Suspension Mod Questions

[Zetai]

Alrighty guys, so I've been doing some research into engine and suspension mods, and there are some common ones people seem to be doing.

• BC AE86 Coilovers.
  
• AE86 Power Steering Knuckles
  
• XT130 Corona Lower Control Arms
  
• AJPS Lock Spacer
  
• Adjustable Panhard bar
  

Is there anything people would recommend over others, or any fairly basic mods I've missed?

 

I'm more or less trying to find out what the common mods are, so I can organise my wishlist, and know what I'm looking for.

 

Cheers,

Ethan.

Edited April 15, 2012 by Zetai

[bAKER]

I'm assuming your talking about your ke70 ;]

What are you doing with the car? Drifting? Track? Daily?

 

Coilovers are good for front low.

Cut some king springs for the rear, and some short stroke shocks, munroes are good. You'll need to cut the bump stops.

The coilovers shoul come with the knuckles if they're any good.

 

Xt130s are good for 1degree camber. Sigma LCAs for 3 degrees.

Ke30/55 LCAS are almost exactly the same, just need to bash the lock stops off and they cost a third the price and much more abundant.

 

Lock spacers aren't needed unless you're a drifter or want to do crazy good U turns.

They also wreck the rack seals, no point for a daily.

 

Panhard is a must if you're lowering your car, keeps the diff in the centre of the car.

 

 

EDIT: I'd recommend a rear sway bar, makes the car feel a lot more solid, when going too fast around corners.

Edited April 15, 2012 by bAKER

[Zetai]

Sorry yes haha, for my Ke70. It will be for drifting.

 

I've heard some bad stories about Sigma LCA's, I can't remember what they were! But I did lol..

 

Thanks mate, are there any other mods you can think of, when setting up for drifting?

[19914afc]

Sigma lcas give about 5-6 deg camber. If you want more lock or you want to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about send Dave a message on ajps.com.au he knows what he is talking about and can sell you everything you need I am not advertising him for any reason that he has good stuff, I have his steering arms in my T18 with BC coilovers and rose jointed adjustable lcas.

[bAKER]

Sigma LCAs do not give 5-6 degrees. I put some in a ke70 and then on a wheel alignment machine, which came in to around 2degrees 55minutes.

Perhaps if you had camber tops on your struts.

I have ke30 LCAs in my current car, which are at 1 degree.

Both these setups with stock struts and about 2inch drop.

Lock spacer is definitely a good upgrade, for obvious reasons.

 

You don't need to spend $1000 on random ajps stuff. Its just not needed. If you're hardcore enough you'd get sponsored and have custom parts made up.

 

1 off lock spacer:

EDIT: this car has sigma LCAs installed in this photo.

Edited April 15, 2012 by bAKER

[19914afc]

Pretty sure there are 2 types of sigma lcas, one gives heaps of camber, other not so much?

[bAKER]

I heard that also. After a year of searching I couldn't find any. So I'm guessing the 6 degrees is a myth made up by toymods haha.

 

Also RCA's help too.

[Grand Master of Awesome]

  On 4/15/2012 at 1:08 PM, bAKER said:

I'm assuming your talking about your ke70 ;]

What are you doing with the car? Drifting? Track? Daily?

 

Coilovers are good for front low.

Cut some king springs for the rear, and some short stroke shocks, munroes are good. You'll need to cut the bump stops.

The coilovers shoul come with the knuckles if they're any good.

 

Xt130s are good for 1degree camber. Sigma LCAs for 3 degrees.

Ke30/55 LCAS are almost exactly the same, just need to bash the lock stops off and they cost a third the price and much more abundant.

 

Lock spacers aren't needed unless you're a drifter or want to do crazy good U turns.

They also wreck the rack seals, no point for a daily.

 

Panhard is a must if you're lowering your car, keeps the diff in the centre of the car.

 

 

EDIT: I'd recommend a rear sway bar, makes the car feel a lot more solid, when going too fast around corners.

 

Monroe shocks are horrible. Buy a BC kit, comes with shocks suited for front and rear, rears are height adjustable too.

 

xt130's will be perfect, cut off lock stops though. Sigma are too long unless you're chasing big lock they will heap for clearing chassis rails.

 

Never heard of anyone ruining 'rack seals' with an AJPS lock spacer. It's not an s13.

 

RCA's are a great upgrade too.

[Zetai]

RCA = Roll Centre Adjuster? From what I've read it's purpose is to realign the centre of gravity and reduce body roll after lowering a car.. Is that about right?

[19914afc]

Yep ^

[ke70dave]

almost...

 

it doesnt reduce body roll.

 

it merely changes where the roll centre is.

 

when you lower a car you stuff with the roll centre, which causes fun things to happen, RCAs put the roll centre closer to where it was stock.

 

RCAs help with bump steer, which has nothing to do with roll center. cheap mod that seems to work.

[Zetai]

What exactly is bump steer?

[B.L.Z.BUB]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_steer

[snot35]

Google it. There are volumes about this stuff out there. Even wikipedia will give you pretty concise explanations of most suspension concepts. No point getting forum guys to type it all again unless they're trying to get their post count up :)

[bAKER]

If everyone had a million dollars to spend on a drift car they'd go out buying coilovers etc.

If you have enough money to spend on BC Ebay specials, might aswell get someone to make you up a set, specifically for your car. I was quoted about $1500 for custom ae86 front struts with height adjust, calipers, discs and pads. Decided I didn't really NEED them.

 

If you don't have that kinda cash laying around, to spend on a drift pig. then random short stroke munroes will suffice. I'm not saying theyre the perfect shock for the best drift performance, and that's what mark block collins use.

You don't need big bucks to spend, to achieve a decent car, is all I'm saying.

 

I haven't seen an ajps lock spacer, so I'm not 100% sure on those.

This spacer, the ends of the rack itself had offset threads, so the spacer wasn't perfectly flush with the diameter of the rack, and initially stretched the rack seal. The general population of racks might not be the same, again I don't know.

It's not really a problem, but potentially could case a leak if not checked every now and then. But then again, a ke70 manual rack is free from most guys on the forums.

 

EDIT: I'm running cut springs with short munroes in my car, No problems whatsoever, I've been in cars with coilovers all round and it's a much of a muchness. In my oppinion not worth the $1000 extra.

Edited April 17, 2012 by bAKER