Ae71 Suspension Mods

[rallydad]

If I weld the spring perch as per above, this will increase ride height?

[corollaart]

I would imagine it will

.Just a thought why don't you convert it to coil over?

 

Not for the wank factor, but you can set any height you wish .

 

End less spring rates.

 

Its just easy simple.

 

Less friging around if you make a stuff up with the height.

 

rob

[altezzaclub]

yep- keep the same ride from the spring rate, but the car sits higher.

 

You will lose camber as the LCA sits at a steeper angle downwards, so Sigma arms are ideal.

[ke70dave]

If I weld the spring perch as per above, this will increase ride height?

 

If you do this you will loose rebound and probably lose some bump travel as well..

 

You coudl get around this by getting longer stroke shocks.

 

You are probably better off with a longer spring though?

[altezzaclub]

If you do this you will loose rebound and probably lose some bump travel as well..

 

You shouldn't Dave- basically you've moved the "rest" position of the car up from the 50% of stroke midpoint to the 80% mark. You still get 100% of the shock travel, 80% is going down so you can hit bumps better, with only 20% going up.

 

That's why you see these pictures of BDA Escorts with a front wheel in the air, there's not much 'up' travel before the wheel lifts off. That doesn't matter anyway, the inside wheel does nothing for traction so it might as well fly. The shock nut takes that weight without a problem, even my Bilstein mod where I cut the tube down because the thread was damaged. On the other hand, our crappy spot-welded spring seat takes the car landing (and rolling) onto the struts without letting go. I noticed he has had the front springs coil-binding this last rally, so although the struts are strong he wil wreck a shock if he keeps hitting things that hard.

[corollaart]

From the gravel gurus site front bump 100mm,front droop 70mm.

 

Rear bump 120mm rear droop 70mm.

[altezzaclub]

Hang on.. lemmee check- Nope, need the next photo to measure when he landed!

 

I was Clerk of the Course organising that rally, so I couldn't enter. I'm sure I marked that yump! Notice how the world was black and white back then...

Edited July 4, 2013 by altezzaclub

[rallydad]

You shouldn't Dave- basically you've moved the "rest" position of the car up from the 50% of stroke midpoint to the 80% mark. You still get 100% of the shock travel, 80% is going down so you can hit bumps better, with only 20% going up.

 

Ride height is high enough at the moment... Would I not be better off shortening the strut leg and fitting a shorter body insert with a long enough shaft to give me full damping on the downstroke if I was to go this way?

 

I would imagine it will

.Just a thought why don't you convert it to coil over?

 

Not for the wank factor, but you can set any height you wish .

 

End less spring rates.

 

Its just easy simple.

 

Less friging around if you make a stuff up with the height.

 

rob

 

Rob, i'm working with what I have at the moment including the shiny new king springs that I had made after researching rally forums. The XT130 struts that I have to go in will probably end up as coilover if I can't make this setup work.

 

I have ordered some camber plates should be in my hands next week. Mate's workshop time booked next weekend to fit these and weld the diff. While its on the lift, i'll play with the front end geometry and see how we go.

 

Not in it for sheep stations, so I can afford to take my time and play around between events. I enjoy the tinkering tyo be honest.

[corollaart]

Ha it doesnt sound right to me either Keith.(bda= overrated ) :harhar:

 

Craig yep I'm the same almost have more fun tinkering around with it than competing.

 

Weird i no

[altezzaclub]

Ride height is high enough at the moment... Would I not be better off shortening the strut leg and fitting a shorter body insert with a long enough shaft to give me full damping on the downstroke if I was to go this way?

 

Yep. If you've got a happy LCA angle that will work through the travel your're going to give it, then match the shocks to work with that. The spring perch is easy to change, but shortening the strut will need a new thread cut in it..... although when we discussed that in the woolshed it was a case of slice the strut in the middle and weld a coilover sleeve over the join! We have't needed that yet.

[rallydad]

Worth some thought.

 

A much better option to secure the damper would be to weld a threaded collar to the outside top of the strut tower (a bit of your coilover tube would do), and make a threaded cap with female thread and hole/shaft seal drilled/fitted. If you're desperate i'm sure there would be some galvanised water pipe and fittings laying around the woolshed... :jason:

[altezzaclub]

Good idea- That would work...

 

You'll have to throw some photos up for us. Are you up for the Blacksmiths Inn rally in August?? 2.5hrs North of Sydney. Last year was brilliant, so if you can get in as a 00 car or a followup you'd love it.

[rallydad]

Sounds good unfortunately no rallies for me this year unless I can "scratch me happy". Plan on a couple of S1 rallysprints (no cage req) this year at Nabiac to see how the old girl goes. Cage next year if I can persuade a certain mate to help and then possibly a club rally. All depends on budget and time but plenty of khana in between.

 

Camber plates should arrive today... Fitting and testing with cig locker Saturday :2thumbs:

[rallydad]

OK, camber plates in. A bit of fecking around to make them fit, and more work to do before i'm happy with them but for now they'll do.

 

Welded the bog warmer also.

 

What a difference! The car is much more responsive in the front and with the locked diff it's much more flickable and predictable.

 

Low speed understeer seems to be fixed - although I was on bitumen for my "test session". Yet to see how she goes on gravel.

 

Also now does awesome doughnuts... turns on the front inside wheel and whizzes around at amazing speed... I'm sure this will come in handy in motorkhana at some stage

 

My only gripe is I have lost steering feel from neutral position to about 1/4 turn in each direction where it then gets quite heavy. I suspect i've dialed in a little too much camber and will back it off a bit.

 

Dirt lap dash this Sunday at Coffs Harbour, will have a play with settings and try the sway bars on and off.

[altezzaclub]

Castor makes the steering heavy as far as I know.

 

3deg of camber is easy to drive with, I don't know how much you can put on with the cambertops. We get quite a bit of ours from the LCAs. We're not quite max castor on the rods and a touch of toe-in.

 

Something you will enjoy playing with I'm sure!