Fitting huge wheels under EJ stuts

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed May 09, 2007 4:56 pm

I might be way off base here but I had abit of an idea..

Now the problem with EJ struts seems to be that the spring base hangs over the top of the tyre, so larger diametre tyres are limited by the fact that large tyres means they will rub on the spring base.
(I think the limit is 29" tyres?).
What if you want 30 or 31 or beyond?

Now you have to assume the car is 3" lifted......

What if you cut the strut in half at the base (where it goes into the hub) and extend the length of it by 3 inches. This means you can throw away the stut top extender from the lift kit and just bolt the top of the strut into the car as normal. The CV's won't be affected because the engine crossmember etc is spaced down 3" due to the rest of the lift kit.

Result - extra 3" space between the hub and the spring base, so theoretically you could fit 32" tyres in.

Sounds dodgy but I'm pretty sure it can be done safely and professionally....pretty sure that Steve at Rising Sun has beening doing it for years with EA struts.

Somebody point out the error in my thinking because I'm sure I've missed some fundamental reason why it won't work, I've only been thinking about it for the last 5 minutes or so!

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Wed May 09, 2007 5:53 pm

you can fit 30" tyres on outback struts with the right offset rims (wide..) brett is runing 235/75R15 mudders on his lib.

also what you can do to gain some more clearance is slot the holes that bolt the strut to the hub and wend on washers an inch lower to give you some more clearance. i have seen this done on a few cars.

the whole reason you need the strut top extenders is to correct your wheel aligmnent. thats why they are offset. if you jsut extend the strut your alignment will be miles out

another option is run small diameter coilovers. then your tyre size is only limited by your bodywork.

Outback bloke · Post by **Outback bloke** » Wed May 09, 2007 6:48 pm

Coil overs are your friend. You can buy the kits to fit to your struts for about $120 a corner.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed May 09, 2007 11:54 pm

ahh yes, I knew there was something, completely forgot about the offset on the strut tops!

Coilovers interesting...does this somehow delete the standard spring seat on the standard struts? I thought they were part of the actual strut...

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Thu May 10, 2007 12:01 am

coilovers as in small diameter springs roughly 3"

brett these "kits" do you mean cut down the lower spring seat as i have seen you do before?

90brumby · Post by **90brumby** » Thu May 10, 2007 12:03 am

is there not enough adjustment on the rack ends to account for the 3 inch lift without an offset???????

D3V1L · Post by **D3V1L** » Thu May 10, 2007 12:22 am

not in terms of camber alignment;)

Outback bloke · Post by **Outback bloke** » Thu May 10, 2007 5:52 am

The coil over kit requires you to remove your cartridge from the strut. You then cut the spring base from it and then weld on new bits that come in the kit.

Or, get some old air bag struts and do it that way.

You can get a fixed coil over. One where you weld on a ring that locates the spring base. Subaman has these on his car.

Or an adjustable kit where you weld on a thread for the spring base to move up and down on. I used to have these on my old Liberty.

There is a stack of them around second hand these days.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Thu May 10, 2007 8:09 am

Certainly sounds like a goer! Would coilovers hold up okay for offroading u think?

Outback bloke · Post by **Outback bloke** » Thu May 10, 2007 4:01 pm

Hell yeah.

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Thu May 10, 2007 10:29 pm

The coil overs are great offroad as you can be a little more harder with your driving with no ill effect however if you are after touring comfort you should go the Outback suspension package.

To be honest if you want tyres bigger than 29in you will open a pandoras box of other things that will make solving the tyre problem seem easy. Both Brett and I are running 29in mud tyres on our Libertys i have a series one which has rubbing issues and Brett the series 3 with minimal rubbing issues and have been able to put the cars anywhere we have pointed them

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:17 am

Any idea on a rough cost for coilovers ?

Yeah my L usually goes up what I point it at even now with bald 27" duelers....but that's only because theres a bunch of stuff I'd never even consider pointing a Suby at. I want to see if I can go where no Suby has gone before once in a while

Point · Post by **Point** » Fri May 11, 2007 11:45 am

of the coilovers available, are there ones for a Outback or Forrester that actually lift the car? or are they all stolen from the WRX to lower them? Basically what I'm after is to be able to use the ej strut in my brumby with a long travel strut and as little strut top spacer/adaptor as possible, and to still have the ability to wind the coil up that little bit extra like the oem struts.

Fatz · Post by **Fatz** » Wed May 16, 2007 10:21 am

any more news on prices or availability?
sounds VERY interesting.

mroberts · Post by **mroberts** » Wed May 16, 2007 10:34 am

I've seen "coilover" kits on eBay for about $130. The bottom seat jsut sits around the base of the strut on top of the old lower spring seat. You can trim the lower seat back a fair way.

Just search for "coilover", sit back and watch the rice roll in. The onyl thing you;'lll need to watch is matching both the strut body diameter with the lower seat and the strut rod diameter with the hole inthe upper seat.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/COILOVER-springs ... dZViewItem

Fatz · Post by **Fatz** » Wed May 16, 2007 10:40 am

i have outback stuts.
and i would like to to this coilover conversion.
Would these do the jobby?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SUBARU-WRX-IMPRE ... dZViewItem

i dont know if the width is different or if i will run into any other hasstles.
Cheers

90brumby · Post by **90brumby** » Wed May 16, 2007 10:36 pm

u are also gonna need 15inch rims causse i have never seen any bigger than 27ich tyre for a 14ich rim

(if u find more than 1 set of 15s let me no)

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Wed May 16, 2007 11:00 pm

damn that looks dodgy. talk about poor mans coilovers

you guys should realise that your going to lose a heap of suspension travel with these. They are aimed at road cars

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed May 16, 2007 11:12 pm

AndrewT wrote:Any idea on a rough cost for coilovers ?

Yeah my L usually goes up what I point it at even now with bald 27" duelers....but that's only because theres a bunch of stuff I'd never even consider pointing a Suby at. I want to see if I can go where no Suby has gone before once in a while

Sounds like you and Yarney have the same disease.

Jack

90brumby · Post by **90brumby** » Wed May 16, 2007 11:17 pm

isnt that wat most of us want to do