Adapting other spindles...

SupraFiend said:

http://www4.tpgi.com.au/users/loats/technical/ma61/fronthub.html

Don't belive he ever had any luck on the rears though, so its kinda pointless just doing the fronts. Wheel adapters and the Jim King bbk are your only options, neither are that expensive compartively to options on other cars.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, but to clarify, I'm looking for ideas on custom options involving spindles. I've checked out that page, and it's primarily just swapping hubs. I want to improve the brake availability, wheel selection, and general suspension design with different spindles. I know this can be done any number of ways, but I'm wondering if anybody has researched which spindles (knuckles) have the same balljoint taper and, ideally, the same general configuration as the MKII allowing larger offset wheels and bigger brakes.

My thought at this point is that I'm going to have to fabricate a custom lower control arm (not that tough, actually), and use some oddball tie rods along with the struts that are for whatever I'm taking the spindles from. Yes, I'll probably need to custom-mount the struts to the towers, but that's also not that difficult to do.

If I could get the kind of braking power my DSM had without the FWD spindles (heavy), I'd be super happy! Of course, I could probably fabricate some custom spindles, but those aren't as easy as custom control arms...

Thanks again,

Yamahamoon, I think the only reason your DSM could outbrake your supra is due to tires and not anything that the brakes were doing. I've tracked my car three times now and haven't had any braking problems at all. The only uprgrade I've done is replace the fluid with Super Blue. My friend who has driven vipers and 911turbos says my brakes are some of the best he's felt. The tires are my limitation right now and until I replace my Pilots with something else I have no idea what kind of brakes I'll need. Just saying that you should make sure the brakes are actually your problem.
You're also talking about wanting better wheel selection, if you want FWD wheels get a set of bolt on spacers and they'll be as strong as stock and you can use any honda wheel you want that's made for a four bolt hub. If you're really worried about bigger brakes and really want to make something custom just make something like the Jim King BBK, ie. caliper mounting brackets and rotor adapters. Just my thoughts, but you know what they always say.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

RWDCelicadude said:

Yamahamoon, I think the only reason your DSM could outbrake your supra is due to tires and not anything that the brakes were doing. I've tracked my car three times now and haven't had any braking problems at all. The only uprgrade I've done is replace the fluid with Super Blue. My friend who has driven vipers and 911turbos says my brakes are some of the best he's felt. The tires are my limitation right now and until I replace my Pilots with something else I have no idea what kind of brakes I'll need. Just saying that you should make sure the brakes are actually your problem.
You're also talking about wanting better wheel selection, if you want FWD wheels get a set of bolt on spacers and they'll be as strong as stock and you can use any honda wheel you want that's made for a four bolt hub. If you're really worried about bigger brakes and really want to make something custom just make something like the Jim King BBK, ie. caliper mounting brackets and rotor adapters. Just my thoughts, but you know what they always say.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I sincerely doubt the Supras brakes are anything close to a current Viper or 911. Considering that the general consensus is to upgrade the brakes as soon as you start moving the power north on the dyno chart, I'm going to suppose they are typical of cars of the mid-'80s, and need upgrading.

Spacers are heavy, adding more to the unsprung weight. Very, very bad on a track car.

The cost and availability of such caliper kits seems to be about the same as spindles and brakes from another car, and not very common, respectively. Perhaps the Supra will brake as well as my DSM (or GTI, or M) with better brakes and tires, but the commonality of parts is simply not there, unfortunately. I'll definitely investigate some of these alternatives when I get the car in my garage, but needing to custom machine every set of rotors I get for the car is not a very good option in my opinion, when I can use off the shelf parts for a different spindle to the same effect (or better).

I'll research the deal once I get the car home and torn apart (probably early next year - it's at my bro-in-law's, about 300 miles away in LA) and let you all know what I find. I'm not opposed to custom fabricating suspension bits, as I can probably improve the geometry significantly at the same time. Heck, at this point, fabricating a double a-arm suspension is not out of the question, so I'll definitely have to weigh my options.

Essentially, if'n it's gonna be a race car, I may as well make it the best I can while I'm at it...

Thanks for the suggestions, though! Please don't feel that I'm attacking any opinions presented; I just want to think outside the box and make this car the best I can, so I don't get the urge to change it in two years because of its limitations...