suspension techniques?

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

i recently put in a suspension techniques sway bar in the front, only because mine was bent from something the previous owner did and i found one on ebay and didn't want to miss out,, needed it.

i also changed over to adjustable end links only because one was bent along with the sway bar,

i've read it can throw the balance off for cornering, it definitely under steers more the stiff front end is cool, but is off balance.

my question is ,;'''

does anyone think a good way to maybe try to balance the car out would be to straighten the old sway bar end links, reinstall them move the adjustable links to the rear and shorten them a tad , fit the rear sway bar with some polyurethane bushings to try to maybe gain some stiffness in the rear,

any input would be cool, im on a real budget and facing the reality that money is low and trying to make the best out of this ride.

i have the whole poly bushing kit the car is a wreck and needs more important things but am trying to restore the suspension.

also are the suspension technique springs a decent upgrade for the s/c model aw11' i've read there not stiff but supposedly there 90-280 progressive rate according to the mr2 write up:

MKI MR2 Write-ups

my plans are to buy the rear springs i see available and heat the front springs to match height

this is all for maintaining a close budget am trying to get paint in this summer too does anyone think this idea has any potential,

yes i am crazy ,

[HoLun]

swapping to a shorter end link will do absolutely nothing, its the sway bar themselves that gives roll resistance, not the end links

heating the springs to lower will screw with the spring rate, if you cant afford a set of already affordable springs i suggest you save up before you modify the car, because cutting, heating and preloading the springs will made handling worse

reading about how it changes the car handle is different then how it actually handle, chances are you don't even have good enough tires on now that you can actually tell the sway bar is changing the way the car handles.

tuning suspension is rather complex, you change 1 tiny little thing, you change how everything works together.

so just get the rear ST bar and don't screw with the springs, get some decent tires and you should have improved handling

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

I've gone through all this before i've put eibachs in every corner and illumina shocks on an 86 now that car needed sharp reflexes! it sat on 205 50 15's
why did i sell that car!
,, your definitely right,, the tires blow--sumitomo 195 60 14,

what about the suspension technique springs will they do the job?

[ebouwman]

what's the point of adjustable end links then?

I'm getting a rear sway bar for my 86 mr2 and i've never messed with end links, and i'm having to get new ones, so i'm kinda curious.

[HoLun]

Originally Posted by ebouwman

what's the point of adjustable end links then?

I'm getting a rear sway bar for my 86 mr2 and i've never messed with end links, and i'm having to get new ones, so i'm kinda curious.

it is for when you change ride height of the car, the adjustable end links can put the sway bar back to as close to parallel to the ground as possible.

[ebouwman]

OH!

Wow don't i feel dumb, lol

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

I have no rear sway bar!, somebody must have took it out some point in its life,. Hmmmm, i knew something was up with the rear.
looks like im in the market for that know. no wonder it under steers as much as it does. who ever owned it when that was done maybe didn't like going sideways

[ebouwman]

Originally Posted by 88"s/c lil"bastard

I have no rear sway bar!, somebody must have took it out some point in its life,. Hmmmm, i knew something was up with the rear.
looks like im in the market for that know. no wonder it under steers as much as it does. who ever owned it when that was done maybe didn't like going sideways

Did they come with one though? I'm always kinda fuzzy on that, cause i know the n/a's starting in 86 didn't have them, but not sure about the supercharged cars.

But i can understand if it had one, why someone would have taken it off.

Here's a quote from wikipedia, keep in mind that they're not always totally accurate though.

Also noteworthy is the lack of a rear anti-sway bar after 1985 (although the 1989 supercharged model was equipped with one again). Models with the rear bar are considered more valuable to those who enjoy racing. Toyota reportedly continued manufacturing strut towers with the proper rear sway bar mounting tabs until well into the 1986 and possibly 1987 model years, but no actual numbers or cut-off dates are available.

I have one of the 86 models with the tabs on the strut towers but no bar. Do you have the tabs on the strut towers?

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

i didn't see a tab on the rear struts, confused me a bit thanx for clearing that up for me.

so basically i need to blow this car up.
its an automatic and i can't even get it to handle the way i want..

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

are the kyb or any other struts available with a tab to mount a sway bar?

i'll take another look when its on a lift, alls i know is that the sway bar is available for m/t and a/t trans on toyota website for o.e.m. parts

[tjmr2]

The struts you can buy are an inner cartridge, you reuse your outer housing and spring. That's why it's much easier to do both strut (cartridges) and springs at once as you have to take the Macpherson Strut assembly completely apart. The cartridge sits in a cooling fluid (KYB recommends straight antifreeze).

Harbor Freight has a spring compression tool that allows you to do the job fairly easy. You must compress the spring before you take the assembly apart as it is under tension and will sproing with painful results otherwise.

The SC strut housing does have a tab on the rear, about 3/4" below the spring cup, it measures about 1 1/4" tall and sticks out about as far. You can fabricate and weld on a couple of tabs if you remove the assembly and strut cartridge. Don't think it would be good to try and weld on the tabs with the cartridge and cooling fluid in place.

The NA car (I can only speak for the 89) has bolt holes tapped in the "frame" for the mounting of the sway bar to the car.

Hope this helps

[ebouwman]

You can buy little tabs that just bolt on to the strut towers from twosRus.

Twos R Us - Parts for Toyotas from Club MR2

Not sure how well they'd work. But don't get too frustrated, i also have this problem, well i have the tabs, but i have an auto and no rear sway bar, yet...

[GoBoGo]

Originally Posted by 88"s/c lil"bastard

I've gone through all this before i've put eibachs in every corner and illumina shocks on an 86 now that car needed sharp reflexes! it sat on 205 50 15's
why did i sell that car!
,, your definitely right,, the tires blow--sumitomo 195 60 14,

what about the suspension technique springs will they do the job?

These springs are great i highly recommend ST all there items are good quality. Personally i gained a 1.4 inch drop and the comfort was still really good. I would recommend ST over Eibach (just my personal preference)

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

oh so the Kyb shocks are like the illuminas?, i always thought they were like a strut assembly shock in one,

i thought i would need to find the struts that had the bracket, tab. i don't get the car on a lift too often but i am fortunate enough to have access to a welder if i ever needed it. and a decent shop at my job. I think i'll check out two's r us i haven't been on there in a while.

thank you to everybody who contributed to this thread,

[q-authority]

Toyota took the rear sway bar off the later 87 model thru 88's. They put it back on the 89 (at least on the SC). The sway bar mounting holes will probably be on all of the MR2's even if they did not come with a sway bar (just standard production). My 87 did not come with a rear bar, but had the mounting holes.
Yes, you can mount endlink tabs on the strut casing, but you’d be better off welding them in place, as they have to handle a lot of force and the bolt-on clamp types have been know to shift around, which will mess with your handling. Also be aware, that the upper muffler heat shield may rub a little on a sway bar that is added to a car that did not have one, as I think they changed that a little on those cars. However, it is not that big a deal and can be bent somewhat to avoid this.
You could also set up your suspension quite well without a rear bar. I don't use one any more and am extremely happy without it. There is a great write up on another MR2 forum, which describes how a National SCCA winner uses only heavier rated springs instead of any sway bars (front and rear). It makes complete sense, but it does make the front end a little sensitive.
Having an auto, however, you might want to stick with a rear bar, as the auto adds a lot of weight back there. I haven't seen much written on improving their handling, so I am not sure if all will apply to it equally well.
Other than that, make sure you are driving the car properly. A bit of understeer, even on a race prepared AW11, is probably normal. Brake early and accelerate through the corner, thereby forcing pressure on the rear end to rotate outward instead of the front. I know it took me years of driving an MR2 for this to come naturally. It’s somwhat backwards from a front engine car.

[stu4u3]

It was an option I believe on the 89 n/a model. I have two 89' n/a's and neither one of them has the rear way bar. It will when I'm done though

[mr2tim]

I got a set of suspension technique springs free(1994), they gave a huge drop of 3" and were stiff with little leftover travel (maybe 3/4")

I still did not like the sway back and forth at 80-120mph and added huge Addco sway bars front and rear.

In adding the rear bar required adding a new mounting hole, drilled hole and a threaded nut was inserted into the drilled hole.

Since it is my racecar I sacrificed ride for track performance.

I opted for hydralic strut cartridges but they have little real effect because of the little susp travel.

It wasn't till I started to run Goodyear slicks that the whole package really clicked.

If I had it to do over, I'd go with adjustible struts.