Hubs From A Different Vehicle

[daisu]

People, I'm wondering what's the likelyhood of being able to find a hub from a different vehicle that is going to fit up to the suspension arms of the S13/14/15. If I have to do some reasonably small mods like using different control arms and what not to get it to fit then I don't mind, only thing I'm worried about is completely ruining my steering/suspension geometry. But I figure people lower their cars insane amounts, use longer control arms and wind in max castor with adjustable arms without too much drama so it shouldn't be too bad.

Reason for this, I want to use some sort of FWD or AWD front hubs so I can convert my cefiro to AWD.

I know that some cefiros came factory fitted AWD, but they utilised the double wishbone suspension from the skyline, whereas the RWD cefiro uses the same suspension as the S13, so I can't just whack the drivetrain in. Buying a factory AWD cefiro is also probably out of the question as I've only ever heard of 1 person owning one and I don't think they'd be a common thing in japan either, if you could find one it'd have to be an 88 model to bring it across.

[Adriano]

I would look around at fitting the GTR front suspension. It has been done before, you just need to mount the upper control arm/wish bone, and use a gtr subframe i believe.

[daisu]

Yeah, using the front suspension from a skyline is going to involve having to weld the suspension mounts in, which is going to be costly, there is a group in the US that does this conversion to S14's, and they weld in the suspension from the GTR.

Subframe, yep already looked into that.

[Medium Dave]

Im not sure what it is like, but have you had a look at the suspension from the standard pulsars or GTiR? - Reasoning that its an sr20 with fwd/4wd, might be completely different, but you may get lucky

[daisu]

Yeah I'm planning to have a look at some Nissan family stuff first, the GTiR springs to mind, as does the regular pulsar, may also look at the patrol (though I'm not betting on it).

[Adriano]

The gtr upper wishbone/lonk bolts to the body

[daisu]

The gtr upper wishbone/lonk bolts to the body

That is true, but the strut towers in the S13 and RWD-A31 are completely different to the towers in the skyline, it's definitely not a matter of unbolting the upper arm and then drilling holes and bolting it into the S13 (or cefiro).

Even if you did, the strut tower would probably collapse. Alternatively you could cut the towers out of the skyline and then weld them into the cefiro (or S13), but that kind of modification is not reversible and would render the car track only... if it did work.

I managed to find some photos of GTiR uprights, and they look very similar if not identical to the S series uprights. I'm going to go hunting at wreckers to see if I can compare them side by side, at least then I'll have a better idea of whether it's going to work or not.

[Adriano]

Not meaning to sound rude, but have you compared your car to a gtr. If you are comcerned about some fairly minor mods to the strut tower, then how do you plan to run the driveshafts through the chassis rails where the gtr is vastly different, or the transfer case, which will require a gtr floorpan/section to be structurally welded in? Im not trying to knock your ideas, but this has been done before, why not just copy what is already a workable solution, there are even detailed photos of the front suspension and underbody on this forum

Edited July 21, 2008 by Adriano

[daisu]

No I don't have a GTR to compare this to, but I do have a regular R32 in my driveway and I can tell that fitting the double wishbone suspension is not a fairly minor mod to the strut tower.

I am aware there are going to be problems with the transfer case and the chassis rails, but one step at a time...

I am eager to see where this has been done before, I have been looking for research for a while now, this wasn't just some idea I thought up and posted in a couple mins. I haven't been able to find any detailed photos of a conversion like this anywhere, the best I found was the FullRace R14 conversion (GTR engine and gear into the S14) and even then they don't show great detail of the conversion. All you can see is that they have welded in the double wishbone suspension.

[Adriano]

Im pretty sure URAS posted up some photos in a similar thread a few months ago

[daisu]

I found a thread where someone was considering the conversion to an S15 and uras was saying he was considering putting the double wishbone suspension into the S13, but there were no photos and he said he didn't end up bothering about it because of lack of steering lock...

which is a good point, you can only turn the front wheels soo far if they have driveshafts in them...