RA 65 Celica Question and advice

[Lawrst]

Hello,

Just nelwly buying an RA65 Celica (again) after my first one was written off a year ago. Funny enough it is the same year, model, colour and is also a manual! Fairly happy with it.

Few things i want to fix on the car and a few questions about them:

1. Window Seals and Runners. Are the seals still avalible? Need to get in and see if i can adjust the runners to make the window wind up straight.

2. Lowering the car. When doing this am I going to be putting too much camber on the car? Ill probably only go King Spring Low suspension, I actually want to drive the car and there are too many big bumps in this town! Ill get new shocks at the same time.

3. Interior parts, i have a few from the old car im going to swap into this car, but does anyone know how rare the plastic guague surround is in good nick. This one is better than my last but still not great.

4. Breaks! Im not a fan of drum breaks, both changing them and using them. I know the MA61 stuff is ment to bolt over and that I will need the balance valve, or what ever it is called. But what exactly needs to be swapped? I take the drum assembly off and the disk bolts on? What about the hand brake.

5. Sound System, I have an idea of what i want to do, but if people could post some pics of what they have done in their boots/liftbacks to give me some ideas would be great.

Also if anyone knows a body shop that is any good in adelaide for repairing rust spots (like the liftback on these bloody things and wheel arches) would you let me know?

Any help or advice is well appreciated!!

[ivandude]

1. Wreckers probably best bet
2. King Spring Lows are easy, eBay has em and I'm pretty sure theyre decent price or just the same if you went to Supercheap and got em.
3. Wreckers
4. You should have a look at Celica-GTS.com forums they have a plethora of mechanical information that will surely help you out, break upgrades, engine upgrades, more. I know RA65 rear's are same as MA61's but the front's are different and brake upgrades might not be straight over. People swap over MA61's breaks too so you should probably get something better. Cressida's perhaps?
5. I personally haven't seen much across any of the forums.. but a boot set up is good. I've always had two big rears boxed & sub, either in the backseat or in the boot that I just remove when needed for luggage.

You shold have a look through hitting the "Search this thread" button in the XA6X Celica Dedicated Thread as it's very active and has lots of information fo sho. Celica-GTS.com is the best place for information I found when owning an RA65 for a year and searching for answers

Cheers & congrats on another ra65. How much you pay for it / km's on odo ?

[thechuckster]

brakes != breaks.

4. swap over entire rear end from MA61 - that way you get the LSD diff, swing arms, brakes, etc. Front brakes are essentially the same. Get bias valve from supra donor (bolted to firewall). Also needs the hand-brake cables from the donor. Requires swing arm from disk-brake model (can't bolt caliper to drum-brake swing arm) so easier to get the lot.

MX7x Cressida can also donate rear assembly (but AFAIK, it changes rear track if you transplant the entire assembly - someone else may wish to confirm/deny that).

[ill-minded]

1. Not likely to find them new. A lot of the new xA6x part stocks are exhausted, unless you can find them from other countries. Japan doesn't have much, if anything still.
2. Camber will depend on how low you intend to lower the car. A ~2" drop will probably only see about 1.5° of camber, which is negligible and if anything, will probably improve handling through corners. The "OMG CAMBER WEAR WILL KILL MY TYRES" argument is nowhere near as bad as some people make it out to be. Just get a wheel alignment to correct any toe issues from lowering and you'll probably never notice any difference with a minimal amount (1-2°) of camber.
3. Most interior bits of this vintage are usually pretty average condition unless you stumble on a single-owner minter. The dashboard and instrument cluster surrounds get raped by sun damage, but there are a few getting around in near perfect condition. Just keep an eye out on the classifieds and Ebay or your local wreckers. MA61 Dashboards also fit straight in and generally in better condition as they're slightly different.
4. The standard rear drums aren't that bad, but if you want vented discs all round, there's two ways to go about it. Brake bias should be fine with the standard RA65 bias valve.
4. i. If you can find an MA61, grab the entire rear subframe including the swingarms and diff and throw that in. It's pretty much a bolt in job and you get a bonus LSD. Make sure you grab the rear handbrake cables.
4. ii. If you can't find an MA61, find an MX73, then pilfer the swingarms and brakes. They will bolt in, but you'll need to either find MA61 handbrake cables, or modify the standard ones slightly.
5. You'd have to ask some of the others. I'm not much of an in-car entertainment person.

[ill-minded]

MX7x Cressida can also donate rear assembly (but AFAIK, it changes rear track if you transplant the entire assembly - someone else may wish to confirm/deny that).

MX73 swingarms/hubs/brakes can be used without any issue. The subframe/crossmember is where the increased track comes from and will cause issue. It's also not really worth taking the entire assembly since the sway bar mounts are different and the diff is a 4.11:1 jobbie instead of 3.58:1. I can 100% verify that MX73 swingarms/brakes work fine, since I'm running that exact setup. Also, for what it's worth, you can't use the MX73 half shafts (diff to hub) as they're ~20mm longer than the RA65 equivalents.

[thechuckster]

ill-minded: thanks for the clarification. i figured it would be much like the MZ1x rear (wider track and uses longer half-shafts).

[ill-minded]

No problem. It's always good to give back valid information from first hand experience.

[Lawrst]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the Replies,
So it seems the MA61 rear subframe is the way to go, does the mean i will have to use MA61 rear springs/shocks or are they the same?
Also what will i need to change in the speedo gears?

As i am planning a respray, i hate the look of drums and am doing the disks both for safety and looks.

Good to hear about the camber!

How are the MA61's surrounds different? Material?

[Blair]

shocks and springs are the same.

[marvis]

What Illminded said.

[nev194]

as for sound system im running 2 x 4" kevlar/dome tweeter coaxial speakers in the pillars next to the rear seats, 2 crossovers running to 2 x 4" speakers in the doors and 2 dome tweeters on the dash, a 12" sub in the boot all running of an amp screwed to the sub box, and im pretty happy with how it turned out its no showcar set up but it sounds nice