Pre may 1983 suspension, anyone know the in's and out's

[stoofodelux]

now then folks, i wondered if anyone could help me regarding the obviously more common and earlier "rally" suspension set up of rsi's, ive read in one of my old mans ford bibles, that most of them have the "knock knee" look(as with all early mark 3's) - 3 way ajustable konis, allowing the camber to be ajusted and theres no anti roll bar at the rear which is why on a road thats not as smooth as steel the cars a ryt handful! i read there used to be a 12 mil rear kit for sale, but i dout u could get that now, and i also read the later ones with like practically xr3i suspension and it made them handle better on B or shud i say british roads lol so im wondering if any one can shed any light on this, weather to leave it standard or weather anyone makes a modern full suspension system, and what about things like a full coilover conversion is that possible with that front tie rod setup ????????????????/ complicated stuff id apreciate anyone who knows even a bit about this chipping in

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[It's Czech Mate]

The 16i has adjustable tie bars which alters the castor, not the camber. Both early and late types of 16i have this along with the koni adjustables and the twin rollbar setup. The revisions were IIRC slightly altered mounting points at the rear? and the Sierra type top to the front struts which as you say eliminated the 'knock Kneed' look as it altered the CAMBER

The REAR anti rollbar was on the official spec but never fitted. It is the same as on an orion of a similar age but will only fit the early RS1600i's as the enlarged fuel tank on the revised model gets in the way IIRC.

16i's handle pretty well as standard so all i'd do is fit a rear roll bar if it'll fit and make sure the shocks are in good nick or replace with new. I'm not sure about fitting a full set of coilovers.......anyone else done it?

Only other thing I can think of is if it's lowered at all it may be worth seeing if you can source some camber adjustable TCA's made up to prevent excessive tyre wear and the bushes wearing prematurely...but I'm not sure if these would be cheap.

[stoofodelux]

thanks thats made it alot more clearer the ol' ford tech manuals are a bit comfusing coss they keep banging on bout XR3's and xr3i's and the differences on being slightly convtradictory :S

it says in my book that the later ones on ur average road handle better coss of how the suspension was changed, ford even sed later ones didnt need that roll bar at the rear anyway, because they had changed it sufficiently for it not to need it, an obviously the fuel tank was bigger and they hadnt thought of it lol

does anyone know if u can get that roll bar or if someone makes one after market? or what bout a series one/two anti roll bar could that be fitted does anyone know?

cheers

[It's Czech Mate]

Thats right mate, the later ones do handle better AFAIK, the rear roll bar was never fitted to early or late models although it was on the spec list on the early ones IIRC.

I'm pretty sure Pete-RSi has the rear roll bar fitted tho.....I'm sure someone who has one will be able to tell you more about it. Good luck