Rear Bilstein Revalve

arbita1 · arbita1's Garage

I have a set of used Bilstein Ralley/Sport rear shocks that I was planning to have revalved to match my 29mm torsion bars. Steve Weiner (Rennsport Systems) had mentioned that these shocks were taller than the Sports...(I don't know if that's a problem or not). However Smart Racing confirmed that they could be revalved and there was no height issue with them.

Now Smart Racing will charge $ 120/shock to set these up to match the valving I will have on their front struts. Bilstein charges $ 65/shock (about half the price). And all Smart Racing does is send them to Bilstein with their own specs. The problem is that Smart Racing keeps their valving specs a secret so that you have to go through them and pay double.

I'm wondering if I just tell Bilstein what I have, if they will be able to valve it so that it is the proper match. I've already called and left a message for Jack French at Bilstein. But I'm impatient and wanted to see if anyone here had any input.

304065 · 04-10-2007, 12:10 PM

Yep, the Bilstein "Rallye" or B46-0180. Do these look familar? I was using them with 28mm rear torsion bars on a 2249# '71E.

Anyone else use these Bilsteins?

If you have a pretty stock SC, if you tell them the torsion bar diameter, Jack should be able to tell you the recommended combination.

That said, if you have taken the trouble to have Smart revalve your front struts to match whatever torsion bars you have up there, you may want to have them revalve the rear also to "match."

NO shop that I'm aware of gives out their settings.

Good luck! Call Dan Jacobs for some good local help.

arbita1 · arbita1's Garage

Yup...that's them. I see no one had much help in your post.

Paul Thomas · 04-10-2007, 12:42 PM

I just had all four of my shocks revalved to specs per Jack's recomendation and am very happy with the results. I would not pay double to go through a middle man.

Paul

304065 · 04-10-2007, 12:45 PM

The valving for the "Rallye" is higher than the "Sport" but it's still not as high as Bilstein can go. Jacobs told me that mine could "just about be compressed by hand" so they were due for a revalve which was done with his proprietary Kung Fu to match my rear torsion bar rate.

I suppose that Bilstein could tell you the valving for the "Rallye" and could then tell you what rear torsion bar size corresponded to that valving, but if they are used and need a revalve, might as well get something to match your 29mm.

arbita1 · arbita1's Garage

Well, hopefully Jack calls me back today, so I can discuss this with him.

The rallye's that I have are barely used and really don't need a revalve...it's just that I want to have them matched to my torsion bars.

My concern is that I have these front struts with the Smart Racing Street/Competition valving and the rears will not match.

tonythetarga · 04-10-2007, 01:25 PM

When you talk to Jack French, ask if you can send them one of the fronts and see if they can test the rates of compression and recoil and then match the rears for the t-bar sizes you have. I would not send the shocks to Smart for the price.
Bilstein gave me the compression and rebound rates they recommended when they revalved my shocks a month ago. I have those numbers in my file now for future reference.

arbita1 · arbita1's Garage

I didn't get a call back from Jack French, but I did get to talk to someone else at Bilstein.

So the Bilstein Rallye shocks I have are pretty much the same size as the Sports (actually they are a few mm's smaller). Someone had told me they were longer. So that is not a problem. However the valving is not made for the street, but they can be revalved.

He also told me that if I look at my strut inserts, there should be a date code that they can look up and tell me what valving specs they used. This way they can match the rears to it.

So I may have found a way around going to SRP. I'll have to see when I get my struts here.