

Ok so besides the lower control arm bolts being backwards and the front springs not being seated properly :bash: everything was as expected haha.

 

wheel alignment specs: (hope your sitting down)

 

LH Toe: +24.5

RH Toe: +19.0

LH Castor: +2.4 total

RH Castor: +1.2 total

 

I couldnt find specs for it at work so i just set the toe to +2 total and +1.2 total Castor on each side.

Drives heaps better now, wonder why? :hmm:

[love ke70]

haha i wonder :P

 

can't believe you drove it like that, i woulda guestimated the toe before going anywhere with it that bad.

 

if the steering is still a bit light, or you think its a bit weavy at higher speeds, put some more castor on it :)

[altezzaclub]

Nice to see it coming right.

 

As Love says, that's not much castor. get 3 or 4 degrees on it.

 

How was camber?? He obviously took the Corona LCAs out and put the stock ones back in and just gave it to you like that. That is where all the toein came from.

 

Get some 'rona LCAs again and hunt for a Celica rear sway while you're at the wreckers. You should get it handling sweet.

[Dudfield_xd]

Yea he shelved the Rona LCA before he cave it to me so I can't adjust the camber just yet. Oh I barely drove it haha, pretty much from his place to mine, and from here to work. Which is where I did the wheel alignment. Ahh yea cheers, I had no idea what te specs were haha. Definitely need some Rona LCA though, get that neg camber cranking. But besides that she's drivable now haha, just need a diff. Winde in this one gets annoying as shit. Then work on the jdm cosmetic conversion ;) haha only mod it's running at the moment is makita one way adjustables all round :P. Besides that it's bog stock. See what I can scrape up around the place ;) cheers for the help guys!!