FB rear coilover conversion?
 

Anyone have any experience with the rear Coilover conversion kit from techno toy tuning, or should I just buy springs and struts from racing beat and call it a day?

What are you running in the front?

The options I have looked at are a spring and shock setup, a spring with adjustable perches (to be able to adjust ride height) and shock, and something like the T3 design.

I am going to try a adjustable shock and spring setup. Ground Control offers some rear springs that are 200lb spring rate and have dead coils on it, So the spring can be cut to desired ride height.

https://groundcontrolstore.com/colle...-spring-200-lb

Right now I am running some cut rear RB springs and AGX adjustable shocks. But want to change it to Koni adjustable shocks and the Ground Control Eibach springs with all new OEM lower and upper trailing arms.

I seen people piece and build a coilover setup just like the T3 for less money.

I've been rebuilding my suspension with T3 parts but chose the GC Eibachs and Konis for the rear (replaced the new RB springs). The T3 rear coilovers look trick but the lower spring perch is just held onto the shock body with a "pinch" collar setup, not welded like a front strut assembly. And the shock makers (I think they use KYB) never intended for the shock body to bear that stress and weight. I like most of their products but I dont trust the rear coilovers they offer.

Everything’s stock atm just looking and planning for now

I personally wouldn’t go with t3 because it’s super expensive and BC coilovers makes a full coil over kit for the FB and is about 1k less

I wouldnt trust T3 either. Obvious zero r&d or forethought on some of their products.

I would just buy the kit from bc racing for 1k instead of paying 800 just for the back

Keep in mind the kits from BC and Ground Control require you to cut the bottom / spindle off your struts and weld it onto their front assembly. The T3 front parts are very expensive. But they are direct bolt on parts, not cut-n-weld pieces like BC or Ground Control. I guess it depends on how much you trust your local welder and powder coat companies. Remember to add those costs onto the parts prices.

Going off topic here by referring to front parts, but Ground Control and T3 front parts are installed the same way by cutting off the stock spring seat and welding theirs on. T3's look a little cleaner by having the spring seat hidden inside the threaded sleeve. Depending on the tools at hand the amount of work is almost as much as the BC setup.

The defunct RE-Speed is the only one I'm aware of that had a bolt on solution by having the threaded sleeve cut to match the stock spring seat, but I think 1 or 2 people had trouble with theirs sitting straight.

With T3 (SA/FB strut assemblies) you mail your struts to them and they cut the bottoms off and put them on wider tubes that take modern 2" (?) Strut cartridges. The difference is that they make the cuts and welds, and final powder coating. With BC or GC YOU have to weld the parts. I dont weld, and have gotten some bad welding and/or high prices lately, so I thought I'd throw it out there.

I forgot about those, but they also offer a weld on kit that's comparable in price to Ground Control's. T3's camber plates were less expensive so I went with their front set up.

Bear in mind the front stub axles on the FB are a weak point, regardless of the strut tubes you weld into them. Mazda used to sell a competition version with thicker stub and hubs with larger bearings no longer available.

The TCA ball joint and the steering rod end ball joint on the FB and the AE86 Corolla have the same tapers.

The AE86 stub axles etc. have been proven in competition.

The Ae86 steering arms are shorter than the FB and will therefore create a higher steering ratio with similar Ackerman.

AE86 competition struts are widely available for 40mm Bilstein inserts of various damping rates.

Are all of these just a plug and play type deal or do I need to weld for these too?

Also, this is a street car in my case, so would the RB suspension kit get me along just as well?

No fabrication needed. Instant upgrade to FB bits with easily-available Toyota Corolla AE86 bits. Read through my post again carefully.

Also, Corolla AE86 rear shocks fit the FB as well. Again, I use Bilsteins.

Alrighty thank you very much I will definitely look into that

This is interesting.

Do the AE86 components work just as well on SA's too? I know there's some suspension height difference between SA's and FB's although I don't recall what it is (maybe the front strut height?). Would whatever that difference is affect the swap in a significant way?

I'd do some research before trying to put Toyota parts on your car. I looked this up yesterday and all the info I could find was from RX7club, over the past 10 years, saying it wont work and isn't worth trying. Yes, the top of the AE86 ball joint will attach to our struts and is a better design. But it isn't a direct fit into our lower control arms, so you have to modify or get aftermarket. The AE86 struts are notably longer than either SA or FB struts, our dust shields and calipers aren't a direct bolt-on to the Toy struts, and they use a different bolt pattern on the strut top.

So, to make this work you basically would need to install a mostly Toyota front suspension on your RX7. Why? Also, our front stub axle looks identical to the AE86's and is attached/constructed the same way, so I'm not sure how the Toy's is any stronger. But parts are hard to find and the aftermarket is disappearing, so if any RX7 owners have swapped in parts and pieces, as direct swaps, I would love to see pics for my own learning.

Call Techno Toy Tuning - they make front suspensions for our early RX's and the AE86 Corollas. They could tell you exactly what will and wont fit/swap.

I know this is about rear but there is a lot here about using AE86 parts. I was looking through T3 today and noticed that T3 is apparently making AE86 front strut cases. https://technotoytuning.com/toyota/a...n-ae86-corolla

So, if these parts are more or less swappable this is exciting either as is or perhaps they would be the necessary changes to fit our cars.

T3 makes the same part for our SA's and FB's, with the correct dimensions and brake mounting points. Why would you buy their Corolla parts when they make RX7 parts?

They do? Would you mind posting the link? I didn't see the offering on their website; only the offering where you need to provide your old strut casings.

This is all I can find: https://technotoytuning.com/mazda/fb...-sa-and-fb-rx7

I appologize yeti, I didnt see that your link was for T3's new "evolved" AE86 coilovers. I was only familiar with their standard ones, that need you to send in your OE casings. I've gotten a lot of parts from them, including some custom links, and I bet they'd work with you on making "evolved" struts for your RX7. They seem to make everything to order (for FB's at least).

No problem. I was hoping you were correct, ha. I have emailed them after triple looking again for the "evolved" coilovers. I'll likely make a new post upon their response, if positive so I'm not longer stepping all over this one. Thank you.

I'll be interested in their response to that question as well. I noticed the same thing previously, and I'm hoping to do coilovers in under a year.

@M_D_H I emailed them on the 10th and have received no response. Perhaps you should try too. If we get enough asking maybe a group buy is in order.

I just got off the phone with T3. I don't know the fellow's name, but he's the only one who ever answers the phone (emails come back from ggtyler@technotoytuning.com). He said it's "possible", but it would depend on market interest. Said the Corolla AE86 "Evolved" coilovers aren't selling as fast as they expected, but he would mention it to the team.

It's be great to replace my 190k mile spindles and not weld them on to shiny new coilovers. I'd better call and show my interest

I'll call as well. The interesting thing is I'd think the only thing they'd need to develop is the spindle itself. So, I'd imagine it should be a low risk investment.

Techno Toy Tuning <info@technotoytuning.com>

to me
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1:51 PM (19 minutes ago)
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Hello,


Yes, we do intend to manufacture all new spindles from scratch for the small and the larger spindle SAFB's. I expect we'll have them done in the next couple of months.
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On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 9:31 AM <yeti> wrote:Good morning,

I was curious if there has been any consideration on developing an Evolved Strut for the Mazda RX-7 SA/FB like you have created for a few other cars with very similar strut setups. There has been some light discussion on the rx7club about this product. I hope this product is being developed as I have been looking for this for some time now. I am ready to buy now.

Thank you for your time,

That is good news from TechnoToy.

I consider them to have the best quality aftermarket parts for our chassis. Looks like they have a few things in development then.

They showed an Instagram post of a Wilwood brake kit for our chassis also.

As for true rear coilovers, I know that there are a couple of options out there (and good feedback, never saw a post on this forum where a guy punched his rear coils through the chassis!), I was always nervous considering the fact that our chassis was never designed to have an integrated spring/damper in the rear. Our factory strut mounts are designed to take damper loading only. I believe our rear spring perches are in a boxed/reinforced area next to the frame rail. Same could also apply to the factory axle damper mounting point, although it is on same bracket as the rear lower link...

Similar chassis to ours would be the AE86:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...66d610d8eb.jpg
From AE86 google..

Yeah, I'm a bit afraid of the rear as well. I'm afraid this post probably needs to be split to prevent confusion as it's sort of turned into talking about the front spindles despite the title. Probably my fault. I'm sorry mods.

No that was me. I derailed the thread early on, talking about the different company's front strut products. Sorry. Not really.

lol yall hatin bc of the price, hey me too! i bought full T3 front and rears that were lightly used for like $1700 for the pair, with the camber plates on the front and drop brackets in the rear. i have them on my car and LOVE them. good suspension costs money... idk what else to tell ya, sadly we dont have many options for our cars.

i also reinforced my rear strut inner towers with a bar i put between the towers and welded a curved piece of metal to the bar, drilled through the strut towers on either side and ran a bolt from the outside in, so i essentially have a rear upper strut bar.. and yes, it makes a hell of a difference

but yeah anyway, the t3 coilovers are good stuff. yes expensive, beggers cant be choosers. i like mine and the car is on rails. no wait, it's on more then rails, idk what's more then rails but that's where she's at. 235 R888's rear and like 205's up front, idr what tire

I'd like to weigh in with my experience. I'm halfway through installing the BC Racing kit on my '84. My thoughts so far: 1. The front struts are a better design than T3. They offer around 2-3 inches of travel adjustment that doesn't involve touching the preload of the spring. 2. They come with camper plates pre-installed, so you don't have to go through the whole "heat and cool" process T3 recommends. 3. The rears I think are also a better design than the T3's (I have not done the rear end yet). They're a spring and shock assembly just like the stock design, so you won't punch a whole through your shock tower. 4. All said and done, The BC's cost quite a bit less and appear to be comparable build quality to the T3's.

I can't say for certain, as I haven't seen any of the T3 stuff up close in person, but it seems like they aren't the most thought out design. Both brands offer custom spring rates, so no difference there.

At the end of the day, do you like BC's black and gold ano, or (checks T3's website because I don't remember what they look like) T3's black... and yellow/gold ano.

I'm glad to hear some opinions regarding the BC kit here. I originally thought I would go T3 when the time came but then I found BC's offerings - though there didn't seem to be many people talking about them on the forum. I'd be curious to see some photos, heebeegeebee, if you don't mind after you get them all installed.

Did they come with their own stub axles or was that a change-over on your existing struts.
Any feed back as to the performance and ride quality as yet?

I can’t say anything about the ride quality yet, as the car is still up in the air waiting for the minnesota snow and salt to go away.

I also am doing the SE swap, poly bushings, RB sway bars and wider 205 “sport” tires. So by the time it’s back on the road it should handle totally differently.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...c072746de.jpeg
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https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...e1b467595.jpeg

They do not come with the spindles, I had those welded up by my old boss, who makes and sells jeep parts. I don’t have a good photo of the rear stuff yet, but that the big spring and shock pictured in the box.

Cheers man. Yeah i noticed some time later they mention the spindles on their site. Looks good. I do prefer the idea of separate shock/spring on the rear.

I got my ACBRON coilovers installed mid last year aye:bigthumb:. Pretty pleased with them overall! Ride quality is pretty mint for a coilover. Even driving around rubbish UK roads hahaha. Not quite as visually pleasing compared with the BC kit (I painted the fronts myself). The fronts are the same design as the BC coilovers with the preload being separate to height adjustment - which is far better than the T3 setup. Rears are a coil over damper. Seen plenty of cars with this rear design and have been fine aye. I did have to slightly massage that sheet steel on the rears but that was no biggie at all. 10 seconds with the lump hammer :lol:. Got the car sitting probably a bit lower than average

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I seen the ACBRON coilovers like 2 years ago. A guy from AUS posted pictures on instagram of them installed. I like how they change the mounting point on the rear coilover. It eliminates having to use the lower bracket that has to be used with the T3 rear coilovers. I thought that was really interesting when I 1st saw them.

finally got a pic of mine with T3's... handles like it's on rails, yes pricey but that's why i bought used for like $1400 for everything... fronts and rears. drop bracket rears and roll centers and camber plates front. not a bad deal for everything used on a track car maybe 6 times




https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...0d2b262e44.jpg

Did you weld the front kit or no?

I'm running the BC Racing kit and I'm happy with the fitment and ride. After rolling my fenders I have no rubbing issues.

Yeah man!