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Banned user
Location:
ADELAIDE - The Drift City
Registered:
July 2002
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Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Tue, 05 April 2005 10:49
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Ok, This has just been done to CRAB 86's car and i thought i would help out by writing and article. Mainly to stop people PM'ing me with so many questions.
Here is how you convert to S13 coilover setup.
you need the following items
-S13 SR20 Hub with disk and caliper
-Coilovers to suit s13, can be anything
-AE86 Camber tops
-Lower control arm to suit, cant use sigma as balljints are different, we modified one.
-RA40 Tie Rods
Your first step is to sort out lower control arms. Steve from Abec cut and shut some ae86/s13 arms together to make a single arm with the S13 ball joint, S13 arms are much longer then sigma and you will find the massive track/camber is excessive for most of your cars. There are two ways of doing this. you do what i mentioned and cut and shut one (legalities are questionable) or you can cut the end off an S13 arm and then weld plates in there to make a box section, then weld a nut behind the plate, rosejoint it with another nut on the front of the plate for adjustability. (this set up is also not legal)
Struts
Lower Control arms
Now once you have a LCA sorted out you need to redrill two holes in the control arm for the castor rod to mount to. The sway bar will go into one of the existing holes for the s13 castor rod so you do not need to redrill for this.
this pic shows the redrilled holes.
Now, once you have done this, bolt it into the cross member as you normally would. then grab your coilovers and fit ae86 camber tops to them. like so.
Once that is done, you need to remove the stock ae86 tie rods by undoing the 14mm nut on the clamp, then place a 14mm spanner on the rack end while turning the tie rod anti clockwise, some cars may find this very tight, in which case use another ring spanner on the ball joint to act as a lever.
once it is off, you can then put tjhe RA40 ones on. I reccommend getting brand new ones as the ball joints on items scourced from wreakers are just about stuffed.
Now, you are ready to bolt the Hub onto the control arm. Place the hub onto the LCA ball joint and then do it up, put the tie rod ball joint into the S13 hub steering arm and then do both up tight. Use cotter pins also.
Once you have done this you can then bolt the Coilover into the car, Bolt the camber tops into the strut tower first, then bolt the two mounting bolts to the hub, i suggest grabbing a decent sized breaker bar as this should both be very tight. You will notice that when they are loose there is some freeplay in the top bolt. pushing it back and forth will effect camber as such. So to make it easier to adjust and make equal on both sides. Push the coilover all the way back and then do up tight.
here is a pic of the brakes and thw two bolts in question.
ok so now everything is bolted in, make sure that the sway bar bolts into the suitable hole, and that everything is done up tight.
All that is left to do is brake lines. This is the easy part as you can use S13 lines provided you undo them from up the top of the wheel arch.
Bleed the brakes get a wheel alignment and away you go.
Why do this conversion?
-Bigger brakes
-larger range of coilovers available for s13
-stronger wheel bearings
-lots of lock available
-wider track
-ability to further set up the car to increase roadholding and handling.
thats all folks
Simon-AE86
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
January 2003
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
November 2003
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Banned user
Location:
ADELAIDE - The Drift City
Registered:
July 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Tue, 05 April 2005 11:46
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you will have to find one with the suitable sized ball joint, OR push S13 ball joint into a AE86/Sigma arm.
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Location:
Rockhampton QLD
Registered:
July 2004
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Tue, 05 April 2005 11:52
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thanks! 
i'll definitly be doing this in the future... god i hate my brakes atm  .
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Banned user
Location:
ADELAIDE - The Drift City
Registered:
July 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Tue, 05 April 2005 13:13
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often works out cheaper then buying ae86 coilovers
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Tue, 05 April 2005 13:15
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Aye, with the amount of S13 crap out there it had want to come in cheaper.
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Banned user
Location:
ADELAIDE - The Drift City
Registered:
July 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Tue, 05 April 2005 21:50
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haha that can work to your advantage 
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
December 2004
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 02:14
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With the lower control arms you could try s12 gazelle ones as they are slightly shorter
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Banned user
Location:
ADELAIDE - The Drift City
Registered:
July 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 08:55
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seems my article isnt appreciated by many.
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 09:06
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simon, i was looking for this info last week and couldnt find any...i was spewing. and now you come along....good work mate. much appreciated!!!!!!! now i can get cracking on my 86 again.
few questions : you can fit nissan four piston callipers directly onto s13 knuckles cant you??? (with what discs)
How did you work out where to drill the holes for the radius rod??
dude seriously, i appreciate the thread. us adelaide boys gotta look out for each other hahaha
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
November 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 09:26
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It'll definately come in handy for me, definately good work. 
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 09:37
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Simon - Have updated the AE86 sus faq with this. Maybe it should be converted into a PDF and put up as an article. Ill have a play with the articleisation for the front page later.
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Banned user
Location:
ADELAIDE - The Drift City
Registered:
July 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 10:01
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you'll have to use your inititve to work oput where to drill holes.. it isnt hard to would out when the control arm is dummy fitted.
yes you can fit GTR brembo brakes to the s13 hub... but honestly.. decent pads on the Sr rotors is all your ever going to need.
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I supported Toymods
Location:
Perth, WA
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 10:39
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you can put nissan r32 4 pots straight onto s13 strut
overkill for ae86 imho
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Location:
Sydney
Registered:
July 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 22:37
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Question simon...
My car is currently running series 4 rx7 turbo rotors and calipers.... would it be difficult to get this s13 set up using the brake st up currently on my car or would i need to swap it all over to s13 brakes n stuff?
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Wed, 06 April 2005 23:43
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S13 brakes are better than RX7 ones anyway, and even if they arent you can always use skyline brakes if you like.
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Location:
Sydney
Registered:
July 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Thu, 07 April 2005 00:24
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meh....
me likes the way they are now, just wondering if it was possible to work with what ive got instead of swapping it all out.
is the nissan stuff really better cause i dont have a single complaint about how my brakes are working now...
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Thu, 07 April 2005 01:37
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half the reason to do the conversion is to get a brake upgrade in the process, if you are happy with your brakes just do a coilover conversion to you sprinter struts. then you wont have to mess around with control arms etc.
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Location:
Adelaide SA
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Thu, 07 April 2005 03:14
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Great article Simon!
Good to see some of your tricks are in writing now to read anytime, anywhere!
Now all you gotta do is type up some more useful articles
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Location:
Ballarat, Vic
Registered:
December 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Thu, 07 April 2005 07:59
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Great article Simon!
One question, how long did your cut and shut lower control arm end up being?
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Location:
western australia
Registered:
November 2004
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Tue, 19 April 2005 11:37
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im in the process of doin this conversion now. Wish i had been able to read this before i started!!
Just a qustion with your custom lca does the strut clear the sway bar link? I have used the 86 lower control arm with a tr magna ball joint in the 86 arm then s13 hubs. The problem is that the strut then fouls the sway bar link (doh) im goin to run shorter sway bar links (should work ok??)
another question do the ra40 outer tie rod ends fit in the s13 hubs ok? There not loose? The 86 one's are loose thats all.
Thanks for the help!!
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I supported Toymods
Location:
Perth.
Registered:
April 2005
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Fri, 06 May 2005 15:50
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| Simon-AE86 wrote on Tue, 05 April 2005 19:46 |
you will have to find one with the suitable sized ball joint, OR push S13 ball joint into a AE86/Sigma arm.
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this latter option, how hard is it to push the ball joint into the excisting lca?
thanks.
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Fri, 06 May 2005 23:51
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Need a sodding big press.
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Location:
Toronto, Downtown
Registered:
September 2004
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Sat, 07 May 2005 00:19
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i suppose this would allow you to fit s14 4 piston calipers and discs
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I supported Toymods
Location:
Perth.
Registered:
April 2005
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Sat, 07 May 2005 12:24
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| takai wrote on Sat, 07 May 2005 07:51 |
Need a sodding big press.
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oh, thats covered 
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Banned user
Location:
ADELAIDE - The Drift City
Registered:
July 2002
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Sat, 07 May 2005 12:36
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im not 100% sure of the dimeter of the S13 balljoint being the same as ae86/sigma LCA balljoint hole.
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Location:
S.E suberbs, Vic
Registered:
December 2003
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Sun, 08 May 2005 15:14
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what about suspension stroke and stuff like that? is the nissan stuff simular in length compared to ae-86 stuff?
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Location:
western australia
Registered:
November 2004
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Re: Article - Putting S13 susp into AE86
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Mon, 09 May 2005 07:21
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the s13 ball joint is smaller in diamteter then the ae86 one so you cant just swap them. My conversion is done pretty much just gotta get some adaptor's for tie rods as i tried to use RA40 tie rods but there's heaps of freeplay in the taper, will make noise's under load. So im using 86 rack ends with s13 outer tie rods and make sum male to female thread adaptor's to join two up.
The other upside to this conversion is that the s13 suspension set up is shorter then the 86, so lower's the car alot
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