Solid axle true coilover conversion questions

[CakeFullofLolis]

I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do for rear suspension, and of course I've been looking at t3's lowering spring, and shock setups; however they also carry a coilover conversion for the rear of ae86's. From what I understand both ra64 and ae86 chassis readily accepts the rear f-body camaro kyb agx's, and shock length is pretty similar overall.

I haven't found anyone using a full coilover conversion in the back of a solid axle car, so is there any reason why this wouldn't work?

I'm converting the front suspension to s13 so I feel like it would be nice to have a true coilover in the rear as well, I plan to eventually build a rear strut bar, but as far as I've heard ae86 people have ran coilover conversions in the rear without running into any problems with the strut towers.

[ozzie]

The problem I've heard is that the Celica's shock mounting points aren't designed to handle the full weight of the car, so they may bend/break. I have heard of people running AE86 coilovers in the rear, but not sure how it worked out long term.

[blockade-runner85]

in response to ozzies reply, i think you could probably add some reinforcing plates around the shock points, which may help with possible weak points in that area. it might even make the chassis a bit stiffer if you eliminate that structural point that may flex under hard driving. following this btw, im curious of true rear coils for my ra64.

[twotone_ra64]

There has been much discussion but no one to actually do a true coil rear and reinforce the body sheet metal. Someone needs to trailblaze! Maybe I will... but not a priority without running 1UZ lol.

[CakeFullofLolis]

Fair enough, the rear sheet metal is the main arguement I've heard against true rear coils, but alot of ae86 guys run them without issue, and I doubt they have much more reinforcement then we do.

I plan on building a rear strut bar eventually anyway which should help in supporting the added stress. I'll try to do more research and add anything significant I find

[twotone_ra64]

One thing to consider is that the AE86 rear shock goes straight up into the body. It may be closer to a C-channel or L-channel in the body which adds strength already.



Our rear shock is angled and goes more towards car center, away from those critical strengthening channels.





A triangulated strut bar like you suggested may be the best approach.

[sirdan]

The ae86 weighs less as well. I'd probably want the coil over mounted double sheer on the axle side as well.

[CakeFullofLolis]

Yeah that's a fair point I didn't really think about, I knew the locations were different, but didn't really think much of its relation to the stronger points of the chassis

[Sigma Projects]

I could be wrong, but I thought there's people on here who have already done the coil over and just drove as is?

[85GTS]

I could be wrong, but I thought there's people on here who have already done the coil over and just drove as is?

There was a guy on the supra forums that did the rear coilovers. He did do a bunch of strengthening and added some bracing though.

[Sigma Projects]

There was a guy on the supra forums that did the rear coilovers. He did do a bunch of strengthening and added some bracing though.

No, I mean with the live axle. They used AE86 coil overs from what I remembered.