Dirty Baja E30

[CHIF8008]

its there for no good reason. bent it out of the way to gain more clearance with the suspension

[epiphy]

It does, but the reluctor ring for vehicle speed has to be swapped over to the e36 unit, or needs to be trimmed down - otherwise the "tabs" sticking out will hit the speed sensor and/or cover. I have done 2 conversions, personally, once I used the e36 ring, the other time I cut the ring down ~1/4". Both ways worked perfectly fine.

Great thanks for the info.

I've never worked on a diff before. How difficult is it to get the reluctor ring out? We were planning on going to a yard tomorrow and picking up the cover, sensor and ring from an e36.

[ForcedFirebird]

From what I hear an e36 diff cover which has double ears will bolt right up to a medium case e30.

It does, but the reluctor ring for vehicle speed has to be swapped over to the e36 unit, or needs to be trimmed down - otherwise the "tabs" sticking out will hit the speed sensor and/or cover. I have done 2 conversions, personally, once I used the e36 ring, the other time I cut the ring down ~1/4". Both ways worked perfectly fine.

[4ce30]

Super awesome build and intense subframe modifications!!!

[JGee]

I completely agree! I don't know what covers are swapable and where to get them though.... guess I need to do more research

From what I hear an e36 diff cover which has double ears will bolt right up to a medium case e30.

[epiphy]

When I first saw that I wanted to mount my limit strap from there to the lower shock bolt but it doesn't seem very strong.

Funny that's exactly what I was gonna do. But as it turns out I bent the thing off with a screwdriver... so nope, not strong.

[AZRRC]

When I first saw that I wanted to mount my limit strap from there to the lower shock bolt but it doesn't seem very strong.

[epiphy]

Are you referring to that hole in the frame?

Yes, it looks like a washer attached to the frame just behind and under teh shock tower. I want to cut that thing off to make room for large coilovers but i dont know what its for

[MattAvino]

I cant quite tell.

[MattAvino]

Are you referring to that hole in the frame?

[epiphy]

Does anyone know what this thing is for

[epiphy]

epiphy what do you plan to do with it when its done, are you building it for high speed desert racing/prerunning, or more slow paced trails?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm attempting to fit coilovers so I can do both. But realistically, mostly slow trails.

If I was going to do ONLY slow paced trails I would probably go with an air shock from fox or king. They don't need a coil spring since the air inside acts as the spring, so would have no trouble fitting back there. Though there are other disadvantages... like you DEFINITELY would want to keep the swaybar since they tend to be loose at the top (progressive rate). And you would need some kind of bump stop in case a seal leaks on the shock, since if you lose air, it's like losing a spring.

I'm going over to the local off road shop on Wednesday and see what I can figure out.

[AZRRC]

epiphy what do you plan to do with it when its done, are you building it for high speed desert racing/prerunning, or more slow paced trails?

[ravenlord89]

Makes a HUGE difference. Can't do that with the Bilsteins :). Though to be fair, Bilstein has a range of off road shocks as well, but I don't know enough about them to comment.

At least what I have found from Bilstein, they are better for rock crawling, and playing in the mud and dirt trails. Any time you run them at speed they just heat soak too fast and will stop performing as well. I used to run my Yota at high speeds back the fire roads and in dirt fields.

Start looking at pre runners and their bed cages for inspiration for mounting coil overs. Also, head over to Pirate4x4 and look at some of the rock crawling RAV4s and Suzukis to see how they reinforced the unibody.

[Dj Buttchug]

holy fack