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The Strut thread - Koni / Illumina / Tokico / Carrera / Bilstein / Ground Control


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Cartridge is 12 1/4" long. Overall length is 21 1/2".

 

I have been told you will want at least 4" of bump.

 

YMMV

 

Did you take those measurments yourself? What were your measuring points?

 

I contacted Bilstein and was given these specs for the P30-0032

 

Extended length 19.74''

Compressed length 13.98''

Body 12.52''

Stroke 5.76''

 

 

Edit: called Bilstein Rep again changed body length.

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Did you take those measurments yourself? What were your measuring points?

 

I contacted Bilstein and was given these specs for the P30-0032

 

Extended length 19.74''

Compressed length 13.98''

Body 15.04''

Stroke 5.76''

 

Now I'm confused.

 

Yup, measured myself, bottom of strut cartridge to the top of the cartridge, ie the yellow portion in the picture. The overall measurement is from the same bottom point to the top thread. No nut installed.

 

It is possible that I reversed the fractional measurements. I wasn't writing the numbers down. If I did, then that is nearly identical to what you found on the VW forums.

 

I didn't measure diameter, etc.

 

I have these installed in sectioned struts and I had to use spacers in the rear to bring the top of the cartridge up to where it would "lock" in place with the gland nut. JohnC's strut instructions were pretty close to dead on! Of course, this is how I found the car, I am sectioning some new struts to replace my current setup.

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Everything seems reasonable now. I called Bilstein once again and got numbers very close to what rxsleeper and what I originally posted from the VW forum. I guess there was some miscommunication with the Bilstein rep. the first time.

 

If you want exact numbers see post #302.

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I just performed the install a couple weeks ago. Thought I'd share my experience. Front strut tube length was 15", rear 16.5". Went to Home Depot and purchased a couple 1 1/4" pieces of galvanized pipe. Fits perfectly in the 240 tubes. With my purchase, I special ordered the B629-A1's after reading this thread. The B629-Q1's came with the struts, as did the female threaded gland nuts for the 79-84 VW Rabbit or Scirocco. I'm almost 100% convinced the B629-Q1's would work on a 280 strut. Same thread pitch, just a little larger than the A1's.

 

Worked with John Williams at his shop doing the install. We measured the struts and tubes and cut sections of the galvanized tubing to size. We did NOT cut down the gland nut. Instead, we sized the galvanized tube just a little shy of the top so the gland nut would cinch down on the strut. In doing so, we also used every single thread on the inside of the strut tube. There was still about 3-4 threads showing out of the strut on the gland nut, but we bottomed the gland nut out on the end of the threads of the tube - in hopes (as others have mentioned in this post) that the gland nut wouldn't work its' way loose.

 

BTW - the B30 on the gland nut, and the P30 in the strut part # coincide to the shaft diameter size of 30mm.

 

Haven't put her on the ground yet, but hopefully soon. Thought I'd just add my humble $0.02 worth...

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The B629-Q1's came with the struts, as did the female threaded gland nuts for the 79-84 VW Rabbit or Scirocco. I'm almost 100% convinced the B629-Q1's would work on a 280 strut. Same thread pitch, just a little larger than the A1's.

 

No offense, but don't post you're 100% convinced purely based on speculation. The B30-629 Q1 nut was discussed at length only a few pages back. As stated, it's a 50x1.5mm nut, the 280z strut is 52x1.5mm.

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Katman, I've been meaning to ask you about this. Not to put you on the spot, but you seem to have conflicting information regarding spring rates on the EP car. I Back in '05 you originally posted in response to JohnC's question about 500lb rates ont that car:

 

 

 

This would mean the rates were in the 300F/250R neighborhood for the EP car, is this correct, and if so, was again this with the 300/100 valving? What I find even more confusing is on page 6 someone asked you about this very setup and you suggested against it. Also 70/30 is a far cry from 300/100, please explain.

 

Caught me in a senior moment. 300/100 was correct, 70/30 is terminology used by someone else. Yes, same valving at 300/250 rates and good up to 400. The EP car tried many things in that range, same shocks until we put freshly banned ShockTeks from an IT car on it. I think on page 6 I was recommending against this setup for a street car. Make sense?

 

No prob putting me on the spot. If I say something that don't jive then please call me on it again. :)

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No offense, but don't post you're 100% convinced purely based on speculation. The B30-629 Q1 nut was discussed at length only a few pages back. As stated, it's a 50x1.5mm nut, the 280z strut is 52x1.5mm.

 

A little bit of offense taken. If you read my post carefully, you will see the word "almost" in there. I didn't state 100% that I was positive. When at John's shop, he was doing a set of 280 struts, and I didn't get a chance to try the nut in the tube. It "looked" like it might be the right one. I stand corrected.

 

This thread, if worded correctly, should have taken no more than 4 posts to get the point across. MANY other members were in the same boat - not sure what was what. Now, I've had to dig through 300+ posts on this topic just to finally find what I needed to order. I was summing up my experience with the install.

 

 

I'm not an idiot. I have a college degree and I write technical documentation for a multi-billion dollar healthcare software organization. I know good documentation. This is not an example. This thread is way too long and FULL of "guessing" and second guessing. I had to read it several times to infer (at best) the parts needed.

I was just trying to help out with details of my recent experience.

 

Why you decided to bash me is beyond me. There are many others that have contributed information to this thread that is not factual (or even relevant for that matter)

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Why you decided to bash me is beyond me. There are many others that have contributed information to this thread that is not factual (or even relevant for that matter)

Toughen up. This idea that the nut fit the 280Z was posted one or two pages ago and disproved. It's bad form to post erroneous information in the thread that disproved it, but it happens. Take your lumps and move on.

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  • 1 month later...

I was trying to find something on the search engine for Arizonazcar large bodied struts. Any of you guys using them? I shot him an email but would like some feedback from anyone here using them.

 

I also thought that maybe you could do the swap in steps and save a few bucks by not buying the upper camber plates. I would think that you could drill out the stock isolator and use it.

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I've got them on my track car. They work very well. The car soaks up the bumps in the track with much less protest. This is compared to my other V-8 Z car running double adjustable Konis. I'd do it again if I was building another track car.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Well I finally finished reading this entire thread...whew. There is some great info here, but I was wondering a few things. Since we are talking about using Bilstein inserts from a VW Rabbit, has anyone considered uning the P30-0137 Heavy Duty insert, instead of the P30-0032 Sport, with stock valving. The reason I ask is I am never going to use spring rates higher than 175f / 200r on my 240-Z. It will never be an all out track car, as I like to drive it too much, and If I did build it into one, I would find another 240 to replace it for my weekend driver and just swap the whole suspension. The setup I am currently runiing is:

 

Tokico "Blue" non adj inserts on shortened struts (88 MR2 rear in front and stock 240 front in the rear)

 

GC coilovers with 150f / 175r rates

 

Stock 240z strut mounts (rubber isolators) may upgrade to camber plates soon.

 

Poly bushings all around except the rear TC bushing (using the NISMO Delrin / Aluminum TC kit)

 

I get my camber adj by using the Delrin / Aluminum offset bushing in the front and have left the rear alone ( neg 2.5deg rear / neg 1deg front)

 

Before anybody says to use Tokicos...I dont like the tokicos..never have even when I used Illuminas, however, I have used Bilsteins in the past (VW and Jeeps) and have a great respect for their quality control and their products in general.

 

On a side note, since we are talking about using VW inserts, has anyone considered the Sachs or even the Boge units for the same application?

 

On a second side note, can I order the EMI camber plates pre-prepared for the Bilstein units?

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Anyone run the P30-0032 with a Technotoy tuning camber plates? I had the threaded portion of the bilstein measured and I was told 14mm. Just trying to make sure I'm not going to run into a lot of interference with the camber plates.

 

Justin

 

The upper spring top (where the camber plate rides on the bearings) doesn't go down far enough on the shaft to allow enough exposed threads when the camber plate is installed.

 

Some modifacations are goingt o have to be done to use the TTT plates and bilsteins. i'll post some pictures soon.

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I just finished installing the P30-0032 Bilsteins on my front 280Z housings. I really recomend the strut tool to tighten the gland nuts. If you have bimmer friends they might have one.

 

I tried everything to keep the TTT upper hat that used needle bearings but, I had to ditch them because the bilstien shaft was to thick. I ended up using my orginal GC hats which I reduced in height by .25''. I made a spacer that fits between the camber plate and top hat which now makes my setup similar to the AZC camber plate which places the strut loads on the upper spherical bearing on not the needle bearings. Less desireable but, I was left with no other choices. The car still turns with the same amount of effort and the bearings are replaceable so I dont think it's such a big deal.

 

IMG_2455.JPG

 

IMG_2457.JPG

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Less desireable but, I was left with no other choices. The car still turns with the same amount of effort and the bearings are replaceable so I dont think it's such a big deal.

 

Just pay attention to the bearing and buy a replacement now. NHBB has a great catalog here:

 

http://www.nhbb.com/assets/pdfs/catalog/Racing.pdf

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