RA23 Brakes in a KE20.

[Ical]

Hi Guys,
Has anyone fitted RA23 struts/brakes to a KE20?
Just got a mint 20 and have a shed full(about 3Cars)of
RA/TA23 parts.

Any tips would be great.

Cheers Ian.

["Z" UTE]

Brake caliper bolt spacing will be your issue on a KE20 strut. You could possibly try fitting a complete RA23 strut and brake assy. Strut top would not fit, just try the KE20 strut top.

cheers Chuck.

[YLD-16L]

RA strut doesn't fit without also fitting the steering arm which then doesn't fit the ball joint, which then won't fit the control arm i.e. not an easy/straightforward swap.

I ran RA28 (same as RA23) caliper mounts, calipers and rotors on KE25 struts and it's not worth the effort for the gain of a small solid disc with below average old school calipers.

The RA caliper mount needs to be redrilled to fit the 4 bolt mounts on the strut, this is easy was engineerable.

The difficulty comes in fitting the disc to the hub as it requires an adaptor to be turned up that bolts to the inside of the hub and then the disc bolts to that. Unless you're handy with a lathe and making precise PCD's for bolting to the hub and to disc you're going to be paying someone a lot of money to do the work. Or you can try to find another suitable disc to use.

For almost as good braking you can simply fit later model corolla gear, the swap has been covered several times on this forum. The caliper mounts bolts to the strut, obviously the caliper from the later KE corolla fits the caliper mount and the later model rotors fit the hub. Easy as pie.

Another option is the R31 brake and strut swap that will net you a 250mmx20mm vented disc. The strut runs the same bolt spacing as the KE20/25 steering arm (it doesn't utilise the locating dowels though unless you make a recess for them). The R31 strut is 10mm shorter than my KE25 struts and will increase positive camber by around half a degree over the standard KE20/25 struts (again compared to my own struts).


In summary, if you're just after something better than stock the easiest and most readily available swap will be from a later model KE corolla.

[Ical]

Thanks for the replies,
Might do the KE30 upgrade first and go from there.
As with most projects the "To Do" is a long one.
She will be getting the 2T/ 3T +T50 +RA23 Diff treatment.

Should be a hoot to drive.

Cheers Ian.

[SeptemberSquall]

so the 2# corollas don't use #145 ball joints?
all ke30-ae85, ta22-ra60, etc and equiv. corona used bj145's