Ra28 steering and suspension help

[Rusty]

hi all,

i bought an ra28 and want to sort out suspension and handling before looking at going to far with engine conversion or what not. I want to use the car as a daily but a nice daily that stops turns and eventually goes but also looks the part.

I am going to seam weld the rails plus add metal and braces here and there for stiffness but also have the suspension at a comfortable yet stiffish setting (whether coilovers or whatnot). For the engine i am yet to decide i have a 2jzgte with an auto sitting at my house but am thinking a 4agze might be better for every day driveability. The car is currently shitty orange but i am going to mix up a custom orange with some gold pearl and black bits here and there, i will also make up some fibreglass panels (i know you can buy them but i have a panel shop and would like to extend our services to creating fibreglass panels in darwin mainly for drag cars but also some street cars).

yes i have searched multiple times on the forums but i need straight out going to work answers for the following.

I have a ke70 at my disposal will the steering rack and crossmember fit into the ra28 with no problems bump stop wise and also will the 18r bolt in alright?

I want to convert the ra28 to 5 stud front and rear what are the bolt on easy to find part (i am in Darwin, NT so not much range for spare parts) answers for the front? i have a few falcons i can grab parts off and also what rear diff will bolt up if any?

Thats about it for now

cheers
rhys

[Rusty]

anybody there? i understand that it has been covered but there isnt a easy to understand answer its spread over multiple pages

cheers
rhys

[jeffro ra28]

Mate, your right, the topic has been covered just about everywhere.

Ill point you in the right direction on a few things.

The easiest 5 stud conversion will be using MS65 crown hubs which arefairly hard to come by now and value is around $200.

For coil overs, the weld on kits are great value for $299 odd from otomoto the forum sponsor and the most popular option is using xt130 struts with the ms65 hubs.

Diff wise, the most common uprgrades are volvo or hilux diffs. Make sure you get the very early RN20, RN25, RN27 ones as they are the most suitable length. They will both need the celica mounts welded on and as far as i am aware there are no bolt in upgrades unless you can get your hands on a GT F series (you wont find one in Australia).

For rack and pinion there are a dozen subjects on RA28 rack and pinion conversions. Just do a search for RA28 rack and pinion. I personally grafted a power steering AE86 cross member, control arms, steering rack etc etc (very very similar to KE70 but power asisted) into my ra28. If you can fabricate and weld, its fairly straight forward. Yes the 18r will fit in perfectly with that rack conversion. You may require a different sump configuration for the 18r if you go rack and pinion.

With all that in mind, do some forum searching, there is loads of info there just take the time to read it. There is no simple answer tho, there are alot of options and reading the forums will help you decide which one best suits you.