orientation of front bilstein housings
 

Is the insert in the Bilstein strut in the "upside down" position?

How about the rear?

counterintuitive. Screw end to the top on both. Front has a hole for the bottom. Be sure to clean out the old rubber completely. Rear takes a bolt in the bottom. On mine the fronts were inserts. The rears were shocks. Take the old ones to Hersheys. Somebody may actually buy them. :idea:

Strut inserts for Bilstein assemblies go in "upside down" and secure with a roll pin at the bottom. Bilstien inserts for Boge assemblies go in the traditional way. For rears you replace the whole assemblies, and they all look the same (Bilstien, Boge, Koni). Impossible to mess up in the rear.

The thin shiny rod is inserted down into the strut housing. Dave, are you doing your struts soon? I did my Bilsteins over the summer -- lemme know if you want a hand.

Since I know neither of you have a garage, you can use mine if you need it. I'd be glad to help out and get my learn on.

Can someone tell me what "re-valving" is for Bilsteins? I have seen it mentioned, but nothing says what that means...

If you go to the Bilstein tech site and others they explain it a lot better. But Non technical explanation, Bilsteins and some others can be dismantled and rebuilt using different size internal orifices and disks (valves). These control the flow of oil inside the shock and therefore the piston(s) movement. “Gas” shocks use a pressurized gas (hydrogen?) to limit oil frothing as the piston moves up and down, remote reservoirs provide more oil volume to help cooling. Way simplified, maybe Matt can chime in?

Steve you need to think about changing your subscript after last weekend Something like engine in – car on track
:D

Hey Dave, maybe we could go to Steve's -- I'll do an oil change, you do your struts, and we'll help Steve with whatever his car needs. (Thanks for the offer, Steve!)

Do you have that much time?

:lol:

Ok thanks guys. I don't have this job coming up just yet, just trying to learn some things.

I don't really *need* a suspension re-do (I'm very happy with how mine is working and I don't want to change anything about it) but I do need some more brakes. If the cooling systems which I'm working on don't help, I'm gonna have to do something about my brakes but I still have the 3" caliper spacings, hence the Bilstein questions. It's a PITA and a pain on my wallet too but I'm not sure that can be helped.

Someone had fully adjustable Leda suspension installed and it was cheaper per corner than sourcing a Bilstein strut+insert. The Leda's already had the 3.5" ears which caught my interest.

I do appreciate, however, the lower unsprung weight of an upside down shock which is why I wanted to make sure that was the case with Bilsteins.

When I do source all that stuff, I will appreciate the help then.

thanks.