As you can see in the picture I have a set of Illumina's and a set of Blues (both of which I took off off parts cars some years ago) and the Blue front strut is about 1/2 an inch longer than the Illumina.

I know the one parts car was an 85 SE and the other was an 83 Limited but it was so long ago that I can't remember which strut came from which car. I did a quick part search at NAPA for SE vs non-SE and it returned the same part number and specs so I'm assuming that the struts are the same across all models between 83-85. Does this sound right?

Why are the Illumina's shorter?

 

Don't know but could be the reason a lot of people say they need to put a spacer in to get the top bolt to seat on the illuminas

 

IIRC, Illuminas also come with a different strut-tube top retainer than the blues do, to accomodate the length.

My last set of (SA-sized) blues came with two retainers each, as did the KYBs that replaced them. One retainer was longer internally than the other.

 

Yikes. Different retainer tops eh? I'll have to look around my parts box to see if I kept those suckers to see if there's a difference. This could change my plans...

 

I guess that could also explain the extra two copper-like washers/spacers you see in the pic.

 

I found the four retainers and they all measured the same. I guess I'll just have to install them and figure it out from there.

Thanks.

 

If you need extra spacers (washer looking ones) I have some laying around.

Sent from my Fb using RX7Club

 

Thanks but I think I have enough from the parts cars. I'll let you know otherwise!

 

I'm guessing these are oem struts and springs. A little worn i'd say...

Slightly used Tokico's (I'm leaning towards the Illumina's) and RB springs ready to go in.

In the second picture, the right strut top is the one that just came off the car compared to what came with the Tokico's.