Best replacement Front Struts
 

I have an '84 SE. I have basically all new suspension and steering. Everything has under 15K mikes on it. Poly bushings, moog steering parts, ball joints, eibach springs, tokico blues, etc.

The Tokico Blues are already blown. I'm very disappointed in them. I had cheapy KYBs in my last car with Eibach springs and they lasted for years.

I would like to get a set of Koni or Bilstein struts but I wasn't sure if they are even available anymore. Could I get some recommendations on what to get? I mainly drive this car on the street and our roads are really bad here.

I forgot to mention the Tokico Blues in the rear seem to still be okay. I do plan to replace them at some point in the near future but for now the biggest concern is the front.

I just put Bilsteins shocks/struts with RB springs on my SE a few months ago. The rears go in without a problem. The front strut housings actually had to be swapped out because the struts you use are typically for a Porsche 944. The stock housing is externally threaded and the gland nut was for internally threaded housings (or vice versa, I can't recall which). It was kind of an ordeal to be honest, but I can send you the Bilstein part numbers if you'd like.

Are there any links showing what you mean?

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...dba8b2daaa.jpg

Here's a pic of the Porsche strut tower. You can see in the middle it's externally threaded and the gland nut that came with the Bilstein strut is internally threaded so it mates together. The stock strut tower of the GSL-SE is actually internally threaded and I could not seem to find a gland nut from Bilstein that was compatible and externally threaded.

Hope that makes sense.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...46c74fa982.jpg

Here's how the car sits with the Bilsteins and RB springs.

What does this statement mean? I don't get the part about RX-7 structs being used normally come from a 944.

The structs I've used normally are designed for an RX-7.

I should've said strut insert I guess. When I looked up the strut insert by the Bilstein part number: 34-0001042 - it never came up as being compatible with the FB, but rather 944s.

Chris, how many miles/years did you have on your Tokico's? I've had blues all around on my 85 for 8 years and they are still holding up great in the front with no signs of seepage or lost pressure. All I will use are Tokico. They are in fact the oem strut and shock set for the FB, however they are the black series, not the blue originally.

My struts are about 3 years old and have 15k on them.

I've been chasing a clunk in the suspension for about a month or two. I checked everything more than once. I even got a couple of friends over to get extra eyes on the car. We couldn't find anything loose. I took the car to Big O tire to have a friend of mine (also an RX-7 guy) give it an alignment. I normally would never take it to a place like that but I trust him to do it. He told me he checked everything and even used a pry bar on all the links but found nothing wrong.

On the way home I really listened to the sound. There is a squeak before the clunk. Once I got home, I pushed down on the front suspension and was able to make the same sound. The front struts are squeaking followed by a clunk when they get close to bottoming out. The car doesn't bounce like it would when they are completely blown. The squeak sounds like fluid passing through a small hole.

I can try and make a recording if you want.

Where did you get the piece that you welded into the strut?

Sorry, I'm probably confusing the matter because I couldn't recall exactly how the shop pulled this off when we ran into this problem. The welded on section came off an old pair of Porsche 944 struts because we needed the external threading to use with the Bilstein supplied gland nuts.

A better explanation can be found here. Basically did what this guy did except didn't get machined adapters made. Post 39.

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati.../#post11854705

And just below that post is a detailed description of how I installed Bilstein struts on my car. I did mine slightly different because I needed a small OD gland nut to fit under my coil over sleeves. For me it is the best money I have spent on the race car, totally transformed the handling especially in turns where you can get up on the curbs, which was a nightmare with the old Monroe struts and shocks. Plus I expect that they will last several seasons instead of being blown after one or two races.

i used koni yellows from the rear of an 85-85 toyota MR2. They were direct drop into a gslse tube and the upper mount is smaller and worked with T3 camber plates.

Will they work with the stock upper mount? Do they match the stock travel?

I found this thread: https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...-nuts-1049701/

I'm still wondering about the stock mount though.

the shock mount is smaller on the koni yellows. they fit the t3 camber plates though!

I don't have any plans to put camber plates since I'm restoring this car.

might as well go with a cheaper option than the koni's then. They're probably the most expensive/best shocks that fit our stock tubes.

RB has the tokico illumina which are adjustable. They also carry koni and kyb.

Suspension Shocks - Early Rotary & 1979-85 Mazda RX-7