Jim
GT Crew
'88 GT hatchback - commuter on weekdays, autox on weekends
Posts: 123
|
Post by Jim on May 21, 2005 23:41:24 GMT -5
in the "Do it yourself" section? I picked up a set of front and rear struts off a 4th gen. from a junk yard to do the mod. and the top of the rear struts are really close to the lower spring mount. I don't see how I could possibly get a tubing cutter on the strut to cut the top off. The strut doesn't look anything like the strut in the article. Do I have the wrong rear strut? Or is the strut in the article from a different year/generation?  |
|
|
|
Post by rye on Jun 1, 2005 11:49:32 GMT -5
I duno, hopefully Jeremy see's this!
|
|
|
|
Post by schmooot on Jun 1, 2005 12:53:59 GMT -5
link to article?
|
|
|
|
Post by White87GT on Jun 1, 2005 13:39:33 GMT -5
|
|
Jim
GT Crew
'88 GT hatchback - commuter on weekdays, autox on weekends
Posts: 123
|
Post by Jim on Jun 10, 2005 10:32:32 GMT -5
Well, I'm just about ready to install the modified struts on the back of my car. I'll be installing the KYB AGX struts and I'm using the Eibach Pro Kit spring all around.
I do have some comments to add to the write up found in the instructions for this mod. One is that it is not as simple as it is made to sound in the instructions. The ST, GT and GT-S rear struts for the 4th gen. do not look like the rear struts in the pix.
I plan on putting the struts on my car this weekend and I'll take and post some pix of the stock strut and the modified strut and explain what I did to get this mod to work.
|
|
|
|
Post by White87GT on Jun 10, 2005 12:19:39 GMT -5
Well, I'm just about ready to install the modified struts on the back of my car. I'll be installing the KYB AGX struts and I'm using the Eibach Pro Kit spring all around. I do have some comments to add to the write up found in the instructions for this mod. One is that it is not as simple as it is made to sound in the instructions. The ST, GT and GT-S rear struts for the 4th gen. do not look like the rear struts in the pix. I plan on putting the struts on my car this weekend and I'll take and post some pix of the stock strut and the modified strut and explain what I did to get this mod to work. Jim, if you need any help hosting anything, contact me.  |
|
Jim
GT Crew
'88 GT hatchback - commuter on weekdays, autox on weekends
Posts: 123
|
Post by Jim on Jun 10, 2005 12:59:05 GMT -5
Jim, if you need any help hosting anything, contact me. Well, for one I would love to know how to put the pic in my sig. I haven't found instructions for that anywhere. |
|
|
|
Post by 4thgenceli on Jun 10, 2005 14:10:06 GMT -5
|
|
Jim
GT Crew
'88 GT hatchback - commuter on weekdays, autox on weekends
Posts: 123
|
Post by Jim on Jun 10, 2005 16:03:11 GMT -5
Here’s some note’s on what I have found out so far:
The front strut is a shorter strut than the rear strut, so the front strut cartridge is shorter than the rear. I cut the very top off the rear strut, right were it rolls over to form the top of the strut tube. After I pulled the strut cartridge out and drained the oil, I slide the new cartridge in place and the top of the cartridge was obviously much lower than the top of the strut tube. Since I’m currently running the Eibach ProKit springs, I wanted the top of the sprint mount to be equal to the height of the stock strut since that’s the installed height the springs were designed for. I had to add 3 3/8” of the top of the front strut to get the strut height I needed. This is going to require me to add a spacer at the bottom of the strut. I went to the local scrap metal shop and bought some 1 ¾” round aluminum bar, which fits perfectly into the tub. The aluminum will have to be cut x “ to raise the cartridge to the desired height.
Welding the 2 pieces together was pretty easy. I put the 1 ¾” round bar inside the tube spanning the joint and c-clamped 2 pieces of 1 by 1 angle-iron, also spanning the joint, to the outside and tack welded it together, removed the c-clamps and finished off the welds.
(I’ll be adding photos to this post when I take the photos this weekend.)
|
|
|
|
Post by schmooot on Jun 11, 2005 19:25:03 GMT -5
I forgot there was a main page  bookmarks pwn me |
|
mrgud
ST Crew
'87, GT-S
Posts: 84
|
Post by mrgud on Jun 15, 2005 3:54:52 GMT -5
DAMN!! Nice Celi... yours? More fotos!? |
|
Jim
GT Crew
'88 GT hatchback - commuter on weekdays, autox on weekends
Posts: 123
|
Post by Jim on Jun 15, 2005 10:18:17 GMT -5
 Last night, I installed the modified rear struts and found a few more things that need to be mentioned. (I have a race this weekend, so I’ll really get to test them) Above is a picture of 3 struts. The strut on the left is the modified strut ready to install. The strut in the middle is a stock (Gabriel replacement) strut and the strut on the right is a front strut, with the top section cut off to show the size comparison. First thing is that the rear strut modification uses a front replacement strut cartridge, which is shorter, both the body of the strut and the shaft, than the rear strut. The factory rear strut also has the top the of strut body close to the lower spring mount. If you look at were the weld is on the left strut, you’re see that it is close to the lower strut mount, were the middle replacement strut has the top a couple inches higher. I cut the top of the rear strut right at the spot were the tub rolls over to form the top of the strut. On the front strut, on the right, you’ll see the section I cut off to add to the top of the rear strut. Since I’m not using “coil-over” style springs, I wanted the top spring mount to be as close to the stock dimensions as possible, so I had to add 3” to the top of the new rear strut. I also had to add a 3” spacer inside the strut to get the height I wanted, which I did by using a piece of 1 ¾“ aluminum round stock. Now I thought I was ready to install the strut, not. Apparently there is a couple of variations of the rear strut, mostly in the size of the 2 lower attaching bolts. I pulled the struts off a car in the wrecking yard and am not sure of the year or model Celica it was, but it had smaller bolts than my car. The bolts about ½“ bolts and my bolts are the bigger 9/16“+ bolts. Luckily I had a sharp 9/16“ drill-bit and round fill. I had to drill out the holes and file them as the bolts are a little bit bigger than 9/16”. Next, the top of the front strut, the part that goes through the upper strut mount, is also larger, just over 9/16”. I drilled and filed that hole also and everything was finally ready to bolt on the car. After I installed the first strut, I used the jack to raise the hub and found that the strut run up against the bump-stop. So I had to cut the bottom 2 “rings” off the bump stop. I still need to cut off more and will most likely just leave the large round portion of the base. All in all, the modification is fairly simple if you pay attention to what you are doing. If you are using “coil-over” type springs, you probably don’t need to raise the strut to the stock height, but do some measuring before welding on the top. One more thing I have to add. Besides the top of the strut being thicker, the non threaded part of the top that fits into the strut top mount is longer than the stock rear strut. To remedy this, I took a thick washer (it was 3/32" thick) that fit into the top of the upper strut mount and drilled and filed the hole to fit over the strut top. A thinner washer would work as the strut top only sticks out a few mm, but enough so that the bolt will stop on the shoulder of the strut before tightening up. |
|
|
|
Post by 4thgenceli on Jun 16, 2005 10:29:12 GMT -5
|
|
shiro
New Member
Posts: 33
|
Post by shiro on Jun 17, 2005 9:34:21 GMT -5
I did it to my celica... but I used the kyb agx from an MR2 .. the frount strut was a direct drop in. the rear was an mr2 cartrige. it was taller than the cratrige for the frount. still shorter than the stock tokico.
|
|
Jim
GT Crew
'88 GT hatchback - commuter on weekdays, autox on weekends
Posts: 123
|
Post by Jim on Jun 17, 2005 12:31:29 GMT -5
I did it to my celica... but I used the kyb agx from an MR2 .. the frount strut was a direct drop in. the rear was an mr2 cartrige. it was taller than the cratrige for the frount. still shorter than the stock tokico. So you used an MR2 rear cartidge in the rear of your Celica? Did you have to make any adjustments to the length of the rear strut tub? Hpw much travel did it give you? What springs did you use in the rear? I have mine worked out now, but just for future reference. |
|
