All front coilover questions

[Sam-Q]

for any questions about choosing front coil-overs post them in this thread only, faults and issues are allowed to be posted as a seperate thread.

[Jonny Rochester]

The front springs I have been running are ID 65mm and 250mm long. The springs become a bit free when on the hoist. I am now thinking of using helper springs (or whatever you call them). Kings only list 2 helper springs in 65mm. Soft and hard. I guess I would get the soft ones plus suitable spacers.

Depending on your tyre, the bottom locknut can get very close to the tyre. For this reason I suspect some people run 200mm springs.

What springs are people running?

[Sam-Q]

I am running 200mm 4.9kg's. What inserts are you using Jonny?

[timbo]

Rough estimate here; 200mm, 7-8kg, 68-70mm I.D. Was told buy a mechanic in the know that they look like TRD items...

[slydar]

for such a light car if given the choice i would always use 200mm or less if possible. when i was buidling coilovers for people i was mostly using 7" (175mm).

try otomoto for the helper springs/spacers. heaps cheaper.

[anastasios]

Anyone had any experience with the Tein or Greddy AE86 kits?

[xero]

i have the greddy kit and rate it highly. but it does need swaybars, pandhard rod, 25mm+ RCA and urethane bushings to get the absolute best out of them.
i have a whiteline front adjustable swaybar and cusco 19mm fixed rear swaybar and its fucking excellent! cannot fault the handling at all, it is quite firm (8kg front and 6kg rear) but the adjustable shocks do provide quite a lot of adjustment and can change the handling characteristics quite dramatically (in a good way)..
they arent cheap, nor cheap to get the other stuff but its well worth it in my opinion.

[Jonny Rochester]

My front strut setup is/was:
AE86 strut cut down 40mm in the normal way, coilover kit welded on
Kings 250mm 375lb/" (~7kg/mm) 65mm ID springs
Cusco strut tops
KYB AGX adjustable shocks (from AJPS) on position 1 as they were new (4 positions)
"roll centre adjusters" about 30mm. Maybe Cusco, not sure.

This was awesome. It's worth getting those shocks.
I would have had a ~20mm spacer under the shock.
The only thing is the springs came free a bit on the hoist, to may go to helper springs, and maybe 200mm springs instead also.

(Praying AGX shocks wern't bent in crash, everything else was).

[Frak]

I use an 86 strut cut down 60mm, coilover welded on
380lb/in front springs
revolver top strut mounts
48511-AE031 TRD inserts, 5 way adj, I like setting 3 which is very close to 48511-AE941 Yellows(non adj which I have used before) (save cash buy yellows)
roll centre adjusters 45/50mm (can't remember)

[OriginalRabbit]

I have searched and read many coilover conversion questions. Watched lots of videos on youtube. I would consider myself fairly handy in the garage. There is one thing I've searched and searched and I can't seem to find the answer for.

What is the purpose of the t3 top hat? Is it necessary to buy a top hat? Maybe I'm not understanding since I havent pulled the suspension off to really look at it. Of course I don't want to do so because I'd like to have all the parts instead of just tearing in to it.

Just for record its a 1985 Corolla GTS. I'm building my own setup. I'll be using a short stroke shock, spacer, cuting down the strut tube, Ground Control Coilover setup (outsourced) thanks guy.