I recently bent a strut assembly on my 84 GSL-SE. Obviously these are not easy to come by.

So I do some searching on the forum and everyone posts that all 84-85 spindles are the same hub size, regardless of model. The "big bearing" size. So I say perfect and go off to the junkyard where there is an 84 GSL strut assembly...

I took my front rotor/hub with me just to make sure it fits the same and it doesn't! The GSL spindle is smaller! The main nuts aren't even the same size...

What am I missing here? Are the GSL-SE front spindles different than GSL/GS?

Is there a reason I can't use just any 84-85 front strut assembly on my gsl-se?

 

should be the same, and i have had many GSLSEs. it is possible that the 84 didn't have an big bearing front spindle assembly thanks to 25+ of being on the road.

 

After crosschecking the bearing numbers and searching some more I have concluded the guy at the junkyard just pulled me an older model spindle.... and then wouldn't admit that he didn't know what he was talking about and insisted to me SE's have unique units.

Blarg..

 

I thought the SE was the only car with the bigger wheel bearings/spindles.

It went along with the larger brakes and 4x114.3 lug spacing.

 

nope, the pattern and brake sizes are different. uprights are not.

 

Correct, all 84/85 spindle/strut housings are the same. The only difference on the SE is the hub/rotor assembly and of course the caliper.

 

if you look up part numbers the GSL-SE is different, but it comes with a different shock...

the GSL-SE has a yellow paint stripe and the 12A is orange

 

Are the 82 GSL spindles "big bearing"?

 

No, all '82s are small bearing. As others have stated, the 84-85 cars all had the same bearing size. The shock had a different part number but that is most likely due to the SE shocks being mildly stiffer than the 12a cars' shocks. The backing plates, rotors, and calipers are different on the SE vs the 84-85 12a models. As you suspect, your junkyard monkey most likely pulled the spindles from an 81-83 model.

fm

 

there are three basic strut/spindle assemblies for the Rx7.

79-80, these are all the same, small bearing

81-83, small bearing. the strut tube gets shortened, i think the SA struts are ~14" and the FB is ~13"

84-85, big bearing. same short length as the 81-83.

there is actually a 4th housing, the upper model JDM cars had an 8 way adjustable shock, that came in its own housing with a dial for stiffness, pretty neat for 1983.

 

Thank you for summarizing this.