Renault 5 GT Turbo conversion - December 06 Coilovers

How to convert to coilovers

This is a guide on converting your shock absorbers to coilovers, using your existing shock absorbers and an adjustable spring seat kit.

This is a great way of having adjustable ride height without the cost. Once converted you can run any 2 1/4" spring that will fit between your platform and the underside of your strut top.Here's a picture of the kit


First of all you need the kit from somewhere like Rally Design, bare in mind you struts need to be less than 2" in diameter or you may have to find a more specialised product, also when you order pay attention to whether the top of your strut is either a round 10mm or D shape.

My conversion was done on my Renault 5 GT Turbo that I have converted to rear wheel drive, I have used phase 1 shock absorbers on the front and phase two on the rear. You can use either phase shock on either phase car providing you use the matching strut top. One other distance is the total length of the shoch absorber travel which caught me out when ordering the springs.

The process of fitting the coilover kit is actually quite straight forward. First follow your trusty Haynes manual to remove the shock absorber and with the aid of a set of spring compressors (quite a cheap tool) compress the spring and remove te strut top.
Then remove the springs from the strut.

Once these are off you can slip the new spring platforms over the shock absorber, you may need to file down any lumps or bumps stopping the threaded tube reaching the old spring platform.
At this point you have two options 1)leave as it is and tack (weld) the sleeve to the strut or 2)remove the majority of the old spring platform. I removed mine mainly because it gave me a lot more room to work and more options to change the shape of my suspension turrets at a later date, it also made them look a bit more like factory coilovers (if I were to spray them).

Either way you will need to tack the threaded sleeve to your strut, you need to be careful at this point as I have been told not to get the strut to hot as it could damage the shock absorber. My best advice is to prepare where you are welding making sure the metal is clean and look for points where the sleeve and shock are already touching as opposed to trying to bridge a gap.

Okay with the sleeve secured, now would be a good time to clean up the shock absorber and paint if desired (don't paint the threaded sleeve) I put a bit of copper grease on my sleeve this gives it a little protection against corrosion.

Now thread your two threaded collars onto the thread and wind them down to the bottom as far as they will go without forcing them. The reason for two is that one will lock the other, ideally you will want a 'C' spanner for adjustment they aren't very expensive around £5 each

Next on will go your spring - Springs will require a bit of research hopefully the guys where you bought the kit from will be able to give you advice as there's a huge range of poundage and lengths

Following this by the last part of the kit the top spring seat, hopefully you bought the right one and it fitted nicely, finally re-fit your strut top assembly which should go over the top. Despite choosing what I thought was the right size I needed to bore the hole out so I could get the original strut top back on. I did this with my pillar drill ensuring the hole remained central as this part is to keep the spring in line.


Just before you fit the shocks back to your car make sure you nip up the height adjustable collars so that the spring isn't wobbling around.

There you have it fully adjustable ride height

Renault 5 GT Turbo conversion - Febuary 2007

February 07 - Hydraulic Clutch Conversion for Renault 5 GT Turbo
Here's are some details of my hydraulic clutch conversion on my Renault 5 GT Turbo. I have had a number of problems with the extended clutch cable I originally had made this is probably due to the length of the cable and the weight of the clutch. The cable finally gave way one fine morning on the way to work, fortuanley only a couple of streets away I manged to start it in 1st gear and get the car home.
Since the conversion I've only had it on the road for a day but the feel is unbelievable it's like driving a new car not because it feels anyway new but the pedal is so light the only comparable car I've been in has been brand new... Anyway here's a list of the parts used...

• MR2 MK1 clutch pedal and housing
• MR2 MK1 master cylinder and first section of pipe
• Toyota Starlet (I think) slave cylinder
• Bit of copper 3/16th pipe - £3.49
• A rubber brake hose (from rear of GT turbo with two female ends) - £free
• 4x male brake unions - £3.96

The first three parts I got from a scrap yard for a bit of elbox grease and £30 - bargin!!
This is the bracket for the slave cylinder, the first being the cardboard template and marked metal the second being part made



Here another picture of the bracket nearing completion and a shot of the clutch release arm as it was prior to welding



Now this is the arm after welding I cut a bit of a clutch release arm from the scrap yard that already had a hydraulic clutch and simply filed it and welded it to the exisitng, the second picture maybe a little hard to work out but is a shot under the dash where the new pedal and braket mounts to, it was in line with the bolt for the windowwiper motor so I just drilled through and used a longer bolt (kind of lucky really)



Here is the pedal in situ with the rest as you can see it's now a million miles away from the old position, the second is a shot of the master cylinder under the engine bay



More shots of the Master cylinder it has a lot smaller profile that I imagined so I see no reason why it couldn't be fitted to front engine R5's as an alternative to the long arm conversion

Renault 5 GT Turbo conversion - December 06

30 DecemberContinued with the firewall divider I also put the calipers on, does anyone know where the clip on the pitcure below is supposed to be?



29 DecemberStarted work on the firewall divider


28 DecemberMade coilovers, found out that phase 1 springs are actually two inches shorter than Phase 2 items so my springs for the rear are a touch two long so these will need to be returned, relocated fuel vent


22 December With only an hour to spare I tried to get the suspension tops off. After many different methods of gripping them in the vice I found that undoing the bolt in the right direction works best, Although I’m sure soaking them in wd40 overnight helped. Thinking I was on a role I attempted the rear callipers with an 8mm spanner to hand I successfully snapped the bleed nipple clean off that was quite enough For one day!


20 DecemberSecured clutch and accelerator cables

19 DecemberSo far today I have bought enough 16x16mm mild steel to make the firewall, along with the existing sheet steel I can make it as I wanted and always build an aluminium one at a later date to save a little weight

18 DecemberI installed the hydraulic handbrake it was quite straight forward but a little time consuming. I had to make a platform to raise the brake Cylinder then add a bracket to the handbrake itself once done It was time to flare the brake pipe ends and Connect it up I was going to start bleeding the brakes but the first nipple I came to was seized what a surprise so I called it a night !


17 DecemberI was going to have the day off today but instead I took the polycarbonate round to my father-in-laws to cut it to Shape for the divider and side windows. Next up was the hydraulic hand brake but I only got round to collecting the flaring tool so hopefully that'll be a job for tomorrow night



16 DecemberAfter all the excitements of starting the engine it was time to get aback to more mundane tasks, there’s nothing worse than having to go back over things that you have already done but they need doing it if it is going to be safe on the road. One d the things was the cross-member and mounting points for the Sub-frame. The sub-frame needed to be lowered for more clearance and gave me the opportunity to sink the Cross-member further down to provide that extra bit of strength. This took me pretty much all day, I may have done it a little a little quicker, if I hadn’t had a small fire!! A bit of welding splat ignited a cloth full of meths… oh well no damage done but a lesson learnt. My plan was to get the coilover kit onto the shocks but I couldn’t get the bolt off the top of the struts so I just placed the shocks on as they were and as expected the front sits considerably higher than I want. The only other thing was to fit the two cables both seem to work okay although the clutch was a little stiff. mind you it was before…



13 DecemberStill revelling in my triumph of starting the engine I decided to mount the rear bumper to begin making the car look a little more road going, just a lot of grinding, drilling really making a hole for the new exhaust position and opening the bottom vent up to allow better air flow through the oil cooler, all in all it doesn't look to rough and it fits quite snug. I also Connected boost gauge and changed rear bulb



12 DecemberOne other quite essential job is to build a firewall between me and the engine, ideally I would like it to be made out of aluminium but I have a feeling the first one at least will be made out of mild steel as it's more readily available and considerably cheaper (oh and I've never welded aluminium :) . I drew up a drawing of the firewall and tool a trip to Leengate metals to get a price on aluminium, if you're really interested it can be seen here


11 DecemberDetermined to get this show on the road I took in my clutch and Accelerator cables to speedo-graph which as a matter of luck was just round the corner from me, they were very friendly and said they could turn them around within the week, I asked for them both to be 3.6m tip to tip, which if I'm honest was possibility a touch long for the clutch cable but we'll see what happens. I also rang Amari plastics and gave measurements again these will be available by the end of the week.. the suppliers details can be found here on my costs page


10 DecemberFinally a huge milestone, I started the engine!! at approx 8.30pm on Saturday night much to the dismay of my neighbours the reno awoke.. the only stopping point was a sticking starter motor which after a few try's burst into life and never gave me any hassle after that.. now the next step is to get it out on the road, I'm hoping for a road test before Christmas but we'll see.. Anyway here's a quick video as you can hear from my wife it was quite an exciting time :)




08 DecemberWell the Wii has been released today not that there's any left to buy!! last night my friend came round and brough his brake flaring tool so we got most of the brake pipes done except the ones to the brake bias as unfortuanly it used what I can only imagine as imperial connections so I'll have to nip to transco to get the right connectors, I started work on mounting the oil cooler which I have found a suitable place at the rear. The only other thing I managed to do was brake the clutch pedal.. so that's going to need fix soon!



07 Decemberfinished clutch cable coupler.. bit of a mouthfull!! not sure I'm entirely happy with it until the engine is running I'll not know for sure if it's lifting the clutch another so may have to revisit this see first pic below. Next up was the fuel pressure regualtor that was quite straight forwardmodifying an original bracket see below. I finished off the front to rear water hoses these are all jubilee clipped up! I also put a jubiliee clip arround the handbrake cables as you can see in the picture for some reason they keep popping out I'm hoping once the brakes are bled I shouldn't need as much force to apply the handbrake ellivating this issue finally the brake bias adjuster is also in place seen in the same picture..As you can see by the final picture I think this evening should be spent tidying up!!

04 DecemberToday was a bracket making day, one for the brake bias adjuster, one for the clutch cable coupler, one for the front clutch cable to sit in, one for the fuel pressure regualtor and one for the fuel pump all in all quite successful although they do need finishing which hopefully will be fitted this week


03 DecemberPictures to follow.. I spent today in the scrap yard pulling out the gearchange mechanism from an MR2 the reason? well it's a cable type system versus my current rod setup, apart from looking sleeker ie no rods hanging down it will give a lot more solid feel to the gearchange (once fitted that is!!) but thats for another day, I also got the right sized hoses for to finish the plumbing



01 DecemberYeah Decembers here, hopefully this will be the month I at least fire her up!! Last night I finished the wiring (apart from the main battery cable)refitted the alternator and starter motor, replaced the TDC sensor and tidied up the wiring into the balck plastic conduits. I also finished the plumbing at the front of the car and made a start at the rear I just need one 32mm bendy hose and a bit of 32mm pipe to finish, lets see what the weekend brings. Here's a few progress pictures, the last picture is underneath looking at the connections for the main water hoses

Renault 5 GT Turbo conversion - November 2006

16 NovemberDon't worry you haven't missed much,The main reason for the lack of updates was the preparation for my wedding back on April 15th. This took the majority of my time, fear not though it will be finished and hopefully sometime this year!! (that's what you think -Ed)
Ran fan cables, ecu cables and temp sender cables from the front to the back, nothing tricky here, still need to solder them up though, connected the old looms to the rear light clusters


18 NovemberReplaced the track rod end and cut the oil cooler pipes fortunately they were both 1/2 inch inner bore so a union should just do the trick


20 NovemberWorking out what I could do with the intercooler, currently I have two ideas the first would be to mount it in the roof with some kind of vent/scoop that would draw the air to it.. it could be a opening vent that could be down until I need more intercooling or running high boost. The second idea is to make a charge cooler by welding two caps either side of the intercooler fins providing full water immersion.. however I am going to leave this until last especially as the ambient temperature is so low at the moment.


24 November
As it's been so long since I took the part it took me about an hour to figure out where all the water pipes used to go, then realising I wouldn't be using half of them because the heater no longer being used I came up with the picture below hopefully this should work.. today I also order some more fuel hose 5/16ths, a coilover conversion kit for the front or rear.. not sure yet, a long accelerator cable and the caliper bolts I desperately needed.. and to complete the spending spree a brake bias adjuster



27 NovemberWiring was the order of the weekend with only minor burns I've made good progress soldering the front to rear connections in the engine bay just the rest fo the inside to do. I think it would be better to confirm everything is working before I loom it up!! Other than that my coilover conversion kit arrived with bias adjuster and fuel pipe, so braking will be next on the list after compiling the wiring this week. I also managed to source the 1/2" unions from thinkauto who very kindly supplied them at no charge