Ajps Vs T3 Coilovers

[LittleRedSpirit]

I don't think you can get good shocks for small money as far as bc goes and probably the same with hsd. That's the one thing that you shouldn't skimp on and far more important to overall tuning than base height adjustability if you ask me.

[caibs]

I've just bought a set of shockworks ae86 gear. I had a mystery set of 10kg heavy ass coilovers which were not base adjustable. The base adjustable thing is really convenient, change the height really really easily. Just jack it up, loosen the lock ring and turn the shock body essentially. The damper adjusters are at the base but there's a notch behind the stub axle so you can adjust it in car still, just slightly inconvenient. Brett has been very very good with customer service.

I just researched what the general consensus was for the best setup for an 86. Cost a bit more but hopefully worth it. I like that it's an Australian company as well.

 

 

side by side theres no comparison. Even the shockworks ae86 cambertops are much higher quality than the Cusco ones I have to use (te37). It was expensive but hopefully I can sell the cambertops and rear shocks/springs to recoup some money.

 

 

As far as brakes go I have the ajps rx7 upgrade. It was quite expensive in the end and I'm not sure I'm super happy with it. I will fit a bigger pulsar booster to attempt to get the correct pedal feel. I think rx7s had a 9 1/2 inch booster so its way bigger than ke. Theres also the issue of wheel fitment, many rims don't fit due to the calipers protrusion. This is well documented. I would definitely go the wilwood setup but the grass is always greener I suppose.

 

Hope that helps.

[Taz_Rx]

I did see that in your projects thread. So you had to buy a whole set front and rear? I can get hsd or BC in front only.

 

I've got fc brakes on my rx4, they are good but unless you can get the calipers and discs etc for a steal like I did can get pretty expensive. The ajps brackets are a bit pricey for what they are too.

Pretty keen on the t3 kit, and will get some offer stuff off then in the same purchase. Just waiting on the Aussie dollar to improve a bit, which it is now post Tony!

 

How did you go re rim clearance to adjuster rings etc? Having 15x9 -10 wheels its something that on my radar.

[caibs]

I did see that in your projects thread. So you had to buy a whole set front and rear? I can get hsd or BC in front only.

 

I've got fc brakes on my rx4, they are good but unless you can get the calipers and discs etc for a steal like I did can get pretty expensive. The ajps brackets are a bit pricey for what they are too.

Pretty keen on the t3 kit, and will get some offer stuff off then in the same purchase. Just waiting on the Aussie dollar to improve a bit, which it is now post Tony!

 

How did you go re rim clearance to adjuster rings etc? Having 15x9 -10 wheels its something that on my radar.

 

Yeah they have the kits made in Korea so they don't sell front / rear separately unfortunately. Bit of a gamble but from the reviews I read they really are that much better. We will see I suppose.

 

When I had my steel wheels made I had them with quite a high offset so they could stay in the guards, I thought the ae86 struts' would increase track alot more than they did. I had 15x7 +10 mesh rims that fouled on the calipers and hung out the guard ever so slightly but I couldn't get a proper measurement on how it would sit. I think I went with something silly like 15x6 +37 to be safe. Was way too safe.

 

The tyre was very close to the old coilovers. They now touch on the lock ring of the new struts. So I'm yet to drive on them (away for work as well)

 

So when I get home I'll have new rims made, I think 15x7 +19 will keep it in the guards and away from the strut.

 

As far as the fc kit, the calipers were the cheapest part at like 80 bucks and 30ish for a rebuild kit. Everything else from ajps was overpriced and took months to arrive. I do not rate his customer service either.

[caibs]

taz have you already ordered the wilwood kit?

[Taz_Rx]

Not yet mate. Sitting on it for a little while to see if the exchange rate improves. Why's that?

[caibs]

I was thinking about possibly ditching the fc setup and splitting shipping but seeing as we're on the opposite sides of the country its probably still cost prohibitive. 1800 landed is a bit much for me right now I think. I'd be pretty keen to see how bolt in it is on a KE though, along with wheel selection possibilities and your review

[Taz_Rx]

Just checked through the t3 website and if i were to get 2 kits sent to me it would make a saving of $12 in freight! So by the time the second kit was sent to you it would be more expensive.

 

The arse has just fallen out of the dollar again, got up to nearly 72c last week now back down to 69c. Grrr

[LittleRedSpirit]

Consider the brake kits from group 4 fabrications if you find the TTT stuff is too pricey, the group 4 stuff looks better or at the very least on par with ttt and it comes from the UK which has been pretty stable with exchange rates.

 

 

I can't fathom why anyone would get custom struts that don't give a bearing upgrade.

[ke70dave]

How many people have issues with the bearings on the ae86 struts though?

 

I put new ones on my struts and never changed them again. id Vote minimising Unsprung weight over a bearing size upgrade.

[LittleRedSpirit]

Until you put wide wheels or big brakes on then youre well outside what its designed for and your bearings last 8000ks if youre lucky.

[Taz_Rx]

Not at all saying you're wrong Matt but you're one of the only people that think bearings it's a major issue. Did a bit of a Google search last night and couldn't really find much about it. Did find however (and sorry to make you concerned caibs) a thread on ae86dc about a snapped shockworks sub axle. Iirc it was on tally's car.

 

Have investigated the grp4 kit (thanks for letting me know about it Matt) and contacted them last night. No vat, €115 freight and you're looking at €683 or au$1088 freighted.

They're more upfront about fouling issues when using RCA's than ttt, who outline it in there fitting info. When using RCA's the rotor fouls on the end of the lca, needs to be bashed our ground down even if using an adjustable ttt lca. If using no RCA's or ncrca it's not an issue. I don't want crazy camber or anymore track so not really into the option of ncrca.

[LittleRedSpirit]

I can have any opinion I want about any engineering topic I want, it may not be a big issue for some, but was a big issue for me. My mechanic who builds circuit cars and has done since the mid seventies was shocked about the piddling little smallest available Corolla bearings being responsible for so much high speed, hard braking on cars that run a big scrub radius and much firmer suspension.

 

If your message of support for the small bearing is founded on the idea that people on the internet havent written much about it, then that's not really anything more than an anecdotal remark with no engineering evidence either way. I'm happy to call it a difference of opinion, but the fact remains, I have probably done more miles on a TTT big brake kitted corolla on ae86 bearings and 8 wide neg rims than 95 percent of people in the game, internet or not. I dailied that setup for 5 years, maybe more and did maybe 60000 real world road and track ks. Do you value information from someone's actual experience? Its pretty insulting that the internet is your reference point for arguing against my actual experience. How can you justify or treat a lack of information as information?

 

No having a go at you, just the though processes behind what you've said, because you've not really said anything specific either way. AE86 never had a top speed greater than 180klm/hr in any stock form, nor did they come with massive neg offset wheels three inches wider, up to 7 kgs a wheel heavier nor did they ever come with multi piston brakes with massive leverage on the rotors.

 

Nobody really gives a ʞ©$ɟ so ill just keep all my good, real world tested ideas to myself from now on. I assume that's what everyone else does who has information.

 

 

In conclusion:

 

Buy the BCs like all the other kids and stick with ae86 bearing its great and kids don't complain about them. Also buy a flatcap and there's a guy on ebay with cheap pedobear and illest stickers. As we all know if something becomes popular then it must be assumed correct in an engineering sense. :kiwi:

Edited September 26, 2015 by LittleRedSpirit

[Taz_Rx]

I can have any opinion I want about any engineering topic I want, it may not be a big issue for some, but was a big issue for me. My mechanic who builds circuit cars and has done since the mid seventies was shocked about the piddling little smallest available Corolla bearings being responsible for so much high speed, hard braking on cars that run a big scrub radius and much firmer suspension.

 

If your message of support for the small bearing is founded on the idea that people on the internet havent written much about it, then that's not really anything more than an anecdotal remark with no engineering evidence either way. I'm happy to call it a difference of opinion, but the fact remains, I have probably done more miles on a TTT big brake kitted corolla on ae86 bearings and 8 wide neg rims than 95 percent of people in the game, internet or not. I dailied that setup for 5 years, maybe more and did maybe 60000 real world road and track ks. Do you value information from someone's actual experience? Its pretty insulting that the internet is your reference point for arguing against my actual experience. How can you justify or treat a lack of information as information?

 

No having a go at you, just the though processes behind what you've said, because you've not really said anything specific either way. AE86 never had a top speed greater than 180klm/hr in any stock form, nor did they come with massive neg offset wheels three inches wider, up to 7 kgs a wheel heavier nor did they ever come with multi piston brakes with massive leverage on the rotors.

 

Nobody really gives a ʞ©$ɟ so ill just keep all my good, real world tested ideas to myself from now on. I assume that's what everyone else does who has information.

 

 

In conclusion:

 

Buy the BCs like all the other kids and stick with ae86 bearing its great and kids don't complain about them. Also buy a flatcap and there's a guy on ebay with cheap pedobear and illest stickers. As we all know if something becomes popular then it must be assumed correct in an engineering sense. :kiwi:

Think you've got me all wrong mate. You seem to think I'm having a dig at you and saying you're wrong when that has never been the case....I even said that at the start of my last post. Real world experience is what I do want and way trying to find last night. And yes i realise that just because you can't find it on the internet doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I want the best front end combo i can reasonably afford that is both comfortable for daily driving, yet adjustable, durable and well suited to some track days etc. Let's face it, if I'm going to drop in the order of $3k on a new front end setup I don't want something that's not going to tick all the boxes.

The whole reason of looking at ae86 gear was because of the availability of bolt on pre-fab packages like ajps,t3,bc coilovers, and brake kits like the t3 or grp4 wilwoods. If these sort of options are available for something with bigger axles like xt130 etc I'd to hear about it.

 

At the end of the day the whole purpose this thread was to get personal experience, opinions and suggestions on ajps or t3 coilovers. After some discussion I've decided either bc or hsd base height would be a better option. I liked the look of the t3 wilwood, but after your suggestion I've found the grp4 would be much cheaper. If you really think that I should look at a bigger bearing strut I'm open to the idea.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Taz_Rx

[chestikoph1]

I don't want to fuel any fires here, but I can attest to the ability of the ae86 strut in an enthusiast motorsport application.

I have been running them for a while now including the rx7 brake setup.

I also run pretty high spring rate, 400lb of memory, a very thick 24mm front bar, all solid/rose jointed front end and usually around -4 camber.

My car is consistently exposed to high cornering loads, and directional changes you would expect from tarmac rally and circuit racing.

I am putting out 300hp at the wheels so it's relatively high powered and it is exposed to decent lateral forces.

Rubber is 205/50/15 semi race slicks, but no stupid offsets on the rims.

I have not had a failure of a bearing yet.

I feel the key is regular maintenance (quality lubrication and correct bearing adjustment)

I think just because the original spec of the car may not exceed a certain speed or you mod it more than stock, doesn't mean that the components won't handle more loads than stock and be reliable.

In saying all this, any upgrade that is providing more safety or durability and is not cost prohibitive is a worth while upgrade.

Just my opinion and only that.