jayroc

Does the 12a fit okay above the rack? It looks a bit tall.
Is there not a place to mount the tension bars back onto the new subframe? Seems like that would decrease frame rigidity quite a bit to lose those.
abeomid, what has been your experience with it so far?

TOUGHGUY

Did you mean FB or are you in the wrong forum?

Toughguy

hornbm

He ment FC, probably so he can have rack and pinion steering. I'm telling you right now, your in WAY over your head. There is only one guy (that I know of) that has successfully pulled this off, and he happens to be on the forum.

The reason why I think your in over your head, is you obviously dont know how the FC subframe works to begin with. Not to bash ya or anything. Basically they changed the mounting to cradle right into the intermediate housing. Basically, you can put a second gen engine in a first gen subframe, but not visa versa. You need to understand the basics before you go and try something as complicated as this.

Now however, since I know you want rack and pinion steering, CP racing makes a kit, the only kit out there, which is a Rack and Pinion conversion for the first gen. Thats what you really want.

Rotofire

hornbm<---->you said you can put a second gen engine in a first gen? i found a second gen parts car that was going to be a project until the guy lost interest. He fortunatly put in a TII drivline (engine, tranny) before losing interest, could i put that TII driveline out of an 87 se and into my 85 GSl? sorry if i'm thread jacking

hornbm

Haha allright I'll some it up. TECHNICALLY you can put the subframe in. However it requires a shitload of fab work, time and money for little to no gain. The only reason why people wanted to do that befopre was to get rack and pinion steering. Now that we have the joliver kit, theres not really a point of putting the subframe in a FB.

The thing is the FC wqas based on a new platform making things damn near impossible to swap over. The only reason why we can put their engines in is because the front covers are interchangeable.

jayroc

Well, the question was more or less aimed at him (abeomid/bcrx7) since he posted the instructions the other day, but I thought the forum would benefit from the knowledge, so I didn't PM.
The other advantages I wanted to get was low cost of a FC subframe, better brakes, more common wheel lug pattern, better strut selection, etc...I would love to buy CPs kit, but I want the better brakes and wheels, too. If I can do it all at once for a lot less, then I want to try.
No, I don't know enough about the FC subframe as I do not have a FC or pictures of the subframe. Thus, questions. I can MAKE it work. I'm just trying to collect some info from people with experience before I go off and dedicate some resources.
I'm really not even going to be doing anything with it until March, anyway, but like I said, information is good.

rotarydankus again

go for it jayroc, if you dont try you cant succeed , my dad always told my try was a failure word, unexceptable
that was rite before he said dont take a lazy mans load[that meant all in 1 trip} are you going to take that trash out or build sidebords?yadayadayada

seanrot

iTrader: (2)

jayroc- I dont think hornbm has read the swap tutorial. so dont mind him too much, no offence. I just looked over the tutorial again and I dont really see a place for the Tension rods on the lower A arm of the fc suspension. on top of that the tesion rods were to keep the streering geometry not so much for frame rigidy.

The design of the sa/fb suspension requires the tension rod due to the single mounting point of the lower arm. The FC sus has an A arm design with two mounting points hence the absence of the tension rods on the fc.
If you would find a way to mount the to the lower arms in the fc swap. It would probably just end up in binding.

rotary emotions

I have been thinking about the same problems, so I am more then intrested in finding out what's possible here.
I did read the tutorial posted on the forum a few days/weeks ago, but still have some questions.
Right now, I have all the FC parts, less the actual body, aswell as my Mariah and a 1984 FB rolling shell. I'd like to find out what is possible by using the FC parts and the '84 car, so that I can do the transfer to my Mariah without risk.
I cannot use a R&P kit since shipping would be way to expensive, so I need to work out a solution myself. Therefor, the FC subframe conversion seems a good idea. Several problems come to my mind though: where does the engine sit? I'd be using an FC engine (TII?) but want to keep my FB gearboxes, as I have easy access to replacements. So the engine must not sit further back then stock SA/FB position. Wether I use the 12A front mount style or FC under the engine mounts doesn't really matter to me, so I supposse the FC styl would simplify things, but only if the engine mounts in the same position as original. Moving the engine back would mean a custom driveshaft (shorter) and then a TII box would be obviously a logic step. But having a custom shaft made in Belgium seems impossible, so this I want to avoid.
Another question is: right now I have a custom brake installation using FD components, but 79-83 bolt patterns. Since I don't want to loose the brakes, nor my current PLS three piece wheels, I'd like to know if there's a way of fitting the spindles of the FB onto the hubs of the FC.
And if so, what would that do to track?

hornbm

There was a swap tutorial?!?! MAN I am outta it. My bad guys.