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I am using 425lb springs on the front. I haven’t seen any sign of the struts bottoming on the camber plates, what I have seen is tire rub on the unibody structure above the tires.
I do have 2 inch spacers between the struts and ball joints, but that shouldn’t make any difference in strut travel, it is only changing the angle of the lower control arms and tie rods. I also had to move the lower control arm mounts a half inch outboard on both sides to get enough camber without the springs hitting the strut towers.
Thanks Mike. I think my geometry should be fine with the shorter VW inserts, since they don't affect ride height or anything else. I think just the clearance from the top of the strut housing and the camber plate.
I don't actually have external bump stops installed, because I was thinking the internal bump stop would do me. I just realized though that the internal bumpstop only comes into play if it is impacted before the top of the strut hits the camber plate and I am positive that is not the case. Doh!
I will definitely be looking at the VW inserts in the near future.
Another question. Are you using 8" or 9" springs in the front. I have been using 7" and they will definitely be too short when I shorten the strut housings. 8" seems to have the biggest selection of rates, but might be kind of close on length.
FWIW, on my '81, I have actual FB RX-7 Bilstein HDs running 225/150 rates, the front feels very well matched, the rear needs a little bit more rebound damping.
On my FC swapped car, I'm also running Fox body shocks.... KYB AGXs, which have 8 ways to get the wrong damping But I'm also curious about the VW/944 setup. I'm not quite sure I understand what is going on with the gland nut setup. It has 225/175 rates in it but I have never been happy with the KYB damping, and after driving the '81 around, I'm thinking I need Bilsteins for both cars.
I did not realize that Bilstein makes (made?) a front strut insert specifically for the FB. Do you know the number? The shocks we have been talking about (944 and Golf) are inverted shocks so the part that sticks out the top of the strut housing is about 30mm in diameter. This doesn't work well with the stock gland nut which has a much smaller hole. I can't remember if there was a length issue as well. As you can see we came up with similar, but different ways of dealing with the gland nut, both required machining some new pieces. I have been happy with the 944 shocks damping, but they are too long. I just received the Golf shocks and they seem to have similar damping as the 944 using my hand/forearm dyno (which is probably more useless than the butt dyno). Don't have time to get the shorter ones installed before the next race, but should be ready for 2022 season.
Fronts are P30/162 , rears had no sticker but had 4060218H001 rolled into the tubes. They are very much NLA. I got them in a collection of parts that included a bunch of Koni reds and Tokico blues. Looking for another old school fool to pass those along to.
i had been planning on getting some generic tubes so I could use 36mm or 46mm inserts for a Ford Escort, which seems to be the go-to for everyone from Toyota MR2 to E30 BMW to Subaru BRZ... but if there is an easier way than throwing a thousand dollars across the Atlantic and waiting a month or three, I'm all ears.
Another question. Are you using 8" or 9" springs in the front. I have been using 7" and they will definitely be too short when I shorten the strut housings. 8" seems to have the biggest selection of rates, but might be kind of close on length.
Carl
I am using 7 inch springs, but would prefer to have 8 inch. You can see I have a lot of threads below the lock nuts.
Mike,
Looking again 7" might work for me, but will be very close. Will wait until the struts are modified (VW struts arrived) to decide on spring length.
peejay,
After looking more closely at what I did a few years ago, it looks like there were two problems that needed the custom gland nut. I believe the 944 strut body was too long and covered the stock internal threads. That would not have been the case with the shorter VW or FB shocks. I believe the other problem is that there was no longer a bilstein gland nut that would work with the stock internal threads when I did the mod. It looks like you have gland nuts that did work with the stock internal thread, since you have inserts that were actually made for the FB. The adapters were pretty easy to get made to work with either the 944 or VW struts. It looks like Mike and I did the same thing, except one is upside down relative to the other. The piece that I had made, came with the VW shock so he did not have to start from scratch. Mike had to modify it per above, but once modified, it was essentially the same as what I made. The upside is that now that I have the VW struts, I also have two more adapter pieces for spare struts :-) And I can do the needed modifications on my janky lathe, since no thread cutting is required.
The attached picture shows the two gland nuts that came with the VW strut in the configuration I will install them. I will machine out the ID of the externally threaded nut to fit over the stock strut tube.
That is probably kind of jumbled information, but hopefully at least marginally helpful.
The only problem is that I want HD inserts for FC strut housings. I already have my FB needs covered
I have a pair of much, much modified FC... okay, they are actually severely modified Subaru GC rear strut housings that contain Konis for the rear of a Subaru GD, that I made fit FC uprights and ZX2 strut mounts (....long story) that I could hack up to use 944 inserts, since I have decided that Koni makes garbage dampers with waaaaaaay too much initial damping so they feel like bricks with trap doors...
I think I got your name right this time ;-) I am wondering what spring rate you are using (or used) in the front with the VW Bilstein struts. It looks like I don't have enough shock travel with the 944 struts. I have bent two pairs of camber plates (mounted on top of the stock strut towers), including the current ones that are reinforced with 1/2" aluminum plate on top. Also broke two front spindles this past May (one on Sat and one on Sun) Do you think the VW Bilsteins are up to 400-450 lb/in spring rates?
Sorry to raise this from the dead, but you are the one with the experience that I need :-)
I installed the shorter Golf struts, which as you can see above meant shortening the strut tubes about 2". The struts work great with 400 lb/in springs. The struts might be a little better than the 944 struts I had installed previously. Since installing the struts, we have run two enduros and probably a half dozen sprint weekends. I have not had any issues with bottoming out the struts, so I think I have the problem solved. I have not yet tried 450 lb/in springs in the front (with probably 250 in the rear), but might do that at Willow Springs this weekend. If they work there, they should work about anywhere, since that track is ridiculously bumpy.
Good luck racing this weekend. I was thinking of going, but the San Diego to Portland drive was more than I wanted to deal with, even though it would have gotten me out of going to a wedding ;-)
I installed the shorter Golf struts, which as you can see above meant shortening the strut tubes about 2". The struts work great with 400 lb/in springs. The struts might be a little better than the 944 struts I had installed previously. Since installing the struts, we have run two enduros and probably a half dozen sprint weekends. I have not had any issues with bottoming out the struts, so I think I have the problem solved. I have not yet tried 450 lb/in springs in the front (with probably 250 in the rear), but might do that at Willow Springs this weekend. If they work there, they should work about anywhere, since that track is ridiculously bumpy.
Good luck racing this weekend. I was thinking of going, but the San Diego to Portland drive was more than I wanted to deal with, even though it would have gotten me out of going to a wedding ;-)
Carl
Well, plan on Thunderhill in November and we'll see you there
10-26-21, 07:42 PM
But I'm also curious about the VW/944 setup. I'm not quite sure I understand what is going on with the gland nut setup. It has 225/175 rates in it but I have never been happy with the KYB damping, and after driving the '81 around, I'm thinking I need Bilsteins for both cars.
