S13 Coilovers into RA28

[wizza_101]

OK..... BIG DAY TODAY!

today i started to put coil-overs in the celica.

big job.

last night i started pulling the car apart.
i was planning to put S13 Struts with 180SX brakes on them sitting on 180SX control arms.

WOW shouldve read ahead abit more.
the struts dont fit!!! they foul on the inside of the tower when turning. so then coil-overs were called in.

next day i bought a front set of Tein coil-overs with a pair of Cusco adjustable camber plates for $275.

put those in.
you need to drill the celicas strut towers out to 12mm cause the top hat pattern is slightly different. so you drill out the existing holes a bit bigger and the camber plates will bolt in.
i then mounted the disc brake and caliper to the coil-overs.
then in went the S13 control arms. to use these you need to drill out the toyota control arm bracket on the cross member to 14mm and then widen the width of the bracket out by 2mm. (use a hammer lightly) use the S13 control arm bolt.
after this i bolted the brakes to the control arm. easy enough.
then the steering arms to the brakes stub axles. (this is were problems were met)
the steering arms are to short by about 30mm, so the adjustable steering arms need to be expanded to suit.

after getting the steering reasonably straight, the sway bars need to be replaced onto the S13 control arms. use the original RA28 sway bar bolts, and mount to the existing holes on the S13 control arms.
once the sway bar is bolted up, the caster arms need to be attatched.
this required drilling out one new hole on either side as the pattern is slightly different.
first mount the caster arm on the S13 control arm by using the first hole (one closest to the rear) and put the bolt through the S13 control arm. then were the second hole is drill through the S13 control arm with a 9mm drill bit. now bolt up.

you cant use the original celica wheels as the offset is way wrong. get some S13 stockies at least, and also note that the celica wheel nuts wont be able to be used on the 180SX wheel studs.

the PCD on the 180SX brakes is 4 x 114.3

this is a pretty straightforward and simple upgrade.

List of things required to do the job successfully:

2 x 180SX front brakes, with rotors, calipers and brake hoses
2 x S13 control arms with bolts
2 x S13 camber plates with coil-overs to suit as well
vice grips
drill and drill bits from 6 - 15mm
ball joint spliter
hammer
S13 stockies (15" Rims)
jack and jack stands

And No i forgot to take pictures of the whole excercise. however later on ill put up pics of how it finished at.

[twentyEight]

There's already quite a few threads on this conversion, but the thread below is what I used and is definitely the best for doing this. Although I used RA60 rack ends and Bluebird TRX tie rods ends, and I also used R32 Calipers and Rotors for a bigger brake setup which is a straight bolt on once the discs are re-drilled to suit. (Or use 5 stud hubs like I did.)

http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12042

[Mr_Flawless]

you dont mind bump steer do u?

[twentyEight]

I don't as mine's a track only car, but I will still fix it with some adjustable LCAs.

[wizza_101]

twenty eight - i didnt realise there was these.
one afternoon i had a thought to see if S13 gear would fit cause i had heard a passing comment a fair while ago that there was an AE86 running the setup, so meh........... IDK.

btw, do you know of a thread that has a step by step (like mine) of how to do the pug/hilux/corona brake conversion.
ive seen some but there very "bitsy" and all over the shop.

cheers
wizza

[twentyEight]

http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13803