Bilstein insert removal with roll pin installed
 

Help me settle a debate, please. I could swear that I wasn't able to remove my Bilstein shock inserts (front) until I removed the roll pin. It seems to me that the roll pin holds them in place. Friend says that this is not so, you can just remove the inserts and leave the roll pin in place. If so, leaves me wondering how the roll pin actually functions.

My guess is that if this is so, the insert is moving freely / bouncing, and that the roll pin was inserted before the shock insert was inserted.

But now I realize I don't actually *know* how these work, and that I am surmising based on what I've been looking at.

I figured this is the best place to go to settle it. :)

The roll pin secures the shock insert in the strut housing :)

The Bilstein insert has a grove near the bottom, this is where the roll pin goes. It stops the insert from going up and down. It definitely has to com out to remove the insert.

Your friend probably had a knock going over bumps.

Other possibility. He had Bilstein inserts in Boge struts. Bilstein makes those and they don't have a roll pin.

A factory sport shock car (Bilstein green housings) has inverted inserts (body on top, piston on bottom) and is secured on the bottom with a roll pin.

Standard shock cars have no roll pin (Boge black housings), however could be upgraded with Bilstein inserts. The Bilstein inserts for non-sport shock cars have the body of the insert down in the tube and the piston bolted to the top of the strut tower.

It gets even more fun when you factor the mid year cars that offered factory Konis which can only be replaced with Konis lol