I put in a whole bunch other things as well, including Tein Pillow mounts for camber adjustment & offset castor polyurethane bushes.
When the term 'adjustable' is used on swaybars - all it is, is a number of available mounting holes that you can use to connect the bars to the droplinks - each setting gives a different feel.
With mine being a GR - the rear bar is not adjustable. Reason being the rear droplinks are adjustable on a GR. Unlike standard droplinks (a metal rod with 2 ball joints welded on) the GR rear links are a threaded rod with movable bushes on them. This is where I do my rear adjustment. On a GPX, the rear swarbar is adjustable - ie has the different mounting holes.
Standard front size is 15mm - upgraded to 18mm. The rear is 18mm, upgraded to 22mm. Neither the front or rear feels tighter than the other, it remains balanced, just stiffer.
Too much neg camber is not so good either (as I discovered ) your turn in & cornering precision is huge, but you subsitute less tyre on the road & unpredicatable handling during low speed manouvering (like 3 point turns in a carpark.) I have mine set at 1.75 degrees.
More castor is good thou, again gives a more precise feel. You can get upto 2 degrees with 'off the shelf' bushes.
The FTO being fairly powerful for a FWD also requires a certain amount of toe-in as well. Not enough & you will 'rail road' all over roads with sunken driving channels. Adding that bit more toe-in also helps with torque steer.
Too much & you'll wear your tyres out quick smart. I have 0.75 degrees set. It helps compensate the twitchy feel that bigger camber & castor gives.
As with most suspension mods thou, there are pros & cons to every mod. Each car & driver will have their own preference & should certainly be setup by a good suspension shop. Test drive each setting & see what suits you
Thanks Bennoz!
Is it easy to get the adjustable strut tops for camber/castor? I'm just planning on using the original FTO springs and shocks as I feel they are more than adequate, plus Parra Road is already bumpy enough as it is
I'll definitely be upgrading my swaybars but thinking of going to K-Mac as they make swaybars according to whatever thickness you want. I've had a few swaybars made by them already and haven't had any probs. I think the whiteline stuff is great but I feel it's a little exxy.
Another thing is, because FTO parts are pretty hard to come, are there any other suspension parts in the Mitsu range that the FTO shares the same parts with? This would make it a whole lot easier to find aftermarket suspension goodies.
All up I'm looking to setup a car that is great handling on street and for a little bit of motorkhana use.
Oh, and how adjustable are the GPX whiteline adjustables? do they say what's the thickness range at all?
yeah i saw the standard thickness but also wanted to know how far they were adjustable to. should've explained better I guess.
K-Mac supply new bushes when they fit the swaybars (they're normally just D type bushes anyway which is standard on most cars). From memory I believe theirs is red in colour. Make sure you put some of that white grease onto the bushes or they'll be squeaking all over the place.
Im a bit like yourself. My car is driven every day to & from work, and to 'point c' on weekends. I didn't want want a mega hard setup - just enough to keep me ahead of the players come motorsport events.
I kept the struts & shocks stock, but went with a slightly uprated (and slightly lowered) Apex springs.
Kmac do good stuff - if you need a set of stock bars for them to replicate - let me know. I have a set in my shed. I was going to do a Whiteline group buy as i can get a both front & back (including bushes & lube) for under $400. Unfortunately they only have the 2 above mentioned sizes off the shelf for the FTO. http://www.ftoaustralia.com/modules.php ... pic&t=6002
Some of the FTO stuff is compatible with other models. Dwayne (dstocks) and I have a copy of the Mitsubishi parts database which gives alternative part numbers & other models that the part was used on. You just need to ask what part you need & we can look it up. Or checks Dwayne's website: http://www.completefto.com.au/fto_showcontent.asp
There are 3 settings of adjustment of the front swaybars, 2 on the rear. I cant give you dimensions off the top of my head sorry.
If you guys have the stock bars then I could ask them if they do any deals for bulk runs of swaybars. probably be able to pack together a cheap group buy (cheaper than whiteline for sure) with thickness determined by you instead of an off the shelf kit.
have you adjusted the front and rear bars or have you left it as is (18 and 22mm)?
edit - just saw the pics of your TEIN pillow mount tops, how much were they and how much camber and castor are you able to dial in with them??
Bennoz wrote:LOL - yeah Parra Rd aint so pretty these days
was it ever pretty? it's been the same since I've started driving. I go through it around 180 times a year (not as much as you Bennoz) so I'm in for new sway bar bushes and maybe sway bars. depending on the price. Can you get us some prices first ahew? I might be interested in new sway bars.
yeah i'll call K-Mac up this afternoon to find out. I'll let you guys know what they say. kinda getting excited now but don't want to over inflate my hopes just yet.
Bennoz wrote:LOL - yeah Parra Rd aint so pretty these days
was it ever pretty? it's been the same since I've started driving..
hehe I was reading some stats on Parra Rd in the paper just the other day - apparently, every time it gets a hard dose of rain, over 600 new pot holes appear!! . It costs the combined councils over 1.2m a year in patch work!!
And yeah Ahew, keep us posted - depsite the fact I've just done all this - Im curious to see what Kmac come up with It'd be good to know we have options
I'm just planning on using the original FTO springs and shocks as I feel they are more than adequate, plus Parra Road is already bumpy enough as it is
Try driving in Tasmania..............the government has put all our money into Horse Racing and more Speed Camera's.
If your FTO is nearing it's 10th anniversary I would ditch the standard shocks and springs.
Got some new Koni's and some Kings Springs (lowered) fitted yesterday and the change in ride comfort is amazing. This was on top of previously having most bushes and the droplinks replaced.
actually my shocks seem ok, but i think i'll take it to pedders to get everything checked up so i know where i stand. my car has only had 60k km's done on it so yeah...
peeps didn't have time to call k-mac yesterday afternoon but i'll do it this morning.
hey, before i call k-mac i also wanted to know do lancer/galant strut tops fit the fto? they sell strut top adjustables for a range of mitsubishis and i'm not sure which one would fit the fto.
ahew wrote: my car has only had 60k km's done on it so yeah...
I wouldn't trust these figures. My mechanic put my car up on the hoist and told me my car had done more K's then the dial says. He then comforted me by say near all jap cars have their clocks wound back before they are sent here.
My bike mechanic confirmed the above by telling me that all grey imports (bikes) have their clocks wound back before they hit our shores, which kinda makes sense. Like I see 1989 CBR's with like 20K on the clock, that means these bikes travelled 3.4Klms a day which I serieriously doubt cos that's like to the corner shop and back for us.
yeah i know, but i've had a few import cars now and i know that the only real way to tell is by the interior and exterior condition. this is definitely genuine k's. owner here was a 50y/o man and imported it himself in 2002 (confirmed with RTA) but only clocked up 9k km's since then as he travelled overseas for business heaps.
anyway, damn pc was being rebuilt at work today and i had to stop my conversation with k-mac mid convo when some problem happened at work. dammit.. thwarted again. i'll call them tomorrow morning. promise cross my heart this time.
just got off the phone with K-Mac and the swaybars are.....
$245 for the front and $225 for the rear
thought they would've been cheaper but I guess not. They make them 2mm thicker than standard. Looks like Whiteline is the way to go then!
If anybody is interested in the adjustable strut tops, same as the Lancer CE as somebody has mentioned already, it's $380 per pair. How does this compare to any of the other adjustable strut tops on the market?
well, once my car comes out of the repair shop I'm going to take it to pedders to give it a suspension check. I'm sure most of my bushes are ok though as my car hasn't had a very hard life at all. Will definitely know the truth after the check though!
) your turn in & cornering precision is huge, but you subsitute less tyre on the road & unpredicatable handling during low speed manouvering (like 3 point turns in a carpark.) I have mine set at 1.75 degrees.
it's been the same since I've started driving. I go through it around 180 times a year (not as much as you Bennoz) so I'm in for new sway bar bushes and maybe sway bars. depending on the price. Can you get us some prices first ahew? I might be interested in new sway bars.
. It costs the combined councils over 1.2m a year in patch work!! 
He then comforted me by say near all jap cars have their clocks wound back before they are sent here. 
