How To: S13 Coilovers

[I_heart_VVL]

You CAN run an S13 knuckle on an S12 Balljoint but it's not recommended, Darryn on S12Silvia did that in his SR20 live axle drift car. That car was also on cut knuckles IIRC on a stock manual rack and had a ton of angle.

For the tie rods: As long as they haven't messed with the taper on the tie rod pick up any S13 tie rod will work, even the A1s.

I have no clue about the brakes.

[nismo_200sx]

You CAN run an S13 knuckle on an S12 Balljoint but it's not recommended, Darryn on S12Silvia did that in his SR20 live axle drift car. That car was also on cut knuckles IIRC on a stock manual rack and had a ton of angle.

why do you not recommend doing that?

[Arro]

Yes you can use S12 stock control arms, and in fact I would recommend it if you want more reasonable camber.

[I_heart_VVL]

why do you not recommend doing that?

Because balljoint tapers are different, Id want as much contact between the knuckle and balljoint for fear of it snapping one day driving down the highway at 70mph.

[nismo_200sx]

my car will never see the street and it's been running for 2 years lol

[punkguitarz66]

Is it just me, or did you forget to update this write up with the how to on the Rears?
car already came with the megan set up in the front but I've been trying to figure out wth they did with the rear and how I can fix it.

[I_heart_VVL]

You just gotta look at it, and figure out some sort of sleeve to get the stock bolt to fit.

Here's what I did for a friend:

pressed out the stock bushing on the coilover, found some random poly bushings at work, went down the street to the machine shop and he machined a spacer for the bushing to fit into the coilover, and one for the stock shock bolt to fit in. Overkill? Maybe, but for a total cost of $0 nobody is complaining.

[se7en]

Wow, there is a ton of useful and useless info in this thread!

I'm going to do this, but I'm not exactly sure what I need. I have full access to an s13 for parts.

I *think* that I need:

s13 hub and spindle and brakes
s13 inner and outer tie rods
s12 LCA with s13 ball joint???
s12 sway bar???
s13 tension rods and s14 tension rod brackets??

Am I right?

[spiderwebfx]

Wow, there is a ton of useful and useless info in this thread!

I'm going to do this, but I'm not exactly sure what I need. I have full access to an s13 for parts.

I *think* that I need:

s13 hub and spindle and brakes
s13 inner and outer tie rods
s12 LCA with s13 ball joint???
s12 sway bar???
s13 tension rods and s14 tension rod brackets??

Am I right?

As long as you haven't forgotton the coilovers, yup.

[Basic]

Wow, there is a ton of useful and useless info in this thread!

I'm going to do this, but I'm not exactly sure what I need. I have full access to an s13 for parts.

I *think* that I need:

s13 hub and spindle and brakes
s13 inner and outer tie rods
s12 LCA with s13 ball joint???
s12 sway bar???
s13 tension rods and s14 tension rod brackets??

Am I right?

not quite - if you are running the s12 lower control arm w/ s13 balljoints - you need the following:

S13 hub, spindle, brakes
s13 inner tie rods
95 ford escort outer tie rods
s12 LCA + s13 ball joint (FYI - you can use the S13 inner inner LCA bushing on the s12)
coilovers (or strut + DIY coilovers/ground control setup) + top hats.

I just did this this past weekend.  You use the stock tension rod and stock sway bar.

If you want to convert to the s13 LCA (about 10mm longer -> more neg. camber up front) you will need the s13 tension rods + s14 tension rod brackets.

Post Merge

Is it just me, or did you forget to update this write up with the how to on the Rears?
car already came with the megan set up in the front but I've been trying to figure out wth they did with the rear and how I can fix it.

for the rears what I did was get some spring seats (part number SS-85500-A - remember to get the short ones) and some 5x8" springs in whatever rate you want. I am running 375 on the rear at the moment, but can't attest to the ride as I have to get the rear subframe bushings fixed first (got the material today to machine some MMR replica bushings). I'll update when I get a chance to test drive it.