S13 front end in RA23/28

[Major Clod]

I've got a KE70 xmember & rack in the RA28 which apart from engine mounts is identical to AE86 really. Much easier than stuffing around with mounting a rack and getting bump steer, ackerman correct etc.

Joel, did the KE70 Xmember, rack, LCAs etc give you extra track/camber? If so how much.... I've got my old KE70 in the paddock that I'd be interested in doing this conversion into my RA23... Thing is I'm not sure how much room I'd have to play with my simmons up front, they are already fairly close to the guards up top.

[barned01]

ok here are the respective measurements taken of the 3 suspensions
Note please don't take them as gospel as they were only a rough guide for me to work angles of stuff out, but should give an idea of track widths
I have asked a mate to borrow his s13 on the weekend, and i know someone with an s15 (which hopefully would be the same as the s14), so i will get them up next and compare the lot...








The last picture comparing the angles definately doesn't seem right to me (3 degrees difference between each strut) so i will need to find a better way to take a measurement rather than relying on sight and a t-square

And ryan if you assume the ra40 is the same as the ra23, then because the mounting points are different between the ra40 and ke70 for the lower control arm mounting points to the crossmember, and the lower control arms themselves are the same length, i would deduce this would indeed make the traks bigger (all other things things being equal approx 3cm each side max taking into account dodgy measuring if i understand how all this works correctly)

Norbie sorry if this seems like a hijack, just trying to collate all relevant information to this....

[WDE_BDY]

What sump configuration is required with an AE86 or KE70 crossmember?

If you want any particular measurements, I have an 18RGEU with front sump in my KE70. May help with determining placement in the engine bay.

Callum

[TurboRA28]

Major Clod - the KE70 xmember did give a bit more track, I think it was 15mm or so each side. But most of this is pushing the bottom of the wheel out.. Guard clearance I imagine would not be effected much.

So yeah you end up with a degree or so of neg camber.

[TurboRA28]

Out of interest.. Has anyone ever tried something like a SW20 control arm/strut?

[WDE_BDY]

Isn't the SW20 setup similar to most FWD's with the rack mounted half way up the front firewall? would probably do nasty things to bumpsteer with normal RWD style rack placement.

Callum

[TurboRA28]

Sorry I should have just said struts, not actual steering rack etc.

[WDE_BDY]

My point was the control arm and stub axle has the steering arm mounted far higher up than a RWD so would not work well in a RWD style rack setup. To use the MR2 struts you would need to use the stub as well as it is similar to the S13 setup with the strut bolted to the stub. You could of course mod it to work but then it is a lot of complexity.
In this pic you can see the steering arm attaches around about the height of the hub, most RWD setups mount quite a bit lower.


Callum

[thechuckster]

i breifly looked at SW20 front ends (pictures only - from an NS MR2 site) - i think you have to swap the hubs over to bring the steering arm behind the cross member to line it up with the steering rack ... <scurries off to find picture>.

There's also the scarcity of these compared to S13.

[oldcorollas]

The last picture comparing the angles definately doesn't seem right to me (3 degrees difference between each strut) so i will need to find a better way to take a measurement rather than relying on sight and a t-square

nice pics
use a string and weight to get a vertical line to measure from. may need to rotate the strut so that the castor and camber are taken into account... or just measure them too

would be good to compile a whole bunch of these pics in a dedicated thread.. so then when people are contemplating changes, they have a quick guide to see what is possible possible