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Hackster's LSA / T56 2 door

Well I did a horrible job the last few days of taking photos....sorry for the build thread.

I received the Spectrum replacement fuel tank on Monday and got to work mounting up my new fuel system. The tank is far nicer than expected, even came painted a satin silver that will totally work with my scheme here so saved me some time and money.



Located where the new setup will go, marked the location and drilled a 3.25" hole for the new assembly to drop into. This puts the pump out of the way of the stock float for the fuel level and gives me a great location for the Holley Hydramat to lay out as well as miss the factory filler neck too.



Followed the ****ty instructions that came with the pump but it worked just fine. This is a big single pump, 450 with an internal regulator regulating the output to 60 PSI. The only fittings coming from the new pump is a supply line and a vent. The vent will be hooked to the factory filler neck opening.



The new assembly all bolted down to the tank.



I abandoned the stock fuel line connections on the tank but am utilizing it still for fuel level sender. I am waiting on caps to show up to plug them off. Should be here today, new level sender is installed as well as a new o ring and lock ring, its a clean looking setup and should be plenty for what I am doing.

Scott from STS Machine and I had been going back and forth for a few weeks on 8.8 stuff, he had some killer lazer cut brackets made for the 8.8 to 240, so while in Portland Tuesday and stopped by his place and picked them up with a 25mm front v8 sway bar. I also snagged some 3/4x3/4 heim joints, some bushings, tube and weld inserts.

I got to work yesterday, yarded out the factory Volvo rear axle and got to work locating all of the brackets and getting things tacked up. I spent a little more time than I probably should have but it all worked out.





I ditched the factory lower arms all together. It just didnt make sense, I was going to have to cut them down, buy new bushings for the front, Bens Spherical bearings for the rear and then chop off the back and plate it, then build mounts for the coilovers. It was too complicated for something so simple.

I used some Heim joints at the axle, 1.75OD bushings x3" wide and a piece of 2" .120 tubing for the front bushing at the car. a piece of 1.5" .120 DOM tubing for the lower control arm and a 1.25" weld insert for the heim. It worked awesome and I was able to just use some off the shelf 3" laser cut tabs for the lower link mounts. Now everything on the rear is more conventional.



I have rear coilovers on order, upper and lower shock tabs on order, brakes are shipped, rear ARP wheel studs are on order, I think I am making some progress.

The axle is actually under the car now at ride height, I shortened the lowers .75" and have adjustment to go longer or shorter still. Ben's comfort uppers are in place as well, they have just enough adjustment on them to make the shortened lowers work.

I am hoping that I can set this thing on its own weight next week some time with the fuel system all buttoned up and the suspension mostly buttoned up.

I am getting tired though, been busting my ass lately.

:-P

Sean
 
This project is turning out to be bigger than anticipated. Got shocks and tabs on Friday and got to work for a little bit.

I ended up not using any of the tabs as the shock really needed to be king of low to get some reasonable travel out of them.

I am running a ride tech adjustable coilover. These are very high quality shocks and are 100% tunable. Guys like Ron Sutton can valve them however you want them to be and I want to be able to fine tune them in the future.

its a 4.1" Travel shock, ride height is set at 4.5" from rocker to ground on a 25" tall tire. I am 2.25" of uptravel at that level.



I ordered up a bad ass mosier diff cover, unfortunately it does not clear anything so looks like Ill need to just run the stamped steel diff cover, it has like .25" clearance at the tightest spot.

So built all of my brackets, got everything tacked in, pulled the entire assembly back out, and got to welding. I added gussets to the back and bottom of the shock and lower link tabs to be 100% sure that dont have any flex, pretty sure they are not going anywhere. Also this tied in the two sided of where I shortened the rear axle.







I got the stock wheel studs pressed out and the new ARP long studs pressed in, cleaned up the faces and slid them in temporarily. I am waiting for brakes to show up should be here this week. I have the new flex lines from the car to the axle made already.

Kind of running out of steam at this point :oops: Now I gotta start on the rear wheelwells to get some real tires in there, its going to be a fair bit of work.

Sean
 
That is precisely how I was planning on handling my 8.8 swap. I've seen people put the coilover mounts on the lower arm, but I don't see a huge benefit.

That being said I've also seen people cut a square hole in the bottom of the fram rail so the upper mount can be recessed like 2" into the rail, improving travel. I'll see if I can find a photo.

Edit; like so

 
Maybe the photo is deceptive, but do you have room for a spring around that shock without hitting the axle tube?

4.1" travel sounds really short...but I couldn't find where Bne (blkaplan) mentioned the various travel lengths he tried on the behind-the-axle shock setup on his 245. Keeping the inside rear tire planted on the ground in hard cornering was the challenge. I thought he had gone to 5"+ travel rear shocks at some point. :e-shrug:
 
Maybe the photo is deceptive, but do you have room for a spring around that shock without hitting the axle tube?


I know that car personally and it does clear, he's got quite a few miles on it now. I do know in conversation he's mentioned if he were to do it again he'd do a different design on the trailing arms side of things.
 
I know that car personally and it does clear, he's got quite a few miles on it now. I do know in conversation he's mentioned if he were to do it again he'd do a different design on the trailing arms side of things.
Oops, meant Sean's. The one you posted, there's a bit of shadow that suggests a gap. I can't tell from Sean's picture though. The side w/o the shock installed makes it look like there might be space.
 
Maybe the photo is deceptive, but do you have room for a spring around that shock without hitting the axle tube?

4.1" travel sounds really short...but I couldn't find where Bne (blkaplan) mentioned the various travel lengths he tried on the behind-the-axle shock setup on his 245. Keeping the inside rear tire planted on the ground in hard cornering was the challenge. I thought he had gone to 5"+ travel rear shocks at some point. :e-shrug:

I mocked it all up with the tender spring and have plenty of clearance as well as room to move the axle back some to get it centered in the wheel well. I also double checked last night and have plenty of clearance clarence :-P As far as the short travel that might be 100% the case and I may have to chop holes in the trunk and run longer shocks, but for now, this will have to be a starting place.

I know that car personally and it does clear, he's got quite a few miles on it now. I do know in conversation he's mentioned if he were to do it again he'd do a different design on the trailing arms side of things.
Attaching the coilover to the trailing arm as he has it is problematic, its the reason I ditched the stock trailing arms. You are relying on just the front bushing (if you have a heim or spherical bearing at the axle) to keep the arm from rotating left to right so now instead of just locating the axle you are trying to accomplish two different tasks with one part. It will try to flop the control arm to one side once you have the spring pressure on it.

Oops, meant Sean's. The one you posted, there's a bit of shadow that suggests a gap. I can't tell from Sean's picture though. The side w/o the shock installed makes it look like there might be space.

We good, thanks for double checking me, never hurts.

Sean
 
Attaching the coilover to the trailing arm as he has it is problematic, its the reason I ditched the stock trailing arms. You are relying on just the front bushing (if you have a heim or spherical bearing at the axle) to keep the arm from rotating left to right so now instead of just locating the axle you are trying to accomplish two different tasks with one part. It will try to flop the control arm to one side once you have the spring pressure on it.

It's only problematic if you do it wrong,

If you are careful and keep tracking of the location of your pivots, you don't have a significant moment or movement created by the coilover forces. Its easy to get it wrong and have those problems but if the parts are designed and installed correctly, theres no reason they wont work. They also have worked fine in the past.

The only time I heard of them not working is when Bergen welded his axle wrong and the pivots were spaced 3" too wide. That **** wont work.

Also if you run any type of rear swaybar, even just a 15mm rear bar... that prevents any rocking from happening.
 
4.1 is very short and will lead to sketchy handling.

What travel length do you recommend for the rear coilovers? What length were you recommending with your rear trailing arm setup?

All this suspension talk is more exciting than the engine. Good info.
Fun yes, super frustrating for the guy building it wrong....yes as well.

It's only problematic if you do it wrong,

If you are careful and keep tracking of the location of your pivots, you don't have a significant moment or movement created by the coilover forces. Its easy to get it wrong and have those problems but if the parts are designed and installed correctly, theres no reason they wont work. They also have worked fine in the past.

The only time I heard of them not working is when Bergen welded his axle wrong and the pivots were spaced 3" too wide. That **** wont work.

Also if you run any type of rear swaybar, even just a 15mm rear bar... that prevents any rocking from happening.

I guess clarification is needed. I did not want to add that complication to my setup and the possibility of it not working properly. I truly believed I was heading down a better path with this setup than the stock setup, I am totally second guessing my decision now.
 
I'm a little curious about this too, other than how to do the sway bar, seems like this would be the easiest way to swap in an 8.8. It's a basic 4 link after all, super common setup.

Course I'm not interested in autoX levels of handling, mostly just hooking up and modern'ish levels of handling.
 
After quite a bit of critisism on my rear shocks and suspension design but very little suggestion on how to correct it, I have decided to take a break from this project. Get a clear head and figure out what I need in the rear suspension. Maybe Ill report back on my progress when I get back on it.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Sean
 
I don't think there is a "top arm" with the traditional truck/long arm set up.

Coils and shocks behind the rear axle take advantage of the suspension arm "lever" - takes less spring rate and less damping force to provide the same wheel rate compared to mounting things in front of the axle.
 
Hackster,

Is there a reason you didn't go with the ZL1 lid? Clearance I'm guessing but it would be cool to know one way or the other.
 
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