rallydad

Hi All, Been a while since I've been on here as the 'rolla has been gathering dust as other priorities took over. Wondering if anyone can assist with the below. I have found a Lexus J160 6 speed box and intend to purchase SQ Engineering adaptor for 4age. Condition of box unknown, but I do know the clutch assembly including fork and slave cylinder is missing along with shift selector assembly. I understand the J160 box will place the shift lever farther back in the tunnel and there are solutions available to address that and I am willing to play around with adapting another slave cylinder and clutch fork if they are too expensive new. (Any help here?) My question, Is there another shifter that will fit that is readily available on another vehicle. (I can make light modifications if necessary) I am located NSW Mid North Coast so have very limited access to wreckers or people with knowledge on these things. Any help gratefully received and thanks in advance! Cheers

Ah yes that is true.. Think I'll stick with the BP for now.

It has AFM included in loom... Use with custom airbox and I can use standard ECU?

Hi all, Found a complete silvertop 20V 4AGE with loom, ECU and 5 speed RWD gearbox and bellhousing to suit. No clutch, crossmembers or dizzy relocation setup. Assuming it runs well, whats it worth? I have bigport 4age with T50 gearbox currently installed and running well in AE71 club car used on dirt. Is it worth the drama to upgrade? Cheers

Gday AJC, Have you checked shaft wear/play in the dizzy? I have no experience with a dick smith kit but have used electronic 5k van replacement dizzy and found it a huge improvement on my old flogged out 4k points type setup. There was nothing inherently wrong with the old points type design but it was just too damn old and the shaft bearings were shot. The advance springs were worn out too. Shaft play put my timing all over the place. New bearings were impossible to find and without a lathe and a friendly machinist it was way cheaper and easier to replace with 5k electronic. (from memory 7k also fits)

Talk nicely to the other guys/racers in the pits you'll probably find someone who can help out. Best of luck hope you get it sorted.

I had a similar issue about a hundred years ago with a rally car that I installed sidedraft dellorto carbs on. The engine had a waaaaaay lumpy cam and sounded rough at idle and up to about 4,000 rpm and was really grumpy above that. I assumed it was the cam. It never ran right consistently but from time to time would clear its lungs and absolutely haul right up to 9,000 rpm Now I changed EVERYTHING electrical, stripped down the carbs, checked fuel pressure and flow, took the bonnet off and went for a night drive looking for sparks, you name it I looked for everything. I just couldn't solve the problem. Anyway I sold it for a bargain price when I finally had enough and the guy who bought it called me up and said "hey I found your problem, the throttle linkage was only pulling one of the 2 sidedraft carbs open" How stupid did I feel? Very. Turns out the car was set up just right except for my simple linkage stuff up. (No he wouldn't sell it back to me!) When I was experiencing the car revving cleanly all the way to 9,000 rpm it was the vacuum reaching such a high level that it opened the butterflies on the carb that wasn't connected properly. This probably isn't your issue but I had looked at my linkage a thousand times and never noticed and of course as I had made it I assumed it was right. Have you had a second pair of eyes go over your setup? Couldn't hurt. Never assume anything. Hope this helps.

Thaks Rob, please spread the word we welcome out of town competitors. You missed a cracker day mate By running wide on exit without bars I mean oversteer. So, with front and rear bars, it was point and power and hitting the apex with nice oversteer though having to constantly adjust with the wheel to keep the front end pointing where I wanted it. Looking at rally footage of RWD cars, this seems to be about right? Or is this because i'm a pleb? I found after taking the bars off meant the front end was more obedient, however the rear then stepped out a lot more and the whole car ran wider on exit as it required a lot more lock to correct and in fact I hit the lock stops a couple of times and had to back off the power to catch the rear. Now while this is great for spectators and heaps of fun when you have lots of runoff it's not exactly safe given some venues we use have tree stumps, fences etc. I would think rally tyres will help with this (more grip) but once again this event stipulated road tyres only. Sidenote: The steering has no "self centering" effect, bars on or off is this a result of winding in more castor/camber or are AE's lacking this anyway?

OK, so the Lap dash yesterday was not only a heap of fun but also very surprising with the result. 1st run with sway bars on resulted in the quickest time. So I said to myself: self, you should have a crack at this today. So I did. 6 runs in total the first three sway bars on. Although the car was quick, it felt as though it was fighting me to stay on the racing line, so I tried sway bars off for the last three runs. It felt more controllable through the corners, however it developed a tendency to run wide on the exit of the corners but with plenty of runoff it wasn't a problem other than I may have cost myself a little time, even though the lap times were steadily decreasing. The track was very greasy in the morning and dried out over the course of the day, so in hindsight I probably should have taken the sway bars off first up to encourage a little more weight transfer and put them back on for the harder, grippier conditions in the afternoon. No matter, I entered the day with a view to experiment with suspension and a 3rd overall out of 31 entries I am more than happy with. I certainly wouldn't run without at least the front bar in the bush at this stage with it running wide although rally tyres would probably help this. More experimentation to go on here. Maybe it's my driving style or i just need more time in the car. Next event is a couple of months away. Another grass khanacross. I'll try bars on and off for that and see what happens. :2thumbs:

:paperbag: Umm, sorry to disappoint Rob. Yeah we've had some drama's not least of all the amount of events washed out or cancelled by rain and a broken website but all good now. The website is the best place to get info. Supp regs are here at www.coffscarclub.com.au and contact details for the relevant people also. We don't have a home track unfortunately (although we are working on that) so events move around depending on who has been kind enough to loan/rent us a venue This Sunday's event is not a rallysprint (i wish!!) but a dirt lap dash. Course is approx 1klm with a sort of kidney shape layout and surface is dirt/gravel. Held on the Coffs motorcycle club flat track. A good shakedown for the new setup I reckon. Come down if you want it's a good fun day with good spectator viewing and facilities. =) Just bring some WARM clothes... Please PM me if you need more info i'd like to keep this thread on track if that's ok. Yep, that's what I reckon too! Corolla + 4AG + locker = FUN!!!! :thumbsup:

OK, camber plates in. A bit of fecking around to make them fit, and more work to do before i'm happy with them but for now they'll do. Welded the bog warmer also. What a difference! The car is much more responsive in the front and with the locked diff it's much more flickable and predictable. Low speed understeer seems to be fixed - although I was on bitumen for my "test session". Yet to see how she goes on gravel. Also now does awesome doughnuts... turns on the front inside wheel and whizzes around at amazing speed... I'm sure this will come in handy in motorkhana at some stage My only gripe is I have lost steering feel from neutral position to about 1/4 turn in each direction where it then gets quite heavy. I suspect i've dialed in a little too much camber and will back it off a bit. Dirt lap dash this Sunday at Coffs Harbour, will have a play with settings and try the sway bars on and off.

Sounds good unfortunately no rallies for me this year unless I can "scratch me happy". Plan on a couple of S1 rallysprints (no cage req) this year at Nabiac to see how the old girl goes. Cage next year if I can persuade a certain mate to help and then possibly a club rally. All depends on budget and time but plenty of khana in between. Camber plates should arrive today... Fitting and testing with cig locker Saturday :2thumbs:

Worth some thought. A much better option to secure the damper would be to weld a threaded collar to the outside top of the strut tower (a bit of your coilover tube would do), and make a threaded cap with female thread and hole/shaft seal drilled/fitted. If you're desperate i'm sure there would be some galvanised water pipe and fittings laying around the woolshed... :jason:

Ride height is high enough at the moment... Would I not be better off shortening the strut leg and fitting a shorter body insert with a long enough shaft to give me full damping on the downstroke if I was to go this way? Rob, i'm working with what I have at the moment including the shiny new king springs that I had made after researching rally forums. The XT130 struts that I have to go in will probably end up as coilover if I can't make this setup work. I have ordered some camber plates should be in my hands next week. Mate's workshop time booked next weekend to fit these and weld the diff. While its on the lift, i'll play with the front end geometry and see how we go. Not in it for sheep stations, so I can afford to take my time and play around between events. I enjoy the tinkering tyo be honest.

If I weld the spring perch as per above, this will increase ride height?

OK so I had the grinder poised and ready to start hacking up the LCA's and had second thoughts. The XT130 LCA's add 20mm track each side so do I really need more? Why not try the little things first before making wholesale changes to suspension. So, I put the front end back in and would up the castor by 6 turns of the adjustment nut (as far as it would go) and wound the toe out a smidge. set the road tyres to 28 all round and went for a blat. (note the wheel alignment machine at this stage is my eye and tape measure) Now while it was a short blat and on a sealed road, albeit with a little loose gravel and wet it did seem to improve the low speed turn in. Higher speeds still just require a flick of the wheel or a bit of a "skando" to get the car to break loose in the rear. Although with the neighbours giving me not so pleasant looks after my second strafing run I had to cut my session short. The LCA bushes are now under load however a little fettling with the LCA's later will eliminate this allowing me to run standard bushes or nolathane without going to rose joints. Next step is to have a look at the strut tops to see if they can be modified or remanufactured to further increase castor and more importantly to add negative camber. I have looked at a few aftermarket adjustable strut tops on line and they look a little flimsy (alloy and very small locking bolts) unless someone can point me in the direction of a cost effective set. I'll keep experimenting and let you know. Cheers

Thanks all, and just to clarify, going from rally to road tyres may sound odd but it is decided by the organiser for each event. We don't have a choice of which tyre we are allowed to use it more depends on the location and surface we are running on. Lots of deep ruts and divots don't tend to impress land owners but rally tyres are ok on forest roads so I guess it is a case of trying to find a happy medium or just tip mega dollars into all the trick adjustable/unobtanium suspension bits... Tarmac setup is not an issue here as I don't compete on it. I'll have a play this weekend and report back. Cheers

Noted Snot, I had rally tyres on for the rallysprint and the understeer was a lot less of a problem. this would make sense as the grip levels were a lot higher. Raising front, lower rear also increases castor slightly? Cheers

Sorry should have been more specific, the car has monroe GT gas shocks all round currently (no budget for bil$teins or similar at the moment) XT130 struts are not yet fitted to the car it has strengthened AE struts, I was only looking for opiniions on the wet legs. I was put onto using them by a rally suspension bloke in Melbourne who plays with AE's and KE's and makes them very competitive. He said they can be made to work quite well but he wouldn't give me specific details on mods only I could freight them and have them sorted for a not so small fee. Fair enough he is a business but I just can't afford. If i'm adding length to the LCA's perhaps I should angle the bush housing so the arm is more towards the front of the car to compensate for extra castor? Not a fan of rose joints, have seen plenty break on rough courses an they have no "give" like bushes do. The diff is currently open soon to be welded and i do have experience with locked diffs and think that that once locked will only exacerbate the understeer. I'm just struggling to understand how my old ke30 with stiff front, crap shocks, a little -ve camber and locked diff would have flogged my current car on the same tyres and tyre pressures. Maybe the leaf rear end had a heap more "give" which took the pressure off the front end. Just to add i'm not looking to win events outright, just trying to dial in a little more balance and safety. Cheers.

Hello all. Just a couple of questions. Currently fiddling with AE71/4AGE/T50 combo. The conversion is done, and running well. Car is club car never to be registered and runs on dirt. My problem is understeer. I have changed front springs to 175lb as per rally forums and chatting to well known suspension mob in Melbourne and rears have one coil removed (for now with king springs on order) Car has slightly raised front ride height for that "nose up" rally attitude and with one coil removed slightly lowered rear (still noticeably softer than front). Shocks are in working order and I have standard front and rear sway bars. I have run as sweep for local rally sprint on rally tyres and had a small understeer problem (heading straight for a rather large drop woke me right up!)and competed last weekend in wet and slippery grass khanakross on road tyres and it plowed more dirt than a Massey Ferguson tractor in low speed slippery hairpins. Tyre pressure at khanacross was 32 front and 26 rear. I was advised by a couple of rally guys that I should increase my front track and add some camber to make up for the loss in negative camber due to the raise in ride height. So my first question is should I lengthen by cut and shut the XT130 LCA's (if so by how much) or spend yet more hard earned on adjustable items? To my mind adjustable items would be only beneficial if I had adjustable coilovers, camber plates etc and changed my ride height/setup for different events...? Next question: I have some XT130 struts that have the original "wet leg" factory inserts. These have 22mm shafts and are very strong. Has anyone used these for off road and if so any mods to the inserts required and/or what oil and how much did you use? Oh, and 3rd question: If I fit the XT130 struts is the axle at the same angle as the AE71 struts or will these yet again affect camber? I can weld and have good mechanical ability so can modify struts and bits as required. Any ideas? Sorry for no line breaks in this post, for some reason my "enter" button is not working. Cheers.

That motor was sold in the last ke30 I had. Not sure what you mean by 4k board.

If 5k is too hard, I got good results from a 4k with 32/36 downdrafft weber (off a wrecked alfa) mounted on adapter plate to standard manifold and extractors/exhaust. The head was planed to bump compression and I fitted an electronic dizzy out of a hiace. Cost around $600 including exhaust done at mate's rates. It did rev well but at the end of the day it was still a 4k. Any more mods than that you're better off with a 5k as they are a bit more torquey. Now have 4age and wouldn't go back to k series. (sorry k series fans)

Well she ran hard and crisp at the khanacross. A puff of smoke at high revs disappeared after a couple of runs, my guess is maybe a stuck ring. (the motor has been sitting for some time) other than that very happy with it. Heat buildup no longer an issue Ended up with a rubbish result as the course was very soft and slippery. Rules only allowed for road tyres and with an open diff (soon to be rectified!) it made things quite challenging but I had a ball anyway and threw plenty of mud around!. :lol: Now on to the diff....

Nah, I reckon the she'll be OK the heat comes from within. Interesting that these continue to function to some degree when worn out. I always thought electronics just stopped. I might fit a heat sink to the ignitor body just for the hell of it.

Problem solved. Fitted ST162 celica ignitor and heat shield to #1 extractor tube. Here is the original 4AGE ignitor. Note the green round plug removed and a couple of wires chopped. (I was messing around) Here is the very similar ST162 ignitor installed with a small modification. I tested resistance across the terminals of both ignitors and they were within a bees dick. The wires are the same colour coding but the beige wire from ignitor now runs direct to +ve coil (instead of to different green plug for celica loom) and a bridging wire (brown) from coil +ve to green plug. I have also added an earth to ignitor body (black wires) Here is the heat shield. The brown stain is the small leak from dizzy. I'll fix that soon. Here is the now completed engine bay for those who are bothered. and the car. She now pulls like a train! :thumbsup: First khanacross next weekend... I hope this helps someone else out there. :yes: