Okeydokey –
The front suspension on an S13 from the factory is 4 stud, with some two pot caliper brakes and the shortest bottom arms out of the whole S and R body range. By the time they get to 70-80k (which is realistically what most are now) the bushes are pretty worn and saggy (think Ulrika Johnson) Putting them through the harsh throes of fast road driving and drifting compounds the problem.
The three key points for improvement are the lower arm bushes, lower arm it’s self and the tension rod.
The Lower Arm:
Earlier on in the post you heard me talking about the S13 having the shortest lower arm out of the S or R body range. They are interchangeable, so you can stick and S14, S15, R32, R33 or R34 lower arm lower arm on an S13 and vice versa. There are a couple of differences, the S13 and R32 arms are shorter, the S14 arm is slightly longer and the R33gtst arm is longer again. Running a longer arm gives you a wider front track and this helps us by making the car more stable and surefooted while drifting and fast road driving. The only issue is that the moog joint is smaller on the S13 (the bit that connects the lower arm to the hub) so you can’t use any of the bottom arms without either swapping the joint out on the arm (and replacing them with S13 ones – IE: ball ache) or you can do what im doing and take the opportunity to replace them with S14 – 5 stud front hubs. S14 hubs will give you a 5×114.3 stud pattern and open you up to a vast array of options on wheel and brake packages.
The Bush:
Replacing the front lower arm bushes is the easiest of all the bushes to replace. If you haven’t done it before i’ll give you some tips. The replacement bush im using can be purchased from the Driftworks.com shop here. If your lucky enough to live anywhere near Watford, Garage D are a offical Driftworks distributor and they’ll usually have them on the shelf.
– Burn out the bushes with a blowtorch. Concentrate the heat on one side only for the first couple of mins to heat up the centre metal insert. Once it’s started to get really hot and aflame, get a big set of grips and pull the centre section out (it’ll still be on fire – so blow it out and throw it aside) Leave the bush to burn out for a bit on it’s own while you do the other one and then use a flat head screwdriver or small chisel to scrape off the rest of the molten/burnt bush then leave to cool down.
– When fitting the new bush, use some standard grease and push the polly parts of the bush into the arm. Once this is done, get the metal insert, lube it up good (get your missis to do this bit, then come back and do the bush!) and push the metal insert as far into the polly as you can (it’s tight) once it’s in, place the bush, insert and arm into a bench vice. It’s the simplest way to fit them as your pushing in the insert while holding the polly bush in the other side. If you do it any other way, you’ll end up pushing the polly bush out the other side and you’ll have to start again.
– When fitting the bottom arm to the car, you shouldn’t need to cut any of the polly bush off to get it to fit. The instructions say you may need to (and on the rears you do) but on the front you don’t. Doing so causes the arm to fit looser and you may get some movement (bad)
The Tension Rod:
The tension rod on S or R body’s does exactly what it says on the tin – it put’s the front arm under tension and stops it from moving around. The standard arm is bushes at one end, studded onto the arm and none adjustable. The one im using on this project is a rose jointed adjustable arm that’s available from (click the links for details) Driftworks or Japspeed. The main advantages of an adjustable tension rod are a) Rosejointed end which means you don’t need to replace any bushes b) they are adjustable so you can alter the caster angle of the car. On a drift car, the caster angle controls how quickly the vehicle self centres on transition or slide. So it’s an important suspension component and the first aftermarket arm you should buy.
Assembled everything looks like this:
More as it happens.
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