i am posting this up for people that might be interested in trying this. unfortunately i will not be follow much further into this as i am putting air ride on to my IRS setup. i might throw up the pics in this thread on what and how i did it. but on to what i recently found out.
it looks like there is a possibility that you might be able to run wrx rear coilovers in the rear of the IRS swap. but some slight modification might have to be done to fit them properly. from looking at it to make the rear coilovers work on the you would have to plane down the upper part of the spindle where the strut mounts to. it appears that the alero mount is about a 1/8 thicker than wrx coilover opening. as seen below.
the other modification would be to change out the upper strut mounts to a different mount or oem offers a solid mount that should work well for this.
after these two changes are made these should bolt in and give you a coilover setup for the rear IRS swap. here are some other photos of this and it seems that the bolt holes line(might want to be elongated for camber adjustment.) and the height can be adjust from stock to dumped. like i said to me everything is just really small mods to basically bolt in you a rear coilover setup.
only down side is that the front struts look they most likely can not be used and you would have to run a cavalier style coilover in the front. but the plus side is that the wrx coilovers (complete set) can be picked up for around $500 or less.
let me know what you guys think?
You will likely need a different spring (thats easy its off the shelf) but the hard part is it may need custom valving since it is valved right now for whatever spring is on it, plus having a rear end that squats a bit for added traction to the rear wheels. If you buy new and get a good damper, like a koni you should only have to tell them what its actually for and you'll get the correct valving.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
Leafy (Club Jeffie FEA man) wrote:You will likely need a different spring (thats easy its off the shelf) but the hard part is it may need custom valving since it is valved right now for whatever spring is on it, plus having a rear end that squats a bit for added traction to the rear wheels. If you buy new and get a good damper, like a koni you should only have to tell them what its actually for and you'll get the correct valving.
would make sense but, the ones in pics are 16 way adjustable and had these on a rear of a wagon sat the same height as the sedan they were orginally bought for. so i think you could match these with another setup or for those running the tein buy as set of tein basics for a wrx and mount them up.
You dont understand. The spring rate is most likely different from what would be optional on the car. And the dampers are vavled to be in the adjustment range for that spring rate and the type of car its on.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
Leafy (Club Jeffie FEA man) wrote:You dont understand. The spring rate is most likely different from what would be optional on the car. And the dampers are vavled to be in the adjustment range for that spring rate and the type of car its on.
No I understand. If you have a coilover setup on your car currently you should be able to place the rear coil springs on to whatever rear wrx setup u pick up. The other thing to is if you have tien setup the.springs should easily swap over as would the upper mounts. I didn't bring this option up as a exact solution just a good base to work off of.
Personally I think you leafy get to technical and over taken by the knowledge you have and it annoys people. I would like to see you post something positive once and not be objective.
No I'm saying this is great that you found this. And custom valving and different springs is easy. Heck if you buy a used set you might as well send them out to get rebuilt and re-valved anyways.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
Say if you grab a set of B&Gs or STDs with the adjustable/removable lower mount. Why not just call up STD or B&G and order WRX lower mounts?
Error: Sig not found.
You could if they are the same threaded strut. You would at least think they would be.
I would call and ask see if they could just sell it to you that way. They should use the same shock bodies.
1994 Saturn SL2 Home Coming Edition: backup car
2002 Chevy Cavalier LS Sport Coupe: In a Junk Yard
1995 Mazda Miata R-package Class=STR
Sponsored by:
Kronos Performance
WPI Class of '12 Mechanical Engineering
WPI SAE Risk and Sustainability Management Officer
why limit yourself to two coilover choices?
a full subaru setup with OEM mounts would likely fit the bill and open up a LOT of choices for coilovers.
already have been talking with mrthompson to see if the fronts would require and mods other than strut mounts to work.
Here is what I did, which, to me, seems like a whole lot less messing around (and maybe cheaper?)
Used a Neon strut insert - A J-car one can be used, I just happened to stumble upon these - they are almost identical to front J-car inserts.
Also used the rear Ground Control coilover meant for a J-car.
The only thing that has to be modified is the strut mount seat on the strut itself.
Before on the left, machined on the right
Sorry for the poor pictures, but this gave me more than adequate strut travel, and a HUGE range of height adjustment.
thanks for the input...
personally, i'm looking for a full coil over setup as with the right setup, you can lower the car without changing spring preload or overall travel. your setup is another viable option though.
strat81 wrote:why limit yourself to two coilover choices?
Because it just popped into my mind when we were spit-balling ideas earlier and i wanted to get it out of my head.
Error: Sig not found.
Tinkles(KGM) wrote:strat81 wrote:why limit yourself to two coilover choices?
Because it just popped into my mind when we were spit-balling ideas earlier and i wanted to get it out of my head.
yeah there is difinitely enough nonsense going on in there. lol
It never ceases to amaze me how people continue to innovate on nearly a ten year dead platform. Nice work to all involved!
oldskool wrote:It never ceases to amaze me how people continue to innovate on nearly a ten year dead platform. Nice work to all involved!
Absolutely. Reason being is that everything is so inexpensive we can risk messing things up along with the fact r&d have already been done on newer cars. So in return all were are doing is keeping our cars up to date. Lol.
It's a good thing I came across this thread. I am in the planning process for a suspension upgrade and I'm trying to plan on a spring/strut setup that I can use and match for an N-body IRS setup. Would there be any way that the WRX strut(which years?) work with a set of lowering springs? Or would it be only for a coilover setup?
"United by Individuality"
"If life is a joke, why aren't we laughing?"
"Normality depends on one's perception of reality."
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3820803
macktruck84 wrote:It's a good thing I came across this thread. I am in the planning process for a suspension upgrade and I'm trying to plan on a spring/strut setup that I can use and match for an N-body IRS setup. Would there be any way that the WRX strut(which years?) work with a set of lowering springs? Or would it be only for a coilover setup?
i would only recomend the coilover setup off the wrx. reason being. you can easily remove the lower mount and have them rewelded to match the j knuckle. on the strut(non-coilover) you would have to find someone willing to weld on the strut itself. most welders won't do it. plus i have no clue if you will have clearance between the tire and lower spring perch. one other idea i did see that could be used is ground control coilover mounted on the rear alero struts should also work.
hopefully after i get the coilover setup made for mine i can get a mod to let me rewrite the first post to give better explination.
MRThompson (jrthompson) wrote:i would only recomend the coilover setup off the wrx. reason being. you can easily remove the lower mount and have them rewelded to match the j knuckle. on the strut(non-coilover) you would have to find someone willing to weld on the strut itself. most welders won't do it. plus i have no clue if you will have clearance between the tire and lower spring perch. one other idea i did see that could be used is ground control coilover mounted on the rear alero struts should also work.
hopefully after i get the coilover setup made for mine i can get a mod to let me rewrite the first post to give better explination.
Okay, I thought I would ask anyhow because I don't really plan on running a coilover setup on my current J, only a set of lowering spring and was hoping this would work in a way so I could run a set of D-spec both before and after doing an IRS swap.
But your find is a nice one none the less and something to look into in the future.
"United by Individuality"
"If life is a joke, why aren't we laughing?"
"Normality depends on one's perception of reality."
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3820803
You could always do what lenko did and run n bodies rear struts with n body rear lowering springs.
MRThompson (jrthompson) wrote:You could always do what lenko did and run n bodies rear struts with n body rear lowering springs.
Yeah, that is my plan, but the amount of struts available for N's is very, very limited.
"United by Individuality"
"If life is a joke, why aren't we laughing?"
"Normality depends on one's perception of reality."
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3820803
