s13 suspension on ae86

[5000gt]

I've just spent a whole night researching suspension and brake upgrades for the ae86 and came across a few comments about using the s13 setup. I know this has been covered before, but i've read all the threads i've found and am still left wanting.....

I have half an idea of what is required to do the conversion (including some sort of mod to the LCA, but couldnt find exact info) but would still like to be pointed in the direction, or given the info on the exact mod.

With my past sprinter, i used all off the shelf products (ford hub, ford rotor, commodore cakipers) and this worked well, but it didn't address the issue of suspension. That's why i am interested in this mod, it will address both suspension, and brakes in one go. Thanks in advanced.

[mc68]

apparently mx83/jzx81 lca's match the ae86 crossemember and the s13 ball joint...and arent too much longer...But im yet to try this to be sure, cant find many cressida wrecks...

[LeeRoy]

Grap some s13 aftermarket coilovers and stock brakes. You can use the s13 lca by drilling out the stock crossmember hole and then you just need to modify the strut hat pivot thingy to accomodate the s13 strut, The t3 tops are a good start. Mine you, the s13 spring will be a little hard for street use and you will also end up with some decent camber but since its a sprinter i'm sure ur into dorifto so it won't bother you too much.

- LeeRoy

[Wezelton]

S13 arms are from memory 8-10mm longer than sigma arms.

T3 camber tops or anything else to suite ae86.

Coil overs, you can run basicly anything, try to find the shortest ones possible, but do be realistic when i say that, my mate has stupidly short struts that dont let him raise the car anywhere near legal LOL
The spring rates on S13 coil overs can vary dramaticly, you can get what ever rate you want really, you can also get so many different dampers too.

Brakes, you can run the 4 piston calipers with the bigger 4 stud rotor.

As for the decent camber, im pretty certain you can get offset RCA's and offset control arm bushes.

This set up will work on XA6X modle cars too, i know for a fact that ra60/3/5 celicas can use the S13 tops, only a very small amount has to be filed out.

[5000gt]

Ok, so i'm trying to take everything in... but a little confused...

So can someone make up an list for dummies on what parts are easiest to go with in terms of arm and hub combo's and what's needed to be done to get it working?

I just picked up my ae86 today, has a fair bit of rust, but will be getting the body bead blasted, cutting out the rust, welding new steel plate in, and seam welding as much of the body as i see fit. At least this part is easy =)

[Wezelton]

Basicly, control arm bolts to xmember, strut top bolts to strut tower. you just need to work out your brakes and use RA40 tie rod ends. easy man

[5000gt]

Hehe, yeah i get that... but i'm asking, which arms should i use on the s13 bits? eg, use sigma arms with nissan hub .....

[Wezelton]

The whole S13 set up goes in, struts, hubs ect. Its a very easy set up.

You MAY have to trim the control arm bush, same as sigma arms.

[5000gt]

so what's the "problem" with doing this mod? I heard whispers of legality issues...??

[LeeRoy]

The benefit of this setup is most of it bolts up. The legal issues you may encounter will be with height as the ae86 towers sit fairly high up in the engine bay compared to s13's which added to the shortness of the s13 strut means that even on maximum height the car is still fairly low and possibly too low.

To overcome this you can cut the lower strut mount and position it lower on the strut tube giving you more height. However, it could be illegal to do this as cutting suspension is frowned upon my engineers and the RTA.

The t3 tops i think need the pillow ball mount changed to accomodate the s13 strut top. Alternatively i think you can, with a little mucking around, change the s13 strut top for the ae86 one.

Check out my mates sprinter with s13 front end. Lots of good pics and you can see the camber. Daniel's s13 front ended sprinter

- LeeRoy

[WDE_BDY]

Quick question LeeRoy, do you know how the camber sits without the strut tops wound right in? And what offset wheels does the S13 setup allow you to run? Basically as far as I understand this mod pushes the track out a bit which will match the diff I'm considering. However I don't want to run big flares so hoping some FWD offset wheels will bring me back under the guards.

Callum

[5000gt]

Thanks fellas, i get it now....

[LeeRoy]

Umm i'm not sure. Another friend has the same setup to the blue one i posted the link of but he runs an f series standard length rear whereas the blue one has a t series disc rear.

For specific measurements you would probably have to get some arms from both an s13 and an ae86 and measure them alont with the total strut height and then use some maths.
Another link

I'm not sure of wheel offsets but i think the blue one runs 0 offset on the front and 40 on the rear. I'll see what i can find out.

- LeeRoy

[WDE_BDY]

From a bit of my own research, the S13 runs 35-40P offset. The big question will be what the inwards clearance is to the body and steering when fitted to an AE86 (or in my case KE70).

Callum

[slide86]

im sure you already read it but just incase

http://forums.toymods.org.au/index.p...t=0#msg_634791