90-93 celica coilovers into a gen2

[atobe]

ok since no one's done it yet and we've all talked about it and i wasn't doing shit today anyways... i went and bought a set of megans 90-93 FWD celica coil overs main reason cause i got a pretty good deal on them..


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Front is on the left and rear is on the right





i haven't installed them yet but from the looks of it i'm fairly sure the fronts will go on w/o too much problems i matched up the 3 top bolts and it looks good on the car except that the camber adjust isn't exactly perpendicular to the car as it was meant to be but it's a lil bit diagonal same problem charlie ran into on the all trac so no big deal...





the bottom bolts looks pretty close but i won't know for sure till i take out my old ones.. i didn't have a digital caliper with me i used a tape measure looks around 3/4 of an inch in diameter and the hole on the coilover is roughly the same size.. but nothing a little grinding wheel with a dremel tool won't fix..

.... now for the rears..



i also matched up the bottom bolts they once again looks almost the same diameter as the bolts on the car... i haven't checked the distance between the bolts DOH !!! tomorrow with a digital caliper... i'm going on memory on this... but i'm pretty sure the camry's top mount isn't that pattern it was more symectrical more of a circle than an oval pattern...if anyone has pictures handy so we can compare.. and i'm also sure the bolts are smaller i remember they were 10mm nuts on them these are bigger if that's the only problem dremel tool will fix it... but we'll see... the part where the sway bar mounts to also looks like it's in the right place only shorter by 2".. but all that means is the sway bar will bend up a little bit no big deal.. well that's it for now i'll report more once i work on it... and try not use a camera phone

[blu_91_cam]

You Sir are awesome. Now we'll finally know if these babies will work on the Gen2 without having to speculate anymore. You definately have to keep us updated on the progress, and comparisons when you get cracking. When do you plan on having these installed? Not too long I hope. Good luck on the install, hope it all goes well and thanks for taking the plunge!

[white90dx]

The top rear on the Alltrac Camry has evenly spaced studs for the strut tops with a single stud pointing straight out and two towards the inside. You may need to swap out the rear top hats for the Celica Alltrac version if the top hats you have don't fit. Its really easy to pop out the rear seats and trim panel to check before tearing into the bottom part of the suspension.

Its ok if the rear swaybar tabs are lower by 2", as the car will be lower by that much - the bar will stay in the correct orientation that way. Hopefully that works out. You can always get longer/shorter swaybar links if necessary.

Top nuts in the rear should be 12mm... you can also quickly check that with just the seat backs out.

Good luck!

-Charlie

[atobe]

alright it's in !!!!


Uploaded with ImageShack.us front went in fine.. cep a lil grinding for the top bolts like charlie had to do.. brake line matched up ok... that one shows OEM brake line but i have SS lines on the other side and it fits perfecty w/o that plate



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as predicted the camber wasn't perpendiduclar to the car but it's alright..

on to the rear .... top mount fitted in perfectly... cep the bottom didn't match up for shit... i was thinking a lil bit but nope... but whatever



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comparision of the stock holes to the megan holes... so i knew what had to be done



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even the sway bar was mount was good well in that picture i putted on wrong so the sway bar mount is in front of the struct but it's suppose to be in the rear so i just exchanged left to right and it fits fine.. once again the brake lines went on ok not sure how OEM lines will match up but i'm pretty sure u can zip tie it into the place... the front left i just zipped tied the oem line onto the bracket for now no rubbing anywhere yet...



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the car as it sits now... the rear is tucked in... but the rear fender line is lower than the front so the car is even.. i'll adjust them later or something but they do fit and works fine


lil thing

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that bracket kind of rubs that liner so i took it off for now may be i'll trim the liner or bend that bracket a lil bit...


anyone want to buy my KYB + intrax ?? they're still in good condition

[blu_91_cam]

Great write up man finally know that it'll all fit nicely. So were you able to get the car properly aligned? When you get a chance a couple more pics of the car would be greatly appreciated.

[atobe]

i'll try to get more shots this weekend gonna let the car sit for awhile so everything settles down but when the car was taken off the lift the car barely dropped down 1/4' -1/2' after the tire touched the ground pretty stiff ... didn't get a chance to get it aligned yet may be this weekend was too late ....

and yes charlie was right it was 12mm bolts on top with 2 toward the middle of the car and 1 going out to the outside..i was actually amazed when i put it in it went in w/o a hitch.... did you ever get the camber plates to adjust i'll just leave them at 0 for now... yeah and the sway bar links didn't have any clearance problems either

i'm not even sure notching that bottom hole that much is safe... but there shouldn't be too much stress on it since it's only getting up/down forces there's 2 giant bars going across the bottom to the hub/axel assembly anyways ... only time will tell

[white90dx]

I left my camber plates at 0* and had the alignment done using the bottom adjustment. I am running 0 toe and about -1* camber all around.

For best handling, you want to make sure that you lowered the car less than 2" (and really closer to 1"). It'll help keep all the camber curves and bump steer to a minimum. Lower looks better though, of course.

Anyway, looks good.

-Charlie

PS. I just bent the front brake line bracket out of the way on my car - it hits the fender liner pretty good otherwise. Zip ties to the rescue!

[da_horse]

Good work Atobe!
the only thing i'd have done is swap the front camber plates so that they angle inwards that way you can adjust them inward to get more camber and caster.

Once again mate, great work, looks good

[Wangan]

good to know. someone beat me to it. i been saying i was gonna do it for over a year now but something else always came up and the money went else where. where did you get your deal on yours so i can go there as well atobe.

[Wangan]

also i'm thinkig for the hole that you had to notch if you put a thick washer on it on both sides, that should help to disipate the forces placed on that hole/make it stronger..

[atobe]

well i got the car aligned and everything's within stock specs except for the caster but that's because of the front sway bar... car pulls a lil to the left but that's because of the tire wear... got it all adjusted to the height i liked...

the mountain shot



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if there's anything else you'd like a picture of i can take more detail shots..

- wangan i was thinking of using washers too..
- da_horse... i don't know what you mean.. they do angle inward.. toward the middle of the front of the car

[white90dx]

Originally Posted by atobe

- da_horse... i don't know what you mean.. they do angle inward.. toward the middle of the front of the car

If you move the camber adjustment inward, it would reduce caster at the same time.

If you swap the strut tops between the sides, when you add camber with the camber plates, it would add caster at the same time. That way you can run max camber at the track/autocross and run normal settings on the street without much work.

I wish I had thought of it when I put my coilovers on...

-Charlie

[Wangan]

nice atobe...go lower! ur the first on coilovers...send a message.lol

i'll definitely be doing what da horse stated and switchin hats.

[blu_91_cam]

How to the Megan's feel? Better than the initrax KYB combo? Man this sucks makes me want to get a set of BC coil's... Hey what's the spec on your rim tire combination? Did you have to do roll your fenders to make em fit?

[atobe]

Originally Posted by white90dx

If you swap the strut tops between the sides, when you add camber with the camber plates, it would add caster at the same time. That way you can run max camber at the track/autocross and run normal settings on the street without much work.

-Charlie

doh !!! oh wells not like i go to the track/autocross anyways may be later once i do the other project ..there goes the trans $$ ..but you know it's do-able in a few hrs to swap the plates. i like the feel of your teins from that one ride... may be you have it softer than i do.. what were the tein spring rates anyways ?? i have 8/4kg springs F/R

too low is no good wagan... i actually raised the rear up half an inch from the garage shot to the mountain shot.. and dropped the front down a half though if the fronts go any lower the tire might go into the fender but would be fixed if i had some cambers ... i think it's at a good height and i don't wanna do another alignment

blu_91 ... you know what it feels way much better than the intrax/kyb setup since the intrax is progressive spring rates .. it's more predictable than the intrax, but if you ever rode in a BMW feels like that bump wise it's just a firmer feel. my rims are 16x 6.5 +40 offset all around with 205/50 tires .. i wish the rears were +30 though it'd fill up the fender well better. my rear fenders are rolled but it wouldn't hit anyways and i've never had a problem with the fronts either


so who wants to do koni yellows + ground controls setup ??? that'd be an even better setup for track now that we know you can use the celica struts