how to get more caster in your AE86 using KE70 parts

[roadsailing]

(and without rubbing off your front bumper or making your car look more ridiculous)


hi there AE86 owners (particularly drifters and those who have found wheels with sprinter like offset)

whats caster you say? well here is a link, because asking questions automatically means you dont know how to use google or wikkeppeddia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_angle


i heard a rumor a while ago that you can uise KE70 strut tops to get more positive caster in an AE86, and because i never believe anythign anyone says i went to pick a part to see if it would work.

short story shorter, it does.

here are the two strut tops in question (both RHS)

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7240/ke70leftae86right4rs.jpg

at first i was worried that the KE70 ones were flimsier than the AE86 ones. they probably are, but bouncing the car and watching the KE70 and AE86 tops showed that they are both pretty flimsy.

here are the two in the car side by side.

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/4/8/4/3/100886.jpg

initial test drive is promising, and i can always wind a bit more in using the radius rods if i need to.

you can also get caster by pressing out the inside strut top stud, swapping the tops left to right and re-drilling the inside stud hole. this puts the two holes pretty close to each other, so i;d suggest welding up one of the holes while trying not to damage the rubber.

I tried to get new powersteering tops from totota but they were 160 bucks each plus tax and postage from japan. I also tried to get new KE70 ones but they didnt have a listing for them, so i settled for the least cracked looking set at the wreckers.

have fun!

[samuel]

Couldn't just rotate an AE86 strut top? http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/tongue.gif

[mattysshop]

yeh like rotate them 180 and swap from left to right? would they work like that? cos then if you have camber tops you dont have to get rid of them http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/smile.gif

[roadsailing]

you can swap them side to side, but then you need to redrill the (inside) hole either in the strut top or the body of the car. the holes would end up pretty close together and i didnt want to do that.

[mattysshop]

ah i see, nice work though! love the toyota-changeability.. http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/smile.gif

[sr_rolla]

You can swap them left to right, I did it on my sprinter, no hole drilling required, just a straight swap http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/2thumbs.gif

[roadsailing]

can you post a picture of your strut top sr?

kicking myself i didnt just try this

[45aken]

maybe you had magical strut tops, becuase the last time i had stock strut tops, we put them on the wrong side and they wouldn't fit.

[biggo]

Yair, my ae86 strut tops were one ways too. Makes it easier to know which side is left/right imo.

But for now, im goin to scab my ae71 tops and see the difference. Any bets there the same? http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/tongue.gif

[biggo]

Oh and the "click me noob" linky aint working..... must mean im no no0b http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/tongue.gif

[roadsailing]

fixed, i was the noob this time

[sr_rolla]

Ive since sold the car and i dont have any pics of the strut tops but all i did was take one out of the left, put it in the right and spin it round till it dropped into place, and vice versa

Also, I know this is the case on a KE70 aswell because I got adjustable strut tops for mine about 3 months ago and when i put them in I put them in the wrong way http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[shift_rook]

I don't know how any ke or ae can be swapped side to side . The inner stud is 10mm offset so you must redrill the tower , or redrill the mount .

Most low caster camber plates like T3 ones etc , don't have the available material to be redrilled for relocation of the stub or bolt . So the tower must be redrilled and rewelded which unless you very good with the mig or have a spot hole filler you are going to make a mess of the tower .

[slydar]

a nice way to fill holes with a mig is to hold a piece of flat copper behind the hole, the weld wont stick to the copper, helps keep it flat on the back, so you only have to grind the front.

[StockAE86]

I've heard the top ae86 drifters use less caster as even tho the car is turning one way it's steering the other way, so the caster->camber effect works the opposite way. Also they prefer their snappier handling for the more aggressive looking angle drifts.

Nothing like a post starting with, "I heard". http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/tongue.gif

[samuel]

The top AE86 drifters probably have about $25K worth of suspension too...

To maintain high speed drivability in a straight line, some rally cars run more caster (read : dynamic camber) as opposed to straight out camber

[roadsailing]

i did it mainly to get self centring steering, camber is for people who say "understeer" a lot

[samuel]

ROFL

That is a classic and I will pay that http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/smile.gif

Glad to see i'm not alone