Just wondering if anyone has converted the leaf rear end on a ke70 wagon or panel van to springs?

 

If anyones thought about doing it?

 

And if it would just be a massive headache and not worth the time/money/effort.

 

Assuming you have a whole sedan rear end to go in.

pretty certain it has been done, there is a guy with a ke70 panno from melbourne I think that drifts and he has done it, I remember seeing his

car for sale for a ridiculously low price but no one would buy it. Not sure of the difficulty of it though, I would imagine it would be a bit of work.

 

Oh and on the front page of rolla club "Ice drifting from norway" that fella has got in his thread "changing from rear leaf springs to 4link with panhard rod and coilovers on an AE86 T series axle"

 

he might know some things

Edited April 7, 201016 yr by the_van_can

David (the norwegian the_van_man is referring to) is pretty damn crafty with a welder if you have a look at his other car.

Yes it can be done but it would be a hell of a lot of work.

I think you'd be better off getting a whole doner ke70 sedan, cut the rear floor out of both, and then weld the sedan floor into the wagon. That way the geometry for everything is correct. However you'd also want to bear in mind things like the fuel tank location in both vehicles.

 

Yes coils are better than leaves, but there's still not really anything wrong with leaves if they're set up well for the application. Just think of some successful race cars of a by-gone era like and RX3 which ran leaves. Hell, ZR1 Corvettes can do sub 8 minutes laps of "the 'Ring" and they still run leaves. :thumbsup:

 

Personally I think for the money and effort required you would just be better off setting up the leaves well...... or buy a new coil sprung car.

...

Edited October 16, 201016 yr by wde_bdy

They also run more load in wagons, with greater rearward overhang, so you want the extra capacity.

 

Set up your leaves properly with panhards and some caltracs or similar and you should see good improvements

 

Taz, the Corvette runs transverse leave doesn't it? I'm pretty sure they're using composite leaves as well.

Actually I think I might be thinking of the ZO6 not the new ZR1 sorry. I was only really trying to make the point that yes coils are better, but there is nothing wrong with leaves if set up correctly.

leaf springs are very underrated imo. the trick is to let them control springing only, not diff locating.

 

probably not worth converting the whole rear end to coil spring, but use bits of one, for making control arm points on the body, and panhard rod locator on the body.

 

you could use a sedan diff, but cut off the coil mounts and weld on the leaf pad mounts, then use the sedan control arms and panhard rod. that way you have the best of both worlds.. a better located rear end, and adjustable spring rates (by adding/removing leafs)