Bilstein struts - safe to remove collar at top of strut?
 

Bit of an academic question: I noticed that earlier Bilstein struts do not have the large collar/knuckle at the top of the strut body (neither do the RSR struts). Since this collar limits the amount of negative camber that can be achieved in the front suspension, I would like to remove it. Is it safe to remove this piece or does it somehow weaken the struts?

The collar serves 2 purposes; holds the wiper seal and creates a pocket to hold grease.

The earlier bilstein struts and the RSR struts also have seals and grease pockets, they just look different.

We have a replacement for that large collar that is smaller diameter and would address your camber issue.

Here is a pict of our seal holder, installed. And the late style standard bilstein seal holder, removed.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274678176.jpg

Our seal holder also shortens the strut by 3/4 inch for enhanced suspension travel.

Thanks for the info, Chuck! I'll be sending my struts and shocks (revalving) your way sometime soon.

So now that you brought this up, does it unscrew?? Pull off presss on??
I like the loooks of your smaller unit Chuck, I have a pair I am getting ready to raise the spindles on and have wondered about the seal holder.

Regards

They're pressed on. I put the strut upside down in a vice and used a long punch and a hammer to tap it off the strut. Not too difficult.

Hi JP,

I found this post looking for advise on removing the top collar so I could get the strut powder coated. About how long of a punch did you use and was it brass or steel?

Cheers Trevor
aka: Bugs

I am reviving this thread to ask whether the two types of Bilstein struts, i.e, the ones with the large collar as illustrated in Chuck Moreland's photo, are interchangeable with the ones with the smaller collar, illustrated below? If so, can I fit the Elephant Racing seal to the later unit to run greater negative camber?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1743181167.jpg

That looks like the earlier version of seal, if so the struts would need o be modified to accept the later green ones

Call Elephant Racing to check

as an aside if the struts are handy I'd love to get a numerical value for the total a length of the strut both extended and compressed

compressing can be a bit of an issue due to the ~42# of preload from gas pressure

Re: getting more negative camber, are you referring to decambering the spindles?

My question has to do with mixing types of strut seals on left and right struts. If I install the strut in the picture on a car that has a left strut with the larger collar, will that be a mismatch? In other words, are the two calibrated the same? I should probably leave out the question about negative camber because I’m not sure whether the collar will interfere with camber.

PS If anyone has a matching left strut, please let me know.

Tom, I may be misunderstanding your question. I don't see why a different seal would change the camber, or the clearance for camber. Remember, the metal "can" that goes on the top of the shock and covers the chrome part (to protect it) is what goes up against the inside of the tower and bushing plate, thus the collar is entirely inside that cover, and of no importance to the camber adjustment.

As for mixing types of struts, I would want to use the same strut inserts, so they will be closely matched in damping rate. As shocks age and wear, the damping characteristics change somewhat, so you want two that have about the same wear and tear on them. Not mix'n'match different ones from a swap meet.

Camber adjustment is very limited on the stock car. You can gain about 1/2 degree of camber adjustment by rounding out the holes at the top of the tower, to allow the bushing plate some more room for adjustment, but it won't correct for a bent strut or spindle.

FYI, bent strut/spindles are not uncommon. I spent many hours checking things on my car because my right wheel had more camber than my left wheel, regardless of where I set the bushing plates. I took out both struts and compared them side-by-side. The right strut had about 1.5 degree less spindle-to-tube angle than the left--it was bent. The spindle is not well-braced to the strut tube, which is why Porsche welded additional reinforcement between the strut and spindle on their race cars, and ER and other shops will do that for you too. For a small bend like that, you can straighten it out on a hydraulic press. For more of a bend, the tube probably got kinked.

I don't understand why the original post asked about effect on camber, either.
I just should have left it out of my own post.

My question is whether the strut with the small collar is calibrated the same as the strut with the large collar. In other words, can I use a small collar type on one side of my car, a large collar type on the other?