I made a thing!

"MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig" (MR2_FTW) 03/11/2014 at 16:06 • Filed to: None

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If anyone is interested, here's a DIY I made for how to make your own short stroke coilovers.

http://www.freecandycarclub.com/2014/03/11/diy…

Have an old car with spindle-and-hub front suspension? Want to go low without losing too much suspension travel? Here's how.

I see on so many forums where people buy an old car and want to go low but aren't sure how because there are no off-the-shelf lowering springs for the car. Some of these people just end up cutting their stock springs or finding similarly-sized springs for other cars that will sort of work. While these options do get your car lower to the ground, these solutions still have too soft of spring rate, inadequate dampening from stock shocks, and quickly run out of suspension travel. Riding on bump stops is not fun OR cool, people.

NOTE: this guide is based on a 1986 Toyota Cressida, but will work on lots of spindle-equipped cars like AE86, Celica-Supra, X8 Cressida, etc

Here is what I used:

**(2) KYB AGX shock insert for 1991-1995 MR2 rear (KYB part #765016)**

(1) TechnoToyTuning weld-on coilover kit

(1) TechnoToyTuning camber plate set

(2) TechnoToyTuning bearing upper hats

(1) Techno Toy Tuning roll center adjuster kit

** – The MR2 shocks are 2 in diameter. If your housings are a different size, you may need different inserts, however I've heard that many cars use this size.

Here's how a the hub/brake rotor/bearings/spindle go together

So it's rotor, seal, bearing, hub, bearing, claw washer, nut, castle cap, cotter pin, axle cap. If you want to install new bearings and/or brake rotors, now is the time!

Old and nasty! Remove the calipers, axle cap, and spindle nut. Be careful not to let the outer bearing fall out or it will get dirty.

Then just remove the four bolts and dust shield, disconnect the brake line, undo the two bolts for the steering arm, remove the three nuts at the top, and the whole thing should come right out.

Pay no attention to the cut brake line in the above picture, this strut cam off a junkyard car. DO NOT CUT YOUR BRAKE LINES

Now get yourself some spring compressors and squeeze that spring down, give the main nut a whack with an impact gun and now your spring is off.

The best way I've found to get the gland nut off is to turn the strut upside down in the vice, clamp the vice down on the nut, and turn the whole strut. Once it's off, you can remove the shock insert from the strut housing.

Here's the stock-sized shock that came out next to the MR2 KYB's.
The stock shock has a body length of 15.5, whereas the MR2 shock is 14 3/8 long, so the housings will need to be shortened 1 1/8. Also, the gland nuts that come with the MR2 shocks are a much coarser thread than the Cressida ones, so you'll have to reuse those.

Now with your housings disassembled, put it in the vice and cut off the stock spring perch. Be careful not to cut the actual housing tube though.

Then grind the weld smooth

Now on to the fun part.

Start by making a cut in the housings

This end contains the threads for the gland nut

The housings needed to be shortened about 1 1/4. Measure twice, cut once.

Do a test fit with the shock in the housing to see if you might need to take off more. Always err on the side of needing to cut more. It's far easier to remove material than to add it.

Once the housing is to your liking, prep the surfaces for welding. I used a bench grinder with a wire wheel.

Pro tip: NEVER weld on your housings with the shock inside. You will destroy the expensive shocks you just bought.

Once the housing is one piece again, smooth the welds down and position your new spring perch so that the top of the red threaded sleeve is just a hair lower than the top of the strut housing. Otherwise you won't be able to put your gland nut back on.

Once it's all welded together, clean it up and prep it for painting.

And here they are fully assembled!

Then as they say, installation is the opposite of removal.

I hope this helps somebody with their project. Just say no to blown shocks on cut springs – suspension travel is your friend!

Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 03/11/2014 at 16:36

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NOTE: this guide is based on a 1986 Toyota Cressida, but will work on lots of spindle-equipped cars like AE86, Celica-Supra, X8 Cressida, etc

All of those are interchangeable too for certain year ranges (Celicas can upgrade to MA6X Celica-Supra or MX7/8 Cressi Struts to take advantage of the the vented rotors compared to the solid ones that came stock). Honda weld on coilovers are also 2" inside diameter and will work as well.

For the rears, you can try a trick by madfaber on Classic-Celica:

[quote="madfaber"]I plan on doing some rear suspension mods in a few months after my next race is done an i have some free time. I dont know haw you guys are getting rear coil over on your celicas but i thought i would show you a cheap ass way to get it done. And befor anyone says " thats not safe" or "or that wont hold" guess what you can suck it cause i know it works. I did it on my 81 cressida which is a 4 door and and has a way fatter ass then any celica and i drove the hell out of that car and this set up never had the slightest issue. i also did this on my 280zxt race car which has only one goal in life and thats to destroy race tracks and breath fire. That get drove harder then any car on this forum and it has this set up on it so please spare me any negative comments :mrgreen: that being said I am Super Shreader status when it comes to fabricating, if you are not then you should probably stick to the sand box.

Step 1,
first thing you have to do is get rid of the top tube on the shock so carfully grind off the area where it attaches to the shaft of the shock

(No pic available)

Step 2
call you friend leroy who like to blow up honda engines and ask him if he has any spare D16 connecting rods. Why? becauce a D16 connecting rod (with the bushings removed) is the exact sam size as the body of most shock tubes. Cut the excess from the connecting rod so your just left with the "connectin" end and clamp it onto the shock. ( in the pic i used 2 just to test but latter i went to just one and it was more than enough)

Step 3

Take your 35$ ebay coil over sleave and slide it down over the shock, i would recomend using some of the O-rings between the shock and the sleeve so you dont get any rattle. ( this should go without saying but you slide the sleave all the way down till it hits the clamp)

Step 4
Go laff at the guys who spend 1500 for coilovers :lol:

This is not a celica only mod( infact it will take alot of cutting just to get this to work in a celica but stay tuned i will get to that) this will work with any car that has rear shocks.[/quote]

His spelling needs some work, but he's got some experience on these on the track & on the street. I'm planning on a different setup for the rear on my Celica though. This was his result before he sold his (on the left, my new one is the black and blue one on the right):

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole 03/11/2014 at 16:43

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that's some of the coolest ghetto-engineering I've ever seen. That said I really hate that style of coilover, even shop built, for SRA cars. It puts all the load of the car on the shock mount, where it was never designed to be.

Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 03/11/2014 at 16:49

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Agreed. There's another guy that has a 1st Gen Celica running a modified coilover on the spring perch (I think I've shown it to you before):
http://classic-celica.com/modules.php?na…

I can't just post pics because he's got them on an image sharing site and DHS doesn't like it.

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole 03/12/2014 at 15:45

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I actually was going to use those perches but the company had terrible communication and the springs were the wrong diameter anyway.