November 9, 200916 yr After looking at an EA82 at the junkyard today, it got me thinking of the Brat's rear suspension. From what I've gathered from searching threads, the EA82 is wider and would require a fair amount of work to fit it into the rear of the Brat. What I'm wondering, is if there would be an advantage to doing custom coilovers in the rear of the Brat, and remove the torsion bars. Would anything be gained by doing such a thing, for offroading? More flex or anything? Obviously, it would need to be properly sized for the application. Thoughts?
November 9, 200916 yr Most people that have gone to coil-over's on the EA81's later regretted it. The torsion bar is nearly a perfect match to the EA81. And there are lots of easy options for rancho shocks and such. The coil-over's are a huge pain in the neck and they have limited travel. The torsion bar is less limited as you can put longer travel shocks on it and it will just work. GD
November 9, 200916 yr Author Most people that have gone to coil-over's on the EA81's later regretted it. The torsion bar is nearly a perfect match to the EA81. And there are lots of easy options for rancho shocks and such. The coil-over's are a huge pain in the neck and they have limited travel. The torsion bar is less limited as you can put longer travel shocks on it and it will just work. GD So the only way to get good travel, would be aftermarket big money coilovers? Like the kind they put on buggies? I'll check out the Ranchos for now though.
November 9, 200916 yr And probably you would need longer trailing arms as well. So the EA82 stuff might not really help you much. Besides that, if you are going for BIG travel, then you have some BIG money that's going to come up with some sort of long-travel axle for us right? What most folks have found is that the stock torsion bar is easily capable of WAY more travel than the axles are anyway....... GD
February 16, 201016 yr the axle will stop travel, the rear trailing arm will go as far as you let it, and the shock will be your limiter. do whatever you want with it.you need better axles.
February 16, 201016 yr what to do when the rear torsion is all rotted out? Start your own thread gravedigger. GD
February 16, 201016 yr What most folks have found is that the stock torsion bar is easily capable of WAY more travel than the axles are anyway....... GD +1 for that. And Monsaru........the axles only limit travel until they break:mad: If you lift an EA81, and do nothing to control/limit the travel that the stock suspension can produce you will break or at least hyper-extend rear axles everytime you have a wheel stuffed up in there and gas it. Coilovers would limit the up travel, but perhaps too much. I have a 6 inch lift. My plan is to just weld a 3 or 4 inch block onto the factory bump spots on the control arm. That should limit my uptravel simply by restoring the function of the factory rubber stops mounted to the body. Down travel is limited by the shocks I am running. Stock 95(ish) chevy S-10 rears. Now nitrogen charged gas long travel shocks................ EA82 coilovers have been done......but I just don't see what's gained.
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