Working A Stagea

[RBJ3T]

Hi there!

I am about to buy a Stagea. I just would like some info on performance and 4WD capabilities. Does anybody have any comment on the stagea 4WD system. In other words I give my new stagea 1 week before i hope to pump out 250kw atw. Has any body had issues with the stageas drive train. Is it strong.....

[SLO-N-STEDY]

umm gearbox will hold. A guy on here has 260kw atw with the auto box. front drive shaft may be first to go, but swap to GTR shafts and diff would be worthwhile mod.

[BE6027]

im the guy who has the stag wit 260 atw i bought it two weeks ago of r33stagea (jay)

just pm him, but the car seems to handle it alright, bit scary, wait, very scary, ha ha...

[CruiseLiner]

i snapped rear axle with 350hp at wheels coming on boost in 1st gear (not a launch from deadstop), that was with a manual box and highflow turbos on rb26.

i found out the axles are tiny and unijoints also. just found out the front driveshaft is also smaller than the gtr one as well.

heres a pic of the comparo of gtr vs stagea axles in the rear...

gtr is the bottom one and stagea is the top one

heres where mine snapped

also my stagea didnt have a lsd in the rear which is a pain with more power, so i switched a full gtr rear diff, axles, hubs, brakes, uni joints etc in. u will need custom length axles as well.

best bet is to buy a series 2 manual and im 99% sure they all have gtr driveline (except the motor obviously), im unsure if the auto series 2 have lower spec driveline or not.

hope it helps

Brad

Edited December 18, 2006 by CruiseLiner

[BE6027]

oh, i bent my wookie... hope that don't happen to me...

[tRUkbOY]

I have an S1 & have probably only 180rwkw (if that) but with a manual conversion. I've done approx 8-10 standing start launches with no problems so far.

For interests sake I did a [email protected]/h short shifting 2nd to 3rd & 3rd to 4th (stock boost/full interior)

[ian]

best bet is to buy a series 2 manual and im 99% sure they all have gtr driveline (except the motor obviously)..

Brad

Brad, I've got a series 2 manual (2000) - how would I tell what the driveline was? Anything I should take pics of (ie could you tell from a pic?) or anything I should measure?

Ian

edit: your pictures just came up (I'm having some internet problems..) I'll go measure the rear xles on my stagea...

Edited December 22, 2006 by ian

[Stinky Rooster]

the easiest way I can think of is to have a look at the front driveshaft - the S1 stagea has a straight shaft, but the GTR one steps up in diameter half way along - check the thread about gearbox/centre diff probs started by yours truly and you will see a photo of the 2 shafts side by side.

Hope this helps

[ian]

I'll look at the front when it stops raining..

But looking at the back a few minutes ago -

and comparing it to brads pictures above, it does look like the GTR one - ie it has the same two bits of rubber before the main join as the GTR one (unlike the 3 for the stagea) and looks about the same size as the GTR one as well - measuring roughly with my fingers I'd say it was about 13cm diameter, where the stagea brad took above looks like about 8cm..

Anyone have any thoughts? I'll check the front later.

Ian

- and the back steering looks like hicas to me, ie not the super hicas that my R34 has.

[ian]

looking as best I can (ie without jacking the car up), I think I can clearly say I'm not sure.

Looking at newbie101's pic ie

(where the GTR one is at the top) I can't tell if it gets wider or not..

I suspect it might though, as looking down the shaft (I turned the wheel on an angle) at about the right spot for the size change there appears to be a rubber ring or something..

Anybody know how I can check this easly without pulling the car apart?

Ian

ps - sorry if I've got slightly off topic, though if we do have the GTR bits in the RS4S it will make a difference how much power we can put through it!

[CruiseLiner]

hey ian, the easiest way to tell the 2 different axle sizes on the rear diff are the bolt up areas on the shafts to the diff. the stagea ones are 2 bolts together in 3 seperate lots and the gtr ones are 6 evenly spaced bolts all the way around.

hard to explain but u will see if u look on my first pic.

take a pic of the axle section that bolts onto the diff housing and i can tell u which it is.

heres measurements i did from an old thread on the diff conversion and comparision of gtr to stagea parts...

Splines into hub

stagea 29.82mm

gtr 32.65mm

axle thickness

stagea 28.07mm

gtr 30.07mm

swaybars

stagea 19.25mm

gtr 25.60mm

rear brake rotors

stagea 265.05mm

gtr 297.02mm

axle to diff uni joint size

stagea 90.63mm

gtr 98.94mm

Edited December 22, 2006 by CruiseLiner

[wolverine]

well i can confirm a few things about series 2 manual stageas.

the rear sway bar is a 24mm hollow (vs 19mm auto)

the rear shocks have a forked bottom (vs eye auto)

i think the front swaybar is larger than the auto (but i need to find it in the garage)

almost certainly, from talking to SK, the manual is made up from the R33 GTR parts bin.

i think cruisey is spot on.

[ian]

...

almost certainly, from talking to SK, the manual is made up from the R33 GTR parts bin.

i think cruisey is spot on.

If that is the case, and I'm not disagreeing , I'm surprised more of the guys on this forum haven't bought a rs4s to do up instead of a series one auto - 'cause by the time you swapped the transmission, and upgraded the axles, intercooler, etc etc, it would probably be cheaper to get the 'S' in the first place!

So yep, happy with mine - though I mainly bought it for the wife and more importantly, she is happy with it..

[wolverine]

ian, it seems there is a little extra fruit and we are just discovering it now, it certainly makes the idea of a manual conversion seem like the hard way.

ps. i have a set of standard S2 manual sway bars which are an upgrade for auto stageas if anyone is interested.

[ian]

we probably should start a RS4S thread..

[CruiseLiner]

so they have gtr suspension then and do they have the smaller wheelbase like the autech or not i wonder? i have very very little wheel clearance due to the angle of the coilovers in the rear as the hub section where the coilover bolts onto is abit too far out from the diff and thats the reason the autech models have the shorter track to allow coilovers to sit straight up and down (and also the wheel clearance).

anyone with a rs4 want to take a pic of the angle of the coilovers in the rear from a behind view so i can get an idea?

this is mine...