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The original MA61 Supra strut with Kings low springs (left) next to the assembled JZX81 Chaser strut (right). |
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The MA61 steering arm (above) next to the JZX81 steering arm (below). Note the strut bolt spacing is different, hence the need to use JZX81 steering arms. Also note the JZX81 arm is shorter between pivot points, which will result in faster steering. |
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Here the strut has been bolted up to the shock tower. The strut top bolts have the same PCD as the Supra strut tops so it's a direct fit. |
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Here the steering arm has been bolted to the lower ball joint. The JZX81 lower ball joint has the same diameter and taper so again this is a direct fit. |
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Ready to attach the tie rods. You can't tell from this photo but the MA61 tie rod ends are not quite compatible with the JZX81 steering arms - the taper is ever so slightly different. A solution is to use readily-available MX83 Cressida tie rod ends, but this creates other problems. More on that later. |
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The essential component to make all this work - the locator ring. |
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With the locator ring installed, the brake rotor slips on easily and is held firmly in place. |
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A view of the strut top. Note it is at a slight angle, so adjusting the camber will also change the castor slightly. This could be fixed by drilling new holes in the strut towers, but it's not enough of an issue to warrant the effort at this point. |
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Assembly completed - the car is lowered to the ground with its new suspension and wheels. Uh-oh, we have some problems here! The camber is clearly positive and the wheels protrude from the guards by a good 20-30mm. |
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A view from the front - the wheels are quite clearly at funny angles. |
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Here you can see the camber problem. |
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Here you can see how much the wheels are sticking out. Leaving it like this will chew up the tyres pretty quickly, not to mention the legality issues! |
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Another view of the wrongness. |
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But apart from that it looks pretty good right? |
This is where I reach the limit of my abilities, and it's time for the professionals to step in. I took the car to Accurate Suspension to get the problems sorted - and $950 later, everything is 100% improved! The struts were bent slightly at the base to correct the camber problem, and this brought the top of the tyres inboard just enough to get them inside the guards. The MX83 tie-rod ends were installed, but they are far shorter than the MA61 tie-rod ends so new rack ends had to be fabricated to compensate. At the same time I had new wheel bearings installed (this requires a press) and new lower ball joints. The above price also includes having MS123 Crown rear hubs installed on my spare MA61 trailing arms, but I haven't installed them yet.
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A vast improvement! The upper edge of the tyres now sit inside the guards, and with the strut tops at full adjustment there is approximately 3 degrees negative camber. |
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Yep, that's a lot more like it. |
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The end result. Mmmm, shiny... |
So after all that money and effort I now have good adjustable suspension, big brakes, and above all - big shiny wheels. So how does it perform? In a word, brilliantly. Turn-in is razor sharp, mid-corner grip is hugely improved, the front-end roll and bounciness is gone, steering feel is much better, and the brakes are in another league compared to the stockers. I'm very happy with the results and there's no doubt it was money well spent.
Unfortunately the rear end deficiencies are now more obvious than ever. I can throw the car into a corner confident the front end will hang on, but then the rear end does its own thing - often with nasty results! In Part III I'll tackle this problem by installing 17x9" wheels and good tyres (after the Crown 5-stud conversion is complete). Later I'll modify the rear crossmember to allow camber adjustment, replace the too-soft KYB dampers with adjustable Koni dampers to match the front, and weld adjustable spring seats to the trailing arms to allow height adjustment.