Ke55 Rear End Options ???

[JDM55]

Not being a leaf spring fan, I'd put them on the list ahead of a rear sway. You can get plenty of oversteer from a leaf rear end anyway.

 

The LSD, a pair of tramp rods and a panhard rod would do it.

 

 

are the tramp rods like the caltrac set up or they something else?? and the panhard rod is just a long rod connected to the diff to the body in some way???

 

like these things :::

 

[SLO-030]

The first pic are Caltracs.

 

Depends what you want from your setup?

 

Caltracs have been said to induce oversteer.

Edited January 3, 2012 by SLO-030

[JDM55]

Factory leaves have the eye above the main leaf. Reversed eyes move the eye to the bottom side of the main leaf. Lowers the height without losing the camber out of the spring pack.

 

Currently running .5deg of negative camber. But yes, it would seem that the XT struts induce a little positive camber into a KE when running std LCA's and Camber tops.

 

I've got the HSD coilover conversion kit on the XT's. Cambertops would be of no use with Std springs and hats.

 

 

 

 

You can have a really basic 2 link rear end whilst keeping a completely factory floorpan.

 

If you stiffen the FRONT half of the leaf pack (reduces tramp) This effectively turns it into a 2 link.

 

Where the front half of the leaf pack is an improvised control arm and the rear half of the spring pack becomes the "spring"

 

 

ahh i see , thats new ive never heard about that leaf set up, would you mind taking a pic for me at some stage? interested to see this,

do you know if stiffing the front half of the leaf pack is legal ? also sounds interesting , thinking i just want to set it up once and leave it at that ,but sounds like you need to play around to get the right set up for your style of driving ,

i think i have the same coil over set up ,not currently on , but looking at doing very soon , just fishing for more info before i go hacking up the struts , there not exactly the easiest thing to get round these parts.did you end up shortening the strut tube? or leave it as it was,they seem a little bit on the longer side....

[JDM55]

ahh oversteer no good , so many differnt set ups! just want to do something thats going to work and not make the car a chore to drive,

 

maybe i should find a decent suspention place and get there opinions as well, tho no doubt they will try sell me something exspensive lol,.

 

i don't want nor can i afford to buy exspensive items ,i just want something i can do or make my self with maybe buying a set of half way decent rear shocks , maybe kybs or something in the mid ranges, I'm leaning toward the vn shocks ,being shorter sounds the buiss for the reset leaves,

,guess once there reset you just chop up a leaf from another pack and clamp it on the front half ?? which leaf tho? top bottom middle does it matter where the leaf is taken from? man i must sounds dumb asking all these questions hahaha

Edited January 3, 2012 by JDM55

[SLO-030]

I can supply the same leaf pack as mine. To your height specs.

 

Its all perfectly legal. Just another leaf that extends from the front eye and ends at the back of the diff mount.

 

 

XT struts haven't been shortened as far as I know. They run a small alloy spacer under a TA22 insert.

Edited January 3, 2012 by SLO-030

[BUZ440]

Caltracs are a great piece of kit, and do help with traction,

 

they simply bolt on, I am looking at fitting a set in the near future

 

They are a more better look than slapper bars IMO

[JDM55]

Caltracs are a great piece of kit, and do help with traction,

 

they simply bolt on, I am looking at fitting a set in the near future

 

They are a more better look than slapper bars IMO

 

 

yeah I'm interested in making a set ,can't be to hard ,not much to them , if i end up making some i can send you the templates ,haha i refuse to pay for things that i can make my self lol,

 

hell end if i tryed a set out and see how they go ,there interesting sort of set up.

[JDM55]

I can supply the same leaf pack as mine. To your height specs.

 

Its all perfectly legal. Just another leaf that extends from the front eye and ends at the back of the diff mount.

 

 

XT struts haven't been shortened as far as I know. They run a small alloy spacer under a TA22 insert.

 

 

ahh i see now,cheers for the pics , how would you reset them to a height that i want? i have 15inch wheels , and at present its

sitting at the stock height, i don't want it slamed into the ground, I'm thinkin 5 to ten mms off the top of the tyre, something ill have to look at havent realy thought about it ,was going to see how the front turns out and have the back a few mms higher ,but yes interested ,

[SLO-030]

If you can work out how much lower than stock it is. We can go from there.

 

Making a set wouldn't be too hard. Just the front of the half traction leaf needs to be clamped tight to the front of the leaf pack.

[oh what a nissan feeling!]

I have been using caltracs (home made) since my car first hit the road.

 

If you look at the design they only do anything when you are under power, other then that the leaf is allowed to move around like normal.

 

As far as causing oversteer goes, in theory if you had them adjusted up real hard on the spring i think that is a possibility.

I have never noticed it at all. i think if you were worried about it just leave a 5mm gap between the where the link hits onto the leaf and it would prevent the possibility of a problem.

 

They are great, they give traction and control under power, and completely eliminate tramp. Definately the way to go if you have your level of power or more.

[JDM55]

I have been using caltracs (home made) since my car first hit the road.

 

If you look at the design they only do anything when you are under power, other then that the leaf is allowed to move around like normal.

 

As far as causing oversteer goes, in theory if you had them adjusted up real hard on the spring i think that is a possibility.

I have never noticed it at all. i think if you were worried about it just leave a 5mm gap between the where the link hits onto the leaf and it would prevent the possibility of a problem.

 

They are great, they give traction and control under power, and completely eliminate tramp. Definately the way to go if you have your level of power or more.

 

 

awesum man thanks for that ,i think ill give them a go,did you keep the bush in the main eye or did you make a steel one???shoot us a pic if you get the chance that be helpful, but yeah ill give em a go can't be to hard to build lol

[oh what a nissan feeling!]

I got a new top leaf made for mine that uses the rear shackle rubbers (smaller) on the front eye as well.

 

Only cost $80 for the two new top leafs.

 

I then shaved down the ends of these rubbers to allow enough room to fit the caltrac triangle with a thin washer either side. so the triangles are inside of the front mount with the spring, this allowed me to use the standard front bolt setup.

 

From there i used two random panhard rods cut down to length, sleeved and re-welded, and a couple of tabs welded under the plate that your U bolts go through.

 

My front leaf mount is now custom, so i can't get exact photos, but will take some pics anyways.

[JDM55]

I got a new top leaf made for mine that uses the rear shackle rubbers (smaller) on the front eye as well.

 

Only cost $80 for the two new top leafs.

 

I then shaved down the ends of these rubbers to allow enough room to fit the caltrac triangle with a thin washer either side. so the triangles are inside of the front mount with the spring, this allowed me to use the standard front bolt setup.

 

From there i used two random panhard rods cut down to length, sleeved and re-welded, and a couple of tabs welded under the plate that your U bolts go through.

 

My front leaf mount is now custom, so i can't get exact photos, but will take some pics anyways.

 

 

crazy set up haha sounds good tho,pics would be good too , i guess i better start with the leaf set up first then build from there,

i was thinking about that, was looking at the factory set up and the mounts for the front eyes have a bit of a lip ,so you would have to space the triangle plates out slightly to clear the lips of the mount ,sounds like you worked out the better way of going on the inside of the mount,any way awesum ,finally starting to get a good idea of what direction to go , mite have a go making a set with the factory mount set up ,not sure how much difference it will make but maybe ill call it an experinment and see what happens

[oh what a nissan feeling!]

i didnt change the front mount for the caltrac setup, it worked really well, it was other reasons.

 

I pulled a wheel off and got some pics this arvo , I did not change the tramp bars at all when i changed the front mount, same bars, triangles, ect.

 

 

 

 

 

I have since found some rear trailing arms off a late 80's fwd nissan pintara that are strong and fully adjustable length, so my next set will be made from those.

[altezzaclub]

You need the rear soft for squat to give traction, otherwise it just lights the tyres up.

 

How soft, no-one can tell you, its just trial and error.

 

Did you see this version of a Caltrac? Very neatly done.

 

http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com/traction1.html