Help me choose my struts

[jhm]

han-solo, don't know if you got an answer to your question regarding bump stops; but yes, the Bilsteins have an internal bump stop so no need for another "external" bump stop.  (I'd be surprised if one could even find a production bump stop that fits on that massive chrome shaft!)

[mr_han_solo]

han-solo, don't know if you got an answer to your question regarding bump stops; but yes, the Bilsteins have an internal bump stop so no need for another "external" bump stop.  (I'd be surprised if one could even find a production bump stop that fits on that massive chrome shaft!)

 

Thanks for the reply. As for my second question, any idea if I will still have to cut my strut tubes since I bought the correct gland nuts and have the tubing for my spacers? I went ahead and bought a tubing cutter just in case I do, but since the guide I'm using is several years old I'm hoping that its one thing that has changed.

[jhm]

I'm far from being the expert here, but I think you can leave the strut tubes as-is if you're not planning to lower the car much.  I believe there are several guys on here that have used the Bilsteins in their stock strut tubes (uncut) with the correct spacers and gland nuts.  

 

If you plan on lowering the car more than an inch or so (just a guess on my part), you'll probably want to section the strut tubes, otherwise you start to lose your suspension travel quickly (i.e. the logic behind sectioning the strut tubes enables you to lower the car but still maintain sufficient suspension travel.)

 

Hope this makes sense, and I'm sure that some of the experts can chime in and explain it much more articulately.  Good luck with it!

[G-E]

yes, the Bilsteins have an internal bump stop so no need for another "external" bump stop.  (I'd be surprised if one could even find a production bump stop that fits on that massive chrome shaft!)

 

The bilstein is inverted, that massive shaft is the strut body, the narrow piston rod (and it is narrow) including the bumpstop are hidden inside the painted housing...

 

So to replace the bumpstop you have to unbolt the rod from the housing and remove everything.

 

It's not magic

[1vicissitude]

Without a revalve, does anyone know what spring rates work well with the sports?

Edited October 18, 2014 by 1vicissitude

[mr_han_solo]

Well I started working on putting the struts together this morning and I ran into a few problems. First off, I know this post was from September/October but I thought it would be better to keep all of these questions in one thread to make it easier for anyone with future questions.

 

The first problem is with the sleeves that fit over the strut and housing itself and allows for the adjustment for the spring itself. The hole at the top is to small for to fit over the chrome shock body itself. That's no big deal as  I can just use a hole bit or a hone to drill it out to the correct size.

 

The second problem and my first questions is regarding the top aluminum cover or what would be considered the top spring seat. As you can see in the photo below it currently rests on the heads of the allen screws. Any ideas of how I should fix this? It looks like I have three options:

 

#1 Grind down the head of the allen screw. Actually after looking at the picture grinding the aliens down looks like I will actually get into the "meat" of the allen itself.

 

#2 Weld the tops to the seats and then remove allen screws

 

#3 Since the tension of the spring will keep the seat in place and against the top part (which rests against the torrington bearing/upper isolator. Just take the allen screws out and leave them as separate pieces resting on-top of each other.

 

 

My second question regards the bearing. Should I leave it as part of the assembly or let the rubber strut top rest on the aluminum top seat?

 

EDIT: After reading the Cosmo instructions again it says to leave the entire upper assembly as stock. So the bearing does stay in place.

 

 

***UPDATE***

 

After drilling out the threaded spring seat (pictured below), I was able to go ahead and hand assemble the assembly. Note: Also in the picture below is the top spring isolator. The previous guide I was using says to drill this out to 1/2". Unfortunately, you need to go one bit past 1/2" to get it to fit over the threaded part of the Bilsteins. Dunno if this is something that has changed over the years or what but the 1/2" hole would not fit.

 

Here is a picture of the Bilstein (with spacer)next to the stock strut. To get my spacer length I marked with a sharpie where the strut should sit and dropped it in the tube and marked again. The difference between the two is the length of the spacer I cut. I think it was 2-9/16".

 

Bilstein in the tube:

 

Gland nut tightened:

 

Here is what it looks like hand assembled.

 

Now here is something I'm worried about. As you can see on the above photo the spring is as high up as it will go on the threaded sections. I still have a couple of inches between the top seat and the spring itself. Will this compress correctly when I put it on the car or is something not right? I suppose the better way to say it is should the spring be under tension before I install or after I install and get the car back on the ground?

 

Also, what I think is the bigger problem is the strut but itself. After the torrington and upper isolator go on top of the upper seat I only have two thread to put the upper strut nut onto. The nut itself is a long way from catching on the nylock part at the top of the threads. Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

 

Han

Edited January 5, 2015 by mr_han_solo

[mr_han_solo]

Been playing around with the struts some more.

Here is how the Cosmos look on a stock strut:


Now here is the measurements from the seat to the top of the strut with a stock 240z strut:


Here is the same picture, from the seat to the top of the P30 Bilstein Strut.


Now I removed the top piece from the top seat. (the little metal dome that I was talking about welding earlier. If I was to bore the top seat out to go around the strut itself (like the bottom seat and threaded piece) I can still rest it on the torrington bearing like the picture below:



My next question is, would it be okay for the torrington to rest on the strut body itself? If it is okay for this, then my original spring to top gap would be cut in half:


Any suggestions?

[johnc]

Throw away the Cosmo stuff.

[clarkspeed]

Maybe its me but that spring looks way too short. You can purchase 2-1/2 springs in 8 or 10" length in any stiffness you want. Those look like 6"?