bilstEin coilovers on budget
 

Used Bilstain shocks from 99 10ae, eBay perches, FCM bump stops. QA1 springs to come.

sending shocks to SD for a revalving tomorrow. am I missing anything?

nope, looking good. what are those silver things? spring locators?

Btw, I found that sleeves that tall tend to rub the springs. I ended up cutting my perches. I think about 3.5" is the most I could get away with. YMMV, I don't have spring locators. And my perches sit lower on the ring...

Yeah, those are spring retainers. I'm still unsure whether I'm going to use those. How were the springs rubbing? I'm guestimating that with bump stops those tall perches will be fine but I will cut them if necessary.

SD? Are you ready to get them tomorrow?

I hoped that perches would sit lower on the rings but for $45 you get what you get... Anyone thinks that poses a potential problem?

I've had a conversation with Bernie and I think there should not be a problem. Last time he got overwhelmed with orders and you know the rest of the story.

they rubbed any time really. I am on the allstar sleeves, which fit over the ring rather than on it, so you may have a bit more clearance than I do.

It was not a bumpstop issue really. I would try them out as is, no need to cut them up if you don't have a problem yet. I just wanted to mention it so you can keep that in mind if you start getting noises from your suspension on travel. It was a problem more common on the fronts btw.

Will update the thread when it is all on the car

I believe your bumpstops are inverted. Are you running them as is, or cutting them??? I am debating this at the moment. I just installed 450/300 springs with NB tophats. Shaike has a thread on M.net where he talkes about cutting the 36mm spacer in half. I'm not sure if it is necessary on an NA with the NB hats. I was able to put the tire in the fender.

http://www.fatcatmotorsports.com/FCM...ns_3_12_10.pdf

I like how the collars are marked for perch height.

Your front collars are not fully installed. They need to go lower. Get a 2.5" diameter pipe that is longer than the shock rod, place it on the seat, and hit the pipe with a hammer. That will seat the collar fully.

Your rear collars might not be all the way down either, hard to see in the pic.

<edit> Are you sure you didn't install the collars upside down?

The fronts are on upside down. I wouldn't be surprised if they just run that high over the snap rings. The ebay sleeves are VERY inconsistent.

There are set screws on these collars and the only way to secure those is if collars are installed this way. Unfortunately they won't go any lower on the rings - they only have around 1mm clearance over the shock body.

I was thinking about taking them to a machine shop to make a little groove inside the collars to fit over the rings. What do you guys think?

Also, do you think it is safe to pinch-weld the rings in place to make absolutely sure they don't pop out?

I just put the whole thing together for a picture so they might be upside down. I don't plan on cutting them. If I would want shorter bump stops I would just order shorter version.

Full size picture: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink

have fun waiting years.

I have faith in small businesses. I myself am running a startup and know what it feels like to get overwhelmed with work.

I was thinking about taking them to a machine shop to make a little groove inside the collars to fit over the rings. What do you guys think?

yeah it is no problem, I dont know about a machine shop, but for sure bilstein does it and various shops that sell shocks with custom perches, for specific aplications. some use the threaded body set up and some just cut a bunch of grooves so people can pic how low or high they want to go based on preference or spring choice.


Also, do you think it is safe to pinch-weld the rings in place to make absolutely sure they don't pop out?[/QUOTE]


I would not weld anything, to the body because any slight distortion in the body and the shock will not work right. if you look at how it is set up it is pretty unlikely that the could ever come out, no where for them to go assuming they are seated properly and not bent or whatever. if you are worried call their race shop that does custom valving, they will discuss options, rebuild the dampers to you preference/spring rates, and cut new perches for you. as I recall its 10 bucks per cut from them, and you'll know they are cut to the right depth and width.

I just looked at em again and it looks kinda weird that the threaded body sits on top of the pinch ring. looks they could come off. the ones i've seen were cut so the pinch ring is recessed ,slightly inside the threaded body. call bilstein and see if they have any input.

Decided to use different sleeves. these just don't look safe.

all star sleeves + the perch, they are pretty cheap!