Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

[ant]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

honestly i didnt even think the shot of the rear suspension was a mk2 astra! it looks like calibra IRS arms, and ive never seen a cam/spawl operated hand brake ! are they ford calipers ?

Calipers from a Holden Astra TS here in AUS there are 5stud re drilled to 4.



The Rear beam is from Holden Camira (Cavalier) because in the wisdom of Daewoo they welded the rear stub axle into the beam.

In the shot it may look strange because you are looking at the lower shock point which has been gusseted and the hand brake cable goes through the suspension arm not under it to stop having anything hanging down to be caught in a rally.. goes in at the pivot point and out where you can see it. If anyone is interested in the hand brake setup I could take a few pics I don't think I covered it in my build.

On the shock I made a stop that fit the end of the shock at the bottom eye. welded it to the bottom part of the shock were the eye welds on... so as you see it... the 2 nuts are at it lowest adjustment and inside the spacer above the nuts and below the spring seat is the threaded part... so the length of the spacer is the distance I can raise the car. I guess if more raising is needed the spacer can be replaced with a longer one.

[BlackBox]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

oh ... and I was going for a set of Gaz for the fronts ... have Bilstein b8's and tbh I'm not very impressed with how they perform, preferred my Konis if I'm honest ... though they also have their limitations ...

Glad you posted on the Gaz ... not sure what to do now ....

[KEV]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Yeah I race motocross and I've got a nice little sideline in fork seal changes and re-valving for other people! Gas charging isn't such a big deal for me because I have all the gear at work. I did an Ohlins shock for someone the other day, first time I've touched one and the gas chamber was charged by inserting a needle through a rubber plug! Then you blank it with an o-ring sealed bleed screw.

Homemade damper dyno's are a bit of a waste of time really, unless your uber clever your not going to be able to make one with enough ability and software to get any usefull info from it. And it needs to be hydraulic really with a calibrated load cell, not a wheelchair motor and a strain gauge! Our dyno equipment would be in the £millions - 90% of suspension tuning companies won't even have stuff this good. What a tool they are, fantastic. It confirmed a feeling I had about my RMZ shock when I found out the rebound adjuster adjusted the compression more than the compression adjuster did! Basically the world is your oyster for tuning things, especially clicker settings like that because you can put up the graph and see what its doing live. Its all a bit of an art though and I'm still learning, there's only so much you can do with the travel you have. When we dyno'd the GAZ kit they were cavitating at 25-30mm/s frequency, which is far too low for a road car. When you see some of the stuff Bilstein/Penske/Ohlins put out it just looks cheap and nasty.

[BenH]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Steel cable, it's all in my build thread somwhere lol.

I was thinking of getting a dead koni to have a strip down look at, I have had plenty of x'er dampers and forks apart, but then they are made to be worked on as such. My biggest concern is recharging the gas in a twin tube damper, easy enough when you have a seperate gas bladder lol.

Would love to see some pics if you do strip one down, have been thinking about ways of making a homemade damper dyno of some type but that would be a very long term project..

[KEV]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

I had wondered about getting a stroke limit in the koni's myself, would be very handy then I could do away with my droop stops. So I take it koni yellows can be stripped and revalved ect?

What are you using for a droop strop? I'm asking because I'm going to make an external one first to get the dimensions worked out then i'll put it inside the damper. As far as I can remember the Koni's are rebuildable - if you know how that is, I have a good Koni contact so I can get hold of a seal kit and the service procedure if it still exists, if not I can find some that'll fit and order them from some of our seal suppliers. Damper oil has moved on since these were constructed and there is room for improvement just in replacing that. I'm lucky in that I work for a motorsport team and one of my jobs is damper rebuilds so I have access to tools and machines that make things like this really easy. I'll let you know how I get on and maybe put some pictures up if you want to see whats inside them. I'll dyno the spax and koni back to back and put up the graphs too. Then a dyno of them once they're rebuilt. It won't be done quickly though!! This is a slow time project.

[steven]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

[QUOTE]DarrenH
Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

honestly i didnt even think the shot of the rear suspension was a mk2 astra! it looks like calibra IRS arms, and ive never seen a cam/spawl operated hand brake ! are they ford calipers ?

Both my vectra c and astra 4 have these calipers.

[BenH]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Thanks Ant,

Bilsteins are brilliant, I've never had a problem with them. I recently replaced all 4 dampers on my golf and I hate lowered cars for everyday use but the golf is a tad soft. So I got in touch with bilstein and I got a set of slightly stiffer dampers and the results were amazing, really happy.

Are your Bilsteins pressurised?

My Koni's were good on the road/track car, but your right I'm not sure that any of my suspension would be strong enough for rally! I was never happy with the spax psx kit I put on it after the rebuild, its on my job list to get them off and sort the handling out. Been a while since I touched the GTE but when I get round to it I'm eventually going to modify the legs and rear axle to make them height adjustable, and service/modify the koni's with the help of the dyno. Those GAZ/LEDA coilovers are really heavy too, so if I can make them relatively light I'll be happy. I need to get my car corner weighed too so I can get a clue about what to do with spring rates. The rear of the car was a problem after I made it lighter, understeer understeer understeer then woahh, snap oversteer. So I'm going to try a few old touring car tricks. First shim in a little positive camber at the rear, run it a lot lower than the front and really stiff. When I service the koni's I'm going to try putting in a stroke limiter so the axle can't droop too far. Effectively making it try to lift the inside wheel under hard cornering. The front is a little more tricky but I'm going to try and move the front wheels forward a bit then use eccentric mounts for a bit of poitive castor and neg camber. I know its going to make the steering heavier but together with the rear changes I think it'll make the car much pointier and way more predictable. I think there's loads of gains to be had with this chassis.

I had wondered about getting a stroke limit in the koni's myself, would be very handy then I could do away with my droop stops. So I take it koni yellows can be stripped and revalved ect?

[RallyMarshal]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

The Astra challenge Bilsteins to fit in a std front strut converted to coilovers are P36-0146 I believe. Used to have them on my old car.

I run different front legs on my current car - inverted ones with the damper the wrong way round and Avo adjustable dampers with 250lb/ 8" springs for tarmac.



On the rear, I run an Eibach Astra GTE/Gsi spring with Avo adjustable dampers. Theyre pretty good and Avo customer service is excellent plus theyre only £65 each.

Paul..

[DarrenH]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

honestly i didnt even think the shot of the rear suspension was a mk2 astra! it looks like calibra IRS arms, and ive never seen a cam/spawl operated hand brake ! are they ford calipers ?

[ant]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Yea I am sure they are pressurized.

With all my adjustments to the front and rear pretty much the same as you are thinking except I still have negative camber at the rear after trying it once and not getting round to changing it. To over come the steering I just use the Electric Power Steering from a later Astra... I have been driving it without the pump and the car was almost undriveable first because of the front geometry but secondly the 200+HP trying to rip the steering wheel out of my hands.

I re fitted the steering pump on Wednesday and I drove it to work today and bugger it's quick... I shouldn't be pushing it too hard without re tuning it after the engine build but I did just once from 1st and shit the digi dash said 100 in a very short space.

[KEV]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Thanks Ant,

Bilsteins are brilliant, I've never had a problem with them. I recently replaced all 4 dampers on my golf and I hate lowered cars for everyday use but the golf is a tad soft. So I got in touch with bilstein and I got a set of slightly stiffer dampers and the results were amazing, really happy.

Are your Bilsteins pressurised?

My Koni's were good on the road/track car, but your right I'm not sure that any of my suspension would be strong enough for rally! I was never happy with the spax psx kit I put on it after the rebuild, its on my job list to get them off and sort the handling out. Been a while since I touched the GTE but when I get round to it I'm eventually going to modify the legs and rear axle to make them height adjustable, and service/modify the koni's with the help of the dyno. Those GAZ/LEDA coilovers are really heavy too, so if I can make them relatively light I'll be happy. I need to get my car corner weighed too so I can get a clue about what to do with spring rates. The rear of the car was a problem after I made it lighter, understeer understeer understeer then woahh, snap oversteer. So I'm going to try a few old touring car tricks. First shim in a little positive camber at the rear, run it a lot lower than the front and really stiff. When I service the koni's I'm going to try putting in a stroke limiter so the axle can't droop too far. Effectively making it try to lift the inside wheel under hard cornering. The front is a little more tricky but I'm going to try and move the front wheels forward a bit then use eccentric mounts for a bit of poitive castor and neg camber. I know its going to make the steering heavier but together with the rear changes I think it'll make the car much pointier and way more predictable. I think there's loads of gains to be had with this chassis.

[ant]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Kev I run Bilstein inverted shocks on the front and rear shocks I modified as a coil over.

Front Bilstein B36-303 (Holden Commodore Modified)

Rear Bilstein B46-180 (Porsche 911 RR Rally Unmodified)

Kev when I originally bought the rally car in 1995 or so The original car was a Holden Camira which is the Sedan version of the MK2. In it was the Bilsteins and a set of Koni spare front suspension. In 96 doing the State Championships I bent the pin on the top of one front shock and had to send them to be fixed... so the next event I ran the Koni spares and got 2 stages before I blew a one and had to run the rest of the rally the best I could. After the event I tossed both those shocks off the side of the hill my workshop was on and have no problem telling people if you want to go on dirt just get Bilstein. They cost me the championship that season and I finished third lol as you can tell it still pisses me off.

Those fronts have been serviced only 3 times in about 20 years and the rears have never since I have had them and only now have I noticed a little bit of oil weeping. They have seen a lot of rallies... just can't seem to find my logbook but something like 30+ Rally events which I would trebble for the amount of forest driving as I used to drive through the forest almost every day to work around a 15k loop. On top of that probably 20 Khana Cross ... not sure if you have them in the UK but just a heaps bigger MotorKhana or AutoTest but in a paddock like a rally sprint but with witches hats... We don't have the luxury of a old WW2 airfield in every second village

[KEV]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Ant, what inserts did you run in those modified front legs if you don't mind me asking? Bilstein? How do you find them?

I'm thinking of going down the coilover route and I don't rate those Gaz coilovers at all, we dyno'd a set at work that someone bought for their kit car and the performance was terrible, massive cavitation even at slow speeds. Compared to the curve I got from my almost 20 year old Koni's they were laughable. So I think I'll make my own. I'd be interested to know what spring rates you used.

Cheers.

[ant]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

Hello to everyone,
long time ago i visited projects, found out parts builded for Rallye chassie. And saved them on my PC because i knew ill need them !
Im building Astra Mk2 GTE chassie for hill climb, as it was a dream for me, and i was wondering where i can get them ?!
So some of you might remember any of these pictures and maybe discuss wrther they are made by private person, or a tuner !
Or if we're lucky enough, maybe the owner of these is somewhere here. Or he is MigWeb member !

Thanks a lot, i apperciate if i can get some help here !!

These are all my parts hand made by myself for my build... here on this forum http://www.astra-mk2.com/forum/showt...-GTE-Downunder

[Vxlgsi]

Re: Astra MK2 - Rallye parts

they are probably made by someone like pilbeam, boat loads of stuff like this kicking around from the rally boys.