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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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suspension for ae86
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Sun, 17 August 2003 12:46
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i want to improve the suspension package of my soon to be ae86, i dont want to go much lower but want improvements in handling, coilovers, swaybars??? what is the best set up, who else has done this?? thanks
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
September 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 17 August 2003 15:44
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www.whiteline.com.au <-- They have a scanned write up for Hot4s in regards to the kits they have available for the ae86.
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Location:
Montrose, VIC
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 17 August 2003 23:05
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I've got every part in the Whiteline catalogue, plus a few others, and generally, it ain't too bad - probably about as good as you'd expect this side of fabricated stuff  Plus, the height is reasonable, the ride is hard but won't break your teeth, etc. 
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 17 August 2003 23:28
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mrshin, what does a good set up consist of, do i need strut braces and sway bars as well as coilovers?? what kind of price could you do me for some coilovers "that won't break my teeth", thanks, oh yeh and a mate said i should replace the ball joints and the bushings.
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 18 August 2003 00:04
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necros, i couldnt find the article, could you find it and hyperlink it thanks
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Location:
Montrose, VIC
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 18 August 2003 00:07
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There IS no article on the ae86 stuff on the Whiteline site - just the pdf file with prices..
As for strut braces/swaybars, everything helps... And definately replace everything such as bushes, joints, yadda yadda - there's no point putting a tight screw in a loose hole, so to speak... 
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 18 August 2003 00:09
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fair enough, thanks for that, do u have any recomendations?
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Location:
sydney
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 18 August 2003 00:10
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what kind of sprinter is this ? your going to stick coil overs on them ? you know how expensive it is for a sprinter unless you can custom make it yourself.
if your just going to use it for daily driving i see no point, if your doing winding roads or track work then maybe.
As far i can see it, get yourself a set of koni yellows adjustables, custom springs with what ever rates you want depending on your application, and some whiteline swaybars, also a strut brace and maybe one for the back if you can find one, if your going to lower your car a lot you might want to consider a adjustable panrod. This package should do very well in many applications and won't cost you as much as coil overs.
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 18 August 2003 00:13
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about how much am i up for for koni yellow adjustables, a mate i know put them on his rx-7 and liked em
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 18 August 2003 00:16
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im gonna buy a set of rear, monroe gas gt shocks, rear only, could i just put the konis on the front??
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 18 August 2003 05:11
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any more help??
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Location:
Albany WA
Registered:
October 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Fri, 03 October 2003 11:57
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Go whiteline. Spent 2grand. Be happy.
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Location:
GoldCoast/Brisbane
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sat, 04 October 2003 01:34
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Koni yellows don't come adjustable for the AE86............ unless someone can prove me otherwise...
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Location:
Sydney, Australia
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sat, 04 October 2003 08:20
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I had Koni Yellow adjustables on the front of my old AE86. They weren't top adjustable, but you could adjust them by pushing the telescopic strut all the way in and then twisting. I had some custom Koni's on the rear and 1" lowered King Springs all round.
This combo was a bit harsh for the street (some would find it perfectly OK), but it gave reasonably responsive handling. Replacing the bushes from the worn stockers to urethane gave the most improvement. Did Bill's 3.5 link rear end trick too.
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Location:
camden
Registered:
September 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sat, 04 October 2003 14:10
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treunosedan i dont mean to hi-jack your thread but i want to know how much a suspension package would be for my ae86, im not after coilovers but i wont new shockies front and back,stracebrace for the front,swaybars,and of course really low springs(around the 3" mark)but i've been told that i need shorter shocks than normal, is this correct?
and how much would this set me back???
cheers guys
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Location:
W.A.
Registered:
October 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sat, 04 October 2003 15:54
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i got a set of adjustable koni yellows and they are damper adjustable with some japanese aftermarket springs! They are great and it's not too hard either. If i were you, forget the Monroe's just get a proper set of shocks.
oh yea and the front strut brace & a thicker rear swaybar from whiteline would really improve your ride.
i'm not a suspension expert or anything but this setup works well for me!
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
April 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 03:01
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to go 3inch lower you would need to either not care about suspension travel, and just use your old shockabsorbers, go to a suspension place, and say compress my springs so its 3inches lower, this will make the car looked dumped, but don't count on having a good back after a year of driving the car...
or do it properly, and you'd need shorter shock absorbers, youd need to talk to a suspension place about this, they'd be able to work out which car shocks would fit into the car, with maybe a bit of work and custom springs to suit
if you get the normal koni yellows for the ae86, i wouldn't suggest going more than 1.75inches even 1.5inches, then youd be wasting your money get good quality koni's, cause either they'd blow, or youd have no suspension travel, and getting no use out of them...
just a suggestion... best to go to a suspension place, that has had experiance with AE86s, and talk to them about it,
but this is what i am going
koni yellows,
custom springs, 1.5inch lowerd, 7kg front, and 5kg rear
whiteline front swaybar
new uratheane bushes in the right spots
but you also must remember, you can spend heaps of cash on suspension but if you have shit tyres, whats the point...
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Location:
Terrigal
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 05:15
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Whats the correct places to put urethane bushes? I'm currently replacing all my bushes and have heard people talk about not putting them in certain areas.
I was thinking:
rear trailing arms (upper and lower)
panhard rod
inner control arms
Thanks
Joel
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Location:
Sydney, Australia
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 06:04
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* Front radius rod bushes too if you want good stability under heavy braking such as track use.
* Front sway bar 'D' bushes if you have already gone to a larger front bar, otherwise do these when you change front bars.
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 07:12
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joel, id just (and will) just replace all of them with poly, unless it becomes obvious that rubber would be better (somehow)
mine are so shagged out that even replacing them with rubber ones would be amazing i think.
does anyone know about the availability of short stroke shocks for the AE86? i have heard the AE92 ones are a bit shorter, need to mod your struts though, ideally i'd like replacement short stroke struts, as opposed to inserts, shouldnt rreally bother until i work out brakes i suppose.
natez, no offence here, but those spring rates seem absurdly hard, will you ever be driving this car on roads? you will be skipping out on bumpy corners all the time, i would suggest not going too much over stock rates if you can get away with it.
[Updated on: Sun, 05 October 2003 07:15]
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Location:
Terrigal
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 09:10
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Thanks guys for those suggestions! I think u right shinybluesteel just replace them all. Us toymods members get some good discounts with noltec.
I have new swaybars & bushes so those cool.
What spring rates are recommended? For spirited driving & bit of track work?
Ive also heard ae92 inserts fit, gt4 too! But they seem Alot shorter, like 60mm or more. Now if I wanted the car only 40mm lower, would those inserts work?
Cheers
Joel
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Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
April 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 09:22
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i havn't got the springs done yet, so i'm still considering a little bit less stiffer than that... but maybe 6kg front, and 4kg rear....
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 10:45
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GT4 you say... 60mm you say...
this is pretty close to how much lower i want to go, 40mm is bugger all, i need to measure how too low my car is at the moment, im pretty sure its more than 60mm lower than standard, these might fit me perfectly, just have to do some parts testing, then get ready to shorten the strut casing.
natez, thats closer to the mark, i seem to remember reading that 6/4 is about as hard as you want ot go for a car you regularly drive on the street.
joel, again i think 6/4 is the way to go. dont really know, as i have no idea what spring rates i have at the moment. i have to get prices on some bushes soon, i think i will as soon as i have downloaded the AE86 chassis manual and found the names for all of them.
i think 60mm shorter will work for a car only 40mm lower, but if this is the case you might just want to use stock length shocks?? mine seem ok, and as i said it is definately over 2 inches lower than stock.
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Location:
Terrigal
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 10:50
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Yeah investigate GT4 inserts as they are meant to have a good rebound? I think, as GT4 has quite a heavy nose.
60mm lower, thats over 2 inch.. Do you think there would be problems with the tyres scrubing on the guards?
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Location:
Colac, Victoria
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 11:07
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just on GT4 - ive just had whitelines " works " kit put in my Gt4 ..
Thays Koni ajuastables ( yellow ) , rear swaybar , rear castor bolts , lowered progressive springs , urethane bushes for the front and rear swaybars and rear urethane trailing arm bushes
Cost me $1800 ( 2100 installed ) all up and is a ripper of a job compared to what i have in the gt4 ..
As for the ae86 - im sure that you could use a similar *package * of slightly lowered progressive springs , decent front and rear swaybars , koni's , and various urethane mounting bushes from whiteline to get a very very good result .. All should be available thru their catalogue .
A front Strut brace probably wouldnt hurt - or strut to adjustors if they make them for the ae86, but once again - thats building on an already competent street car package
BTW if you want to play with some gt4 springs - i have a set here you can have for cheep !
Coilovers are good for the track IMHO but overkill for a road car .. and cost too much !
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 11:10
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my only concern with using GT4 shocks is that they would be too "hard" on a AE86, but i suppose it would be easy to check the spring rates, i would rather get short stroke shocks designed for the sprinter, but they would probably cost heaps more. really need to talk to a suspension guru i think/
60mm lower with an AE86? i will have to measure mine exactly, but i "think" it is around 2.5 inches lower at the front, the tyres do scrub on the gaurds a little bit, but they only rub on the plastic inner gaurds, not metal. the tyres will cut through the plastic eventually, and i only have standard wheels/tyres, so you could run into problems with wider tyres.
this is another reason i have to get my car at a more sensible height.
i can measure my wheel centre to gaurd distance if you want a reference
[Updated on: Sun, 05 October 2003 11:47]
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Location:
Albany WA
Registered:
October 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 11:50
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Take a look under the arse end of my sprinter. If your really keen on evidence, ill get the camera out.
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Location:
camden
Registered:
September 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 05 October 2003 17:25
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wraith-how low is your springs? how does it handle with the whiteline package?
natez-i wasnt intending to go the cheap way by cutting the springs and keeping the stock shockies, i wanna get it done properly by having aftermarket springs compressed to around 2 3/4" in the front and 3" in the rear.....
so the spring travel would be the same but it would be hell stiff...
cheers
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Location:
GoldCoast/Brisbane
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 06 October 2003 02:41
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Keep the info comming guys......... Please!!
Next week is suspension week for my AE86 so I need as much info so I can organise it this week.
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Location:
blacktown
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 06 October 2003 07:05
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dont mean to brag,
but come december an attractive japanese girl is bringing me a set of tokico HTS short stroke adjustables for $455 for all 4.
i just have to track down the place that sold the coil over kits now that ae86world is dead, and im set!
and i cant get anymore sets, it took a lot of begging to get her to bring over these ones.
oh well just thought id add another option for sus setups.
C.
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Location:
blacktown
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 06 October 2003 09:39
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thats about the price of them in nihon now,
i found a place with a sale on so i get 5200yen off.
so it works out to roughly 37000 yen i think?
the only bit that might push the price up abit is the shipping
but as this girl can just bring it on the plane as extra baggage, it shouldnt cost me that much more, maybe dinner when she gets here?
i found the place where the coil over kits are sold so all is going good, just have to start saving and quickly!
i just hope i didnt misread the site and thats per side but i doubt it, it looked inclusive.
C.
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Location:
Albany WA
Registered:
October 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 06 October 2003 10:21
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I think it's something like 20mm lower. Doesn't sound like much but it is noticable. I prefer not to go the "lowrider" route, as larger rims and a good low-profile tyre will give the car an appearance of being lower than it is. Bottoming out over kerbs is very not cool. At the moment I've only done the rear suspension (shocks, springs, swaybar, bushes) and the difference is quite noticable- the rear end "hugs" the road better, fishtails are easily pulled out of, even turn in has been remarkably improved. I have the intention of applying the front suspension this week or the week after, and I'll keep you posted. The brilliant thing is, that if you are prepared to skin knuckles and get your hands dirty, you can fit suspension yourself. My cousin and I, with no expertise whatsoever, basically ordered the kit from Whiteline, got it about 3 weeks later, jacked the car up and started pulling stuff out and replacing it. I've done about 2000KMs and nothings gone wrong so it's looking good. Tighten all the bolts after 100-200 kms like they tell you to and the gear works fine. Just give it a wheel alignment after you do the front. Thats what the people in the know told me, anyway. I'll let you know how the front suspension goes.
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Location:
Albany WA
Registered:
October 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 06 October 2003 10:32
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And i gotta say to all you "lowriders" out there that you might want to locate a copy of Peter Wherrett's book "Drive It!". There is a really good reason your stock ride height was what it was. Don't take it too far unless you really know what your doing, what the result will be and what it is you trully want in a car. And, like any other modification, you may want to get your car over the pits, make your mods legal, that sorta thing. Theres nothing sweeter than being able to wave a modification permit in the face of that nice officer that just pulled you over because you looked like fair game.
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Location:
Hunter Valley
Registered:
February 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 06 October 2003 10:58
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nup_4ac... hm niceeeeeeee.....
U can keep ya adjustable. Ill keep the kawaii hehehe.
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I supported Toymods
Location:
Northern Beaches
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Mon, 06 October 2003 11:14
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the front suspension is a lot more fun doing than the back 
good luck, just allow alot more time then you expect for the first time
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Location:
Albany WA
Registered:
October 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Wed, 08 October 2003 11:46
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Oh, I have a fair idea that the front's none too easy. I'm estimating around 3-4 nights, but I'm OK with the idea of my car being off the road for a couple of weeks if it becomes necesary. I'll start ripping bits off coming monday and we'll see what happens. I've got all the gear I should need- anything special you think I might have missed?
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Wed, 08 October 2003 13:31
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i dunno if the front should take you that long, unless bushes need to be pressed etc, i changed all my shocks and springs in an afternoon once, first (and only unfortunately) time i had done anything to the suspension
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Location:
Albany WA
Registered:
October 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Fri, 10 October 2003 13:45
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Maybe I worded that badly... I'm allowing 4 nights, hoping there won't be any hassles. I've got springs, shocks (basically the McPherson) to fix, a 24mm swaybar & a bunch of bushes. I've also got some bushes that I'm not sure where to fit- might have to post the description, see if anyone else knows where to put them.
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Location:
Mentone
Registered:
May 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sat, 11 October 2003 01:04
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The hardest thing is to do is undo the big gland not that holds the insert into strut. Juse a vice to hold the not and turn the strut it will come undone eventually. If it dosent work take it to a suspension joint and they will do it. Realistically it will only take a few hours if everything comes undone.
Brad
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Location:
blacktown
Registered:
August 2002
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sat, 11 October 2003 04:06
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yeah that top nut is definately the hardest bit to take off
if you have access to a rattle gun, it will make light work of it, if not, those electric clutch type rattle guns you can get at supercheap and strathfield car radios for about $50 work awesome, it even cracked my crank pulley nut!
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
May 2003
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Re: suspension for ae86
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Sun, 12 October 2003 23:42
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thanks to toyotaboy i have sussed my suspension set up! strut brace, lowered springs ( no more than 1 inch ) front strut inserts, and maybe a little bit of nolothane, thats for the front and for the rear, kyb shocks, lowered springs, panhard rod, swaybar for the rear, im going stiffer at the rear, it should be good, ill keep u informed!
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