Dedion

[stratosTRD]

Does anyone has installed "Dedion" suspension at his ae?
I'm thinking of it seriously

[Ivan141]

Not much room for it to be honest, besides, the weight distribution is not bad if you stick to a 4age, so you dont need to bring more weight to the rear wheels. The hassle of the gear linkage /torque tube / bellhousing is also not worth it.
Why not just use independent rear suspension and keep the gearbox in the front?

[SekiguchiUeno]

Don't understand exactly what you mean (transaxle?), de dion is in my opinion live axle without diff, where the diff is mounted on the chassis and driveshafts are used like in the IRS setup.

[Ivan141]

A-ha, I think you might have a point there... I got confused since I own a volvo 360 that has a transaxle + de-Dion rear setup. If so, then I think it's an even worse decision than going for transaxle. You'll still have all the drawbacks of a live rear axle after all the effort you need to put in to make it fit. Might as well go the whole hog and fit a proper IRS rear end in (nissan S13/14).

[stratosTRD]

The reason i'm thinking of this is mounting all the weight of the axle to the chassis and leave only the rear wheels with the suspension moving so i don't have all the weight moving up and down and loosing grip of the rear at bumping roads and turns which my country is full of it.
Anyway i'll let u know when my restoration project begins.
By the way this is my ae86

[Ivan141]

Nice ride! I understand the benefit in unsprung weight you get from a de dion, but you're better off fitting proper independent rear suspension (preferably something with double wishbone layout).

[Lajoosh]

Ivan141 Wrote:Nice ride! I understand the benefit in unsprung weight you get from a de dion, but you're better off fitting proper independent rear suspension (preferably something with double wishbone layout).

aggreed!

not to mention making a custom de dion suspension would cost you a ton of cash + nobody done this before on an 86 afaik -> nobody can help you if something is wrong with it and you cant figure it out yourself. (and that we never seen it before on 86, i guess there is a good reason for that, actually i didnt even see any car running that on racetrack) btw you only lose the diff casing and diff unsprung weight, not all the components and youll still have the caracteristics of the live axle. i dont believe its that much lighter compared to the irs suspension where you have plus one arm that holds the wheels and if that little weight makes a difference, then youre already screwed on a racetrack.
listen to the guys above! make a decent irs suspension like the s13 conversion. cost effective easy to swap, lot of aftermarket stuff, lot of brake options, works well, people here will help you with it.
good luck with your project, nice base you got there!

[NoHachi]

Have we ever seen an 86 with independent suspension that did well at the track? Anyone have any links?

I always look at the escort mk2 to get an idea of what is possible with the 86. This guy seems to do pretty well, despite the live axle handicap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d01VBR5nKPw
And on undoubtedly bumpy roads too.. Live axle works good enough for him to be able to compete for the fastest time of the day with the single seater racecars.
Colin McRae built an escort mk2, with IRS etc etc to compete with his brother (4 linked GP4 escort). He did well, but never beat the live axle cars.

If you really need an IRS car, then I think its better to just sell the 86 to someone who appreciates it and buy an S13 or MX5. Most IRS conversions end up performing worse...which is sometimes an advantage in drifting.