abeomid

Just wondering how many people would do FC suspension swap knowing that quite a bit of time has to go into doing it. I am thinking about making a write up for it, so it helps to know if anybody would be interested in it.

Chemical

Sure omid, as long as its not incredibly difficult..

I found out I have GSL suspension on my -SE, and i'm looking to ditch it right away
Now this has me thinkin

82transam

iTrader: (18)

Not sure if I would do the swap, but a writeup would definatly help make up my mind.

FB II

yes, do it! i have access to so many fc's. this would be great!

kuhlrx7

I have been doing a lot of research on the mx5 rear supn swap. I am very interested in knowing about the fc swap is it just the front or both f & r ?. and by the way what ever happened to those pics of the non pop up lights you did?

1984special

I think he is just talking about the FC front suspension. IIRC it's the bottom subframe?

abeomid, I would surely be interested!

Makenzie71

I have 3 FC's in my back yard rotting...I'd love to put some of their pieces to use...

79+80+84_rx-7

please do... ive been very interested in it since i have seen pics that you did... you would make my life easier by me knowing what i need to do before going into it....

Thanks, Laterz, Andrew

abeomid

Yeah the lights, the fiberglass shop I do my stuff at is really busy, so we haven't had a chance to make the lights from the molds, but the molds are ready. I am going down there today, maybe get something done. I'll let you know.

abeomid

Ok then I'm gonna start writing it up. Give me a week or so as I am pretty busy. I will add pictures as well. It will probably be a PDF file.

Cheers

jayroc

I don't know too much about this, but... Since there are kits available for the rack conversion, and since I've heard about "reliability/you need a good shop issuses" from different people who have done a subframe swap, would it be easier to just swap the strut stuff and related brakeparts along with a rack conversion? That is, instead of a full subframe swap. ??
I'm curious to read anything you'd write this kind of swap, so don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to second guess it or anything. Just wondering what would be the best way to go about getting the same thing done.
In my case, it's the less fabrication the better.

abeomid

Well technically most of the "fabrication" is measuring the thing properly. As far as I know nobody has done this before. As for the rackandpinion kit, well that's what it is. No brakes, no suspension..

The FC has a superior design since it uses aluminum control arms which are mounted at two points instead of one. On top of that you have the choice of a bolt on brake upgrade to 4piston brakes. Plus the FC suspension and a wide variety of aftermarket suspension available for FC's.

Makenzie71

Would it have been possible to rig up some sort of mounting aparatis for the rack alone? And have it link up with the stock suspension and such?

abeomid

No it won't be. It is pretty much impossible to do so and keep the suspension and steering geometry. That's why the best and safest way is to swap the full subframe.

Makenzie71

ok...just curious. How do other RP swaps work, then? Most of them don't include whole subframes...hell most of the kits are simply slightly modified Rabbit racks..

fatboy7

FB's are rear steer, ie the steering rod is behind the control arm, so are rabbits. Naturally this makes using a rabbit steering rack an easy solution.

FC's steering on the other hand is front steer. If you were to put an FC rack in the stock FB location the car would turn opposite the steering wheel. You could try to place in in front on the stock subframe, but then you have the issue of attaching it to the wheel assembly. You'd have make custom wheel assemblies, or modify ones from the FC to attach to the FB control arms (not likely to work).

My biggest conscern with the FC subframe is height. It looks like it would raise the front end up quite a bit. Then to lower it you'd end up messing up the geometry, so it could defeat the purpose. Of course its hard to say just eyeballing it...

Makenzie71

^thnx for pointing that out to me.

He's said in another thread that the FC suspension is about an inch higher...I think...

abeomid

it is higher around 0.5-1in, but when the car is lowered, the control arms become parallel to ground and there is no issues with suspension geometry.

boosted12a

thats awesome! i found another "winterproject"

jayroc

There's basically two reasons that scared me away from attempting something like this.
The first one being before I heard about you doing this, I heard about a guy (Chris Foley, I think) putting in a CRX R&P into a SE, but he never really felt "safe" about it, and when he sold it, he converted it back to the stock setup. And this was just on the rack. Later on, I saw your post about doing a full subframe conversion and asked you about it directly. Basically, from what I can remember, you said that you didn't want to give details on how to do it becuase you didn't feel safe to. (at least, not to me, anyways.)
Again, I'm not dissin your project by any means. Basically, I've heard from at least 2 sources about "safeness" factors, and I'm just trying to alleviate some concerns I have...

abeomid

I do not recall telling anybody it is not safe. THe only reason I wouldn't give it to anyone is that it would be need proper measurements. THere is not safety concerns here and I think it is actually safer than the first gen setup, especially since you dont have a steering column bolted up to a box than can have a front end damage and brake off.
But yeah of course this cannot be done on a backyard on ground unless you are really comfortable doing it. It's up to you, when the write up is ready you can read and decide if you can do it.

Turbo 82 RX7

I'm about to start this conversion this week, Thank you so much for the write up, it has given me the encouragement to make sure it get it finished.
Glen

dino1stgen

Where can I find the writeup?

D3rELiC

hell, i wanna read it too!

Slammed_GSL

iTrader: (14)

Resurrection time, I need the PDF write up that ABEOMID put together for the FC Suspension swap. The site he had it on is gone.
Does anybody have it? If so can you email it to me?
Thanks!