Suspension travel

Quote
Pete
Well, they are adjustables, and I knew they wouldn't be "ideal" but, well, the parts were there and the welder was there and even if you fall on your face you have still moved forward... (It was $60 for a pair of Koni Yellows for a '02-03 WRX. Bought them for a quick flip, turns out nobody wants Konis because you have to *GASP* cut the tops of the strut housings off!)

They work fine except they have a tiny bit too much initial damping, they're a bit stiff over light bumps. Certainly a hell of a lot better than the worn out KYBs I had before. Stock WRX/STI rear spring rates are higher than the 175lb-in i am running (225, I think?) so I didn't think that'd be an issue.

Ok works fine. But I do not think the stock subie springs are that high. I Supply 225 rear for my stuff and thats an up-rating.. Everything Subie guys say is suspect--for that matter everything most people say about things is usually hearsay......

Personally I avoid Konis because all the way back to mid-60s to early 90s everything they make for bike or cars seem to have way excessive high shaft speed compression damping---to the point that on square edge bumps they seem to hydraulically lock.. I believe they have this problem because a) there hasn't been a bump in all of Holland since 1961 and b) they know 90% of people they sell shocks to aren't changing springs, and that way sudden stiffness means the cars "feel flat" if somebody does sudden jerky wheel movements...that's the "sporty" feel, and makes conesquishers and 'lane changers" feel all Mario Andretti-ish..
Amazingly consistent harshness from the old "D" Specials to yellow monotube stuff....so must be an in-house deal..

But what the hell do I know?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

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No, that sounds about right. The solution is to just drive faster.

You should have seen some of the suspension setups that people had at Nationals. Some cars I don't think the suspension moved more than an inch all weekend.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Epilogue: Started actually driving the car after my friend dragegd it home for me and I parked it. Hoo-boy, something's effed up in the front end. R/F upright is tweaked so hard that the tire is crammed into the strut.

So, I think maybe it is time for something a little more beefy. I have spare uprights but I also have had a crazy idea for a while that involves hackifying an old W-body GM front strut housing to meet my own mad ends...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Back in '04, '05 we used Tokiko Illumina struts for a Camaro as cheap, build your own adjustable rally struts, to fit my friends Corolla and Golf rally cars. Not the greatest, but for the money, it worked great.

-Jon

...I no longer haz it.



I've found that it handles a lot better if it can lift the inside front, so I've gone on a campaign of both stiffening the suspension again and relocating the roll center. The subframe in the car has the control arm pickup points altered as high as they can go without fabrication. I acquired another subframe to go further.

Also, finally have a quickener. Holyshit this is awesome. Somehow 2:1 on a 3 turns lock to lock system makes for 1.3 turns lock to lock. No assist. It's like driving a brake pedal, you steer with pressure.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

im impressed the car itself is still in one piece

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Quote
Gravity Fed
im impressed the car itself is still in one piece

It's... showing its age.

Right now the main problem I am having is I keep grenading rearends. Where do you go to if you are wrecking 9 inch Fords?

---

Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2019 08:12AM by Pete.

Quote
Pete

Quote
Gravity Fed
im impressed the car itself is still in one piece

It's... showing its age.

Right now the main problem I am having is I keep grenading rearends. Where do you go to if you are wrecking 9 inch Fords?

Wait a second. You’re blowing up 9 inch Ford rear ends? And doing that with a rotary?

What part is failing?

..

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Pete, how many other people are blowing diffs?

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Quote
RALLYRS

Quote
Pete

Quote
Gravity Fed
im impressed the car itself is still in one piece

It's... showing its age.

Right now the main problem I am having is I keep grenading rearends. Where do you go to if you are wrecking 9 inch Fords?

Wait a second. You’re blowing up 9 inch Ford rear ends? And doing that with a rotary?

What part is failing?

..

I can't seem to get the bearings to last very long at all. Throws mesh out the window and then it eats the gears.





At least it isn't physically breaking things like the Mazda 7" axles and housings.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Quote
Gravity Fed
Pete, how many other people are blowing diffs?

Just me as far as I know. On the other hand, even with the new weakass engine I'm still probably the local horsepower king. (In RWD anyway. Then guy running an S52-swapped E36 totalled his chassis at SOFR last month, and in FWD we have a Neon that did 230hp/300ft-lb at the wheels, and a few 400ish horse AWD cars too) And I'm kinda tuned to understeer and throttle jockey through the corners, a luxury you can have if you aren't relying on forced induction.

All the same, I am thinking I might suck up the weight disadvantage and go with an iron diff housing. It should be more stable, but weigh 30lb more. And it would require a different diff since my current diff requires a 3.25" carrier bearing.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2019 04:04PM by Pete.

Assuming it’s put together properly with the good parts, I got to think it has something to do with that aluminum housing.

I mean everybody and their mother puts 9” Fords in everything from hot rods to muscle cars to desert racers etc. and it’s known for its reliability.

I’ve personally never known anybody who had an issue with a 9 inch Ford rear end.

My personal experience with one was excellent as well.

I had an old school pre-runner 2wd F 100 short bed with a healthy 429 in it.
I built the C6 autotragic behind it myself and the thing banged gears quite well for slushbox.

Don’t know why the truck came with the a Dana 44 Instead of a Ford 9 inch but it did.

I got to give that Dana 44 credit as it handled a lot of abuse over several years.

Had a Spicer power lock diff in too.

Which is a pretty amazing limited slip.
Four spiders instead of two.
2 pinion shafts instead of 1.

And they cam the clutches into locking under power So you’re not relying on someone wimpey spring.

Even worn out the thing was always an instant spool under power.

But I digress...

Anyway- one day I jumped on it and the drive pinion on the Dana 44 said bye-bye!

But it still got me home...although a little noisily.

$300 boneyard drum to drum 9 inch and a $69 mini spool to the rescue.

Years of abuse after that till I sold the truck- never an issue with that axle at all.

I would try the iron center section and doublecheck everything.

---

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Hooray for solid axles. Let's see an IRS articulate like that.

Fucked up the rearend again. It has a Trac-Lok in it now ever since the Detroit Locker got broken enough that it would start to disengage under power. But now the bearings are fragged again and the thing is howling and spitting fluid out the pinion seal. I am thinking that for now I'll just slam some 100W350 gear paste into the thing and hit send. This is the last year for the car because the modded floor will no longer be legal to compete with without a roll cage, and I ain't caging this car and expecting to be able to fit inside.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2022 09:44PM by Pete.

Its funny, in my rx7, i found doing the after market bushings really helped the articulation of the rear axle, as that has been argued against so many times over. It's the center bushing being allow to rotate that gives you that little bit extra over the stock bushings. which turn into torsional springs if they are tighten down good.

what diff are you running in your car? I've moved to a yukon locker and ran an event with it, absolutely love it and will never go back to a normal LSD.

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"Rally racing makes a heroin addiction look like a vague craving for something salty"

I have a 3 link. Far better than the stock 4 link. Funny story: I have another one of these cars now, with motorsports provenance, and I was speaking with the former owner about suspension stuff and he offered that he drilled out the rear upper links to allow them to squoosh more so the axle can move, and I laughed because I had been planning on doing that!

A real eye opener is to remove the springs, unbolt one upper link, articulate the suspension with the middle held at approximate ride height, and see how much discrepancy there is between the end of the link and the hole in the axle bracket. It'll want to be an inch shorter or longer depending on which way you have moved the axle. That is why these cars had a tendency to tear the mounts off of the body, or twist the axle housings.

Diff is something I got from Speedway in Iowa. $300 or so for a 31 spline clutch pack diff. Had to cut my axles a little to make it work, and get adaptor bearings for the 3.25" pumpkin. Shoulda done it from the beginning, but I'm also the guy who has to piss on the electric fence and the Locker LOOKED like it'd be a good idea, until reality set in. It's all beat up inside...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2022 07:15PM by Pete.