RA60/65 struts into KE70

[gjgnz]

I’ve been doing a bit of searching and can’t seem to get a definitive answer on this. In theory everything should bolt in to my KE70 without any dramas. I know I’ll need to use the Celica LCAs and SA63 PS knuckles (same length as AE86, 125mm?). Will be converting to coilovers so spring perches etc aren’t a problem.

The issue I need to resolve is the effect on camber. A lot of people say that it will give horrible positive camber that can’t be dialled out with adjustable strut tops. Others say that it is fine.
I know that Cressida and MA61 struts definitely have this affect but I’ve read that the 4 cylinder 60 series Celicas (RA60, RA65, SA63 etc) run a different kingpin angle. It actually looks like some of the MA61 guys are using RA65 struts as an upgrade to give an extra 1.5° or so of negative camber.

From what I’ve read the MA61 and MX73 kingpin angle is around 10.5° and the AE86 / KE70 is about 8.5° so in theory the RA65 struts should have almost no affect on camber in a KE70? Can anyone shed some light on this? Are there any other problems I've missed here?

[love ke70]

with the correct length lower control arm I do not think you have an issue, and I dont think the lower arm would have to be stupidly long. I ran mine with tops and standard arms and ran it between 0 and +1 which isnt tooo bad, always handled alright, would have just been good to get that little bit more that a longer LCA would have given

[Cuts]

I've done the conversion.
If you run standard arms (ke70) ones then as you know you will have mad positive camber and hating life. How much longer are the celica LCA;s than ksev?

I cut and shut my LCA's, I cut up a spare pair of arms I had and welded that 30mm onto the ksev arms. This gave me about -6 deg which I then used adj strut tops to bring back to around 3.

If you're going to do that naturally weld in the piece after the holes for the caster arms. On the subject of caster arms I definitely advise going to a nuts and bolts type place and buying a die then cutting some more thread into the arm so you can get more adjustment on the caster.

[love ke70]

good info there mate, if you have a search there is a thread with the different lengths of the different arms that fit, I am sure its somewhere...
can definitely get the right ones, I think sigma ones are too long but can also be used.

for everyone playing at home, welding steering components, like cut and shut LCAs is very highly frowned upon by department of transport, and I am not sure if it can even be engineered?

extra caster is a good thing, makes for heavy steering though if you have grippy tyres..

[Cuts]

Sigma ones can be used but there is two different types, the difference is on the ball joints from memory but I can't remember which one is which.

And yes what ^^he said^^ about welding LCA;s, I didn't care because it was a ca18det ksev used mainly for sliding and I had no intention on getting it engineered.

Also he is correct about extra caster making steering heavier but the spin back is goooood.

[Hen]

I haven't actually done this, but looking into it back in the day I remember coming to the conclusion that RA60 struts and Sigma arms (the ones with a press in, NOT bolt in balljoint) in an AE86 would give reasonable (0 to -1) camber.

[love ke70]

until you try and park it cuts

for easy reference, LCA lengths

http://www.toymods.org.au/forums/tec...-database.html

[fixeruperer]

i run *a60* struts it my ae86, with ae86 lca's there was about 2 degrees positive camber. with sigma lca's and strut tops set near their middle. im on negative 2.8-3 degrees camber.

[Slipper86]

dont know if this will help much but Im just putting ra60 coilovers into my ke25 now. Im using PS AE86 knuckles and AE86 LCAs. Ill do one side and post a photo.