ST165 Spring Rates...

I'm building my own coil overs for my 88 AllTrac. I'm using KYB AGX front inserts on all 4 corners. I plan to run lower dampening in the winter and stiffer in the summer. I also want summer springs and Winter springs.. I'll be using some universal sleeves from summit racing. I might use 8 to 10 inch long sleeves for crazy amounts of adjustment.

I live in Anchorage Alaska and our road maintenance budget has been slashed over the years due to the lack of snow for the last few winters. So when we got dumped on the last couple weeks, the roads became rediculous. Many cars stuck on the side of the road in the 4 or 5 foot tall snow berms. You would think that snow being soft and fluffy would be smooth to drive over on the roads...Nope. Damn roads turn into trench warfare...

I want to build a rally style suspension with some actual travel to soak this crap up. Anyone else out there on the forums build a rally Celica? What are the dimensions of your springs? I know the factory rally cars were getting close to 8 inches of travel. But I'm sure that was all custom work. What kind of travel does a stock st165 have?
 

Distant_Midnite

New member
Bumping this back to ask how your suspension build went? I’m just about to pull the trigger on redoing my suspension and your post caught me because of the similarity in what I am trying to achieve. How did your conversion for the rear with the KYB’s go? Also; what springs did you end up using, I’m not really sure what my options are in terms of getting a set of coils when I do my strut work.
 

flyingdutchman

New member
I did the conversion on my Camry Alltrac.
Converting the rear housings isn't too difficult. Shock wise I've been trying some different things but if someone would be willing to measure the AGXs that'd be appreciated.

I went with Ground Control sleeves and Eibach springs(through Ground Control). I had to modify the upper spring seats provided - but I think they offer a kit for the Celica(they don't for the Camry). I also removed my stock spring perches in order to fit longer springs and give myself all the travel possible. Overall I'm happy with the kit, although I had some difficulty pre-compressing the springs to get the correct ride height (the sleeve spins on the strut). However, if I had found a set of steel sleeves I probably would have done that.
 
Distant_Midnite":1fyz7toj said:
Bumping this back to ask how your suspension build went? I’m just about to pull the trigger on redoing my suspension and your post caught me because of the similarity in what I am trying to achieve. How did your conversion for the rear with the KYB’s go? Also; what springs did you end up using, I’m not really sure what my options are in terms of getting a set of coils when I do my strut work.

Wow...sorry for the long wait. Coil overs are doing well so far. I ended up getting 10 inch 275 pound springs in the rear. 300 was too stiff and the 12 inch spring was too close to the big tire I was running. I got some basic 2 inch ID coil-over sleeves on Summit Racing. I think I got the 8 inch long ones. I cut some 1/8 " steel into rings for the sleeve perch.

The rears were converted to a threaded cap with old Celica front strut tubes. Cut the threaded part off with an exhaust tube chain-cutter. Measured the damper to determine the housing length and welded together. Ground smooth. I used a tight fitting pipe inside to make sure they stayed in alignment.

Also, if your coil over sleeves don't fit really tight to the strut housing, they make noise. I think the long springs actually "ring" over small bumps. Especially the noise lines the put on streets to wake up sleepy drivers. I fixed this issue by using POR15 to basically "glue" the sleeve to the housing. Works awesome.

The AGX dampers will work awesome on summer roads. I ended up switching to front KYB GR2 damper inserts on all 4 corners for the winter. The softer dampening makes bumpy dirt roads and big Alaska frost heaves really fun. I bet I could jump this thing....maybe an inch or 2...
 
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