battery relocate/ weight reduction/

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

i just relocated my battery on my 88' s/c Mr.2.

What i wanna know is if there Are any non believers. The relocation seems to balance out the car nicely, the difference was getting that weight from the battery down where it belongs instead of top heavy in the reAR i love that idea. I believe my braking is better and the ride should be alil smoother considering there is more weight on the front suspension. I understand the fact that this will take alil time to get used to but the steering wheel feedback has changed to something that makes me miss a lil of how the handling was before. On a windy road i like to lay back and let the wheel somewhat slip through my hands while i run my line, if you know what i mean. i find this style very rewarding and i never beat on my ride mr.2 gets the smoothest input from me. Since i relocated my battery i feel The wheel seems to have more feedback, resistance ( heavier front end result).
while it has improved it doesn't feel like mr.2 anymore.
i wanna know how other people feel about this modification.

i also have a s/t front sway bar no bar in rear, but removed front impact bumper which balanced out the under steer from the sway bar.
when the bumper came off i had better acceleration and less under steer which i like. battery was moved after bumper changes.

I am excited with the changes. i think some shocks and a rear sway bar will complete this car, im gonna aim for some adjustable shocks.
I don't believe i have the desire to lower this car anymore although i love the look and wanna fit some 15's in that wheel well with the new closer wheel gap. mY reasons? the ride quality and the clearance on the after market body kit bumper.
I also plan on installing these poly eurethane bushings soon so i dont think i will agree with the type of ride i will get when those bushings and springs are working together.

[palos]

It is unclear from your post whether the improved ride quality and handling that you are describing was solely from relocating the battery, or whether the ST front sway bar played a role.

I'm skeptical. Unless you had the car on corner scales, I doubt that you changed the weight distribution significantly. You didn't mention where in the front you mounted the battery, so you may have improved the front/back ratios, but may have also worsened the right/left ratios. For most cars, one can only hope for equal cross weight ratios.

At the very least you have added weight in the front which would increase the amount of understeer, all other things being equal. If relocating the battery made the car seem so much better, lowering the car with progressive rate springs, or coil overs and soft springs, would seem to be the avenue to further improve the handling to your liking, rather than adjustable rate struts.

Improving the stickiness of the tires and an aggressive alignment would also help considerably.

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

it may be understeering i agree.

the sway bar has been in for a while so it wasnt that.

it feels like a 50/50 car but thats just a feel, it feels more balanced but you may be right it could throw off right to left, although it is on the floor of the frunk in the very center any feed back is helpful thank you.

i am happy with the fact the rear feels lighter. i have an automatic and the tail is heavier campared to a manual

i plan on getting a lighter battery. i think it corners better.

[Starlet 3SGTE]

Pics?

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

im sorry but this mod is not worthy of pics at the moment.

i only wanted to know what peoples opinions were that have done it.

actually if pics could be provided to me it would be appreciated.

being impulsive and in a mood to experiment i whipped this up with some 4 gauge thhn scrap wire i had laying around.


some bugs a.k.a. splitbolts rubber tape electrical tape does the trick,
i need to decide whether i like the set up and then will i construct a permanent battery hold down. prolly use the original battery hold down bracket and a brace bolted to the sub frame.

[328FTW]

I put a truck battery in mine when I did it. The smaller batteries kept dying within a year for some reason on my car, just poor quality batteries but I couldn't seem to get good ones at a reasonable price. So big heavy battery (that cost less than a small one) in the front and nothing in the back means.......very very marginal difference when pushing hard, not going to change the world but everything is something so I'll take it

[Jackstand Queen]

Keep going Lil Bastard:

Front and Rear sway bars
Rear strut tower bar
polyeurethance (Sp?) bushings
fresh ball joints, wheel bearings, tie rod knuckles
sticky performance radials (one's W/O mileage warranty)

The battery relocate is a "must do" to improve handling.

Lowering the car is an option for flatlanders with very civilized rain gutters, and all round smooth roads. Where I live, lowering the car would invite and unending series of body damages.

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

i don't know where im gonna find a rear strut tower bar for an s/c mr.2, do you know where to find one?

i just received the ball joint tie rod kit, O.e. brand off of ebay yesterday just a matter of time until its installed.

The eurethane kit is for the suspension yes if thats what you were asking, i have the whole kit for control arms strut rods etc.


still haven't purchased the engine mount bushings

[Jackstand Queen]

Lil B.:

Cusco made (makes?) rear strut tower bars for SC's. I have one!

I bought mine from a guy who bought japanese aftermarket parts in Japan, and then shipped them over. It took a while. I got it through Ebay.

Without embarrassing myself, my rear STB doesn't fit anymore. I didn't have a wreck, but one of my many mistakes caused it to not fit anymore. My engines out now, so if I can't cause it to fit in the next week or two, the STB will end up on the parts for sale list.

Alternatively, you could make an STB from scratch. I did that once on a previous MKI of mine. Cut a couple of rings to mount on the strut towers, and a curvy dippy rod/tube to go between them.

On my profile is a link to photos at photobucket, with a picture of the STB

[tjmr2]

88; Just out of curiosity, what is the diameter of the S/T front sway bar you are using?

I can tell you that if you install a rear sway bar you will feel a huge difference.

[88"s/c lil"bastard]

Its a suspension techniques sway bar in the front, didn't buy it new so im not sure.

pretty thick it made the car under steer like crazy loved the rigid feel but man that under steer sucked when i would push through a corner. this car is ass heavy enough.

i was happy with the results i got when took the impact bumper off, i thnk it caused the car to lose some rigidity and therefore it under steered less.



It's a pretty thick bar, maybe 16-18 mm's

all i know is that the rear bar may cost around $120 for o.e.m.,
considering i don't have a manual trans i don't wanna risk buying another st sway bar to match cause it might not fit, I think the original sway bar will do the job, some decent bushings and the rear bar should do enough.

[traintech86]

88, can you tell me how you ran the cable from the engine bay to the frunk? i am considering doing the same. also how much cable did you need? thanx man

[87mk1gold]

I just replaced the battery in my AW11 with a new one - and gave a lot of thought to doing the relocate now (not enough time and money and too many other things to do to the car first). The battery I had in there was a group 35 (stock size) and a top end high capacity long warranty version. It weighed 38 pounds. I bought the smallest, cheapest and lightest battery I could quickly get my hands on - a group 26. I had to modifiy the mounting because this battery is not as tall as stock, but the old mount was a poor homemade thing anyway. This battery has plenty of capacity for our little engines, and I don't care how long it lasts.

The point of my post being that if you take 30+ pounds off the rear axle and put it on the front axle you have just moved over 1% of the weight of the car from back to front. If the weight distribution was 46/54 it is now 47/53 - which is significant and will need other changes to bring the car back close to neutral cornering.

When I do the relocation I am going to use a sealed AGM type battery (like used in the Mazda Miata) so there is no chance of leakage/fumes in the frunk. I'm considering buying the highest capacity motorcycle AGM I can find because it would weigh about 20 pounds. It would require different connections - but that's no problem on a custom install.