AE86 rear coilovers into TA22?

[sillycar chick]

Been thinking about some coilovers for the rear to match my fronts, and found some T3 do for AE86s:



My main concern about using these in a TA22 is if there's enough room in the body at the upper half of the shock, if the cavity diameter is too small to fit the coilover spring in.

Checked out dimensions in the monroe catalogue, and rear shocks for both ~85 AE86 and ~72 TA22 use same upper and lower mounts, and have compressed and extended heights and travel very close to each other.

I havent had a chance to get under the celica lately and see how much room is in there as this time of year at uni is hectic, AND I have no jack atm but i still cant help thinking about modding my car Also I dont exacly have an AE86 handy (or know of one nearby) that I can get under and have a look see.

Any info would be much appreciated

[LeeRoy]

I would imagine that they would be very close if not a direct fit. From that pic it also looks as though the strut top is spaced down to cater for the narrow tunnel in the body where the top of the shock goes.

Also, Your shock mount on the diff which is where they bolt to will need to be strengthened as it was never designed for the forces that those will put on it.

[5000gt]

nice... what are those rears worth?

[sillycar chick]

US$625... which at the moment is AU$695 (thats at a bloody good exchange rate).

I was going to ask T3 if they know if they will fit, but wanted to do some reasearch myself first before I go on their word alone and fork out $$.

Thanks for the bracing tip leeroy, it shouldnt be too difficult to strengthen it up a bit. I doubt the mounts would fail immediately, but yeah they may suffer some fatigue after a while and then fail.

[5000gt]

hmmm.... good price... i was thinking g4's..... 1100 for fronts and rears... may even get them to do s15 fronts and ae86 rears. I have an s15 front brake setup and hilux rear... 5 stud all round.

Anyone have any thoughts on these versus G4 stuff?

[Turdinator]

I've seen these before and wondered. The 22 doesn't give much room at all around the shock. So would doubt it would leave much clearance if any at all. Do you know a maximum diameter of the coilover? I have my car on stands at the moment so i should be able to measure things easily. Although not until tomorrow.

[w810sc]

yeah coil overs in the rears would be good, refer to:
http://www.toymods.net/forums/showth...ight=live+axle
fonz

[The Real Roadrunner]

you need to strengthen the body and diff mounts to run them. i have seen them punched through on 86s so i dare say they would on a 22 also.

just a warning.

you could always use platforms on the diff to make it hight adjustable. leeroy might be able to post some shots of mine for you.

cheers
linden

[LeeRoy]

Like Linden mentioned, the platforms are another idea but will require you to remake the mounts on the diff to hold an adjustable lower perch so you end up with the coil over sleeves on the diff housing.

You can really go two ways with this though. Run standard sized springs and perches which means you can leave the body alone as only the diff needs some mods, or you can alternatively run a coil over type spring - one of the small ones like in your pic, but then both the diff and the body needs to be modded.

At the price of those coil overs (provided they fit), id personally get them, strenthen the diff and the body, and be done with it. At $700 you wouldnt be able to buy the springs and shocks and sleeves needed to retain the standard spring/shock setup but with adjustability. Thats not including the cost of the fab work either. Its seems the TTT coilover is the cheaper and easier option that delivers the same result.

I'll swing by lindens later and try and get some pics of his setup so you can better see how his was done.

Ninja Edit: Ill also measure the room on the body for where the shock goes and we should be able to get a better idea of whether theyll fit or not.

[skiddz]

ive heard the same thing they may punch through the factory shock mount if not strenthend.

[LeeRoy]

Had a look on lindens computer but theres no good pics of the setup he had.

Now for some more bad news.

The TA22 shock (well the one in mine) has an OD of 60mm.
The place where it lives in the body or the hole for the shock if that makes sense is 80mm across.
There is 170mm between the top of this shock cavity and where the cavity opens up.
Finally, a coil over type spring like the one pictured runs an OD of 90mm.
In the pic of the TTT coil over it looks as though there is only about 100mm (being generous) between the top of the shock, and the upper spring perch.

In short, they will not be a bolt in straight out of the box and mods will be required for them to fit.

So, this leaves a few options.

Option 1: Since the shock mount on the diff and the upper shock mount on the body need mods anyways a solution is to do the following. Cut the shock upper mounting off and trim it down maybe 70-100mm or even less so that the upper part of that coilover is sitting lower in the cavity and will have clearance between the sides of this cavity. Then just weld a plate back in there, brace it so its strong, and then drill a hole for the coil over to mount in there.

Since the diff also needs mods for the shock mount, cut it off altogether, space it down the same distance as you have trimmed out of the top, reweld it back on, then brace it. I'd probably also ditch the standard extending bolt thingy though and go with a similar mount to what is used on the body for the trailing arms and use a bolt instead as i think that would be alot stronger. Depending on the coil over and the range of adjustment you desire you could probably move the mount down less than what was removed up top and just wind the spring down.

Its probably a good idea also to move the shock mount inwards as well to allow more wheel clearance.

Option 2 (and probably the shitter option): Cut the hole out bigger in the body to accomodate a 90mm OD spring and reweld it all together. Probably using just some round tube steel or even some 110? (or bigger) RHS.

Keep in mind that since the shocks are mounted on an angle, as the diff moves they pivot so although the shock is only 60mm it requires a larger hole to allow for this movement.

Another option may be modifying the coil over itself and moving the spring down furthur but this will mean you lose some travel at either max or min extention ie if it moves 200mm top to bottom it might only move 150mm now.

Hope that helps
- LeeRoy

[twentyEight]

Nice work on bringing this up Silly, I remeber seeing these kits on the T3 site a while ago a had the same thoughts...

I might shoot T3 an email and request the OD of the springs that they recommend for this setup, as the one used above looks lees than 90mm... Especially if that is a 20mm grid in the photo above...

I wonder if the 28 has a little more room...

[sillycar chick]

Keep in mind also leeroy if you go for the TTT ones, they say they are built to custom orders.... dont know how much you could change, but you might be able to go so far as to change the upper mount so its the same type as the lower mount, and then make your own mount somewhere on the chassis? Just some initial thoughts, I dont have the time to crawl under my car at this time of year

[oldeskewltoy]

stop banting about with guesses... email Gabe (T3 owner) and ASK him... He is a GREAT guy!!!!
[email protected]

T3 also makes a neat shifter bushing kit out of Delrin... takes up the space without the extra noise associated with other shifter bushing kits
http://technotoytuning.com/productdetail.php?p=292

[twentyEight]

Already emailed him...