Rebel Racing Treaded front strut install

[IMR-Merlin]

Not sure if anyone posted how to do this modification, but I did it today and wanted to share how easy it was.

Enjoy.

Ok, today's project was to tear down the front struts and do the the modifications to mount the Rebel Racing threaded sleeves.

30 year old un-molested Bilsteins



After knocking off the top retaining ring/dust seal and the bottom drift pin they pulled right apart.



Quick trip to the blast cabinet



As expected the threaded bodies were a bit too tall to be installed without modifying the brake line mount. I wanted to try and keep the mount so instead of cutting it off, I just did some trimming.









To insure that the lower ring was welded on level, I protected a sleeve and used that as my guild to tack it on.



Back to the blast cabinet to prepare the welded parts for powder.



Test fitting everything for a final time.

[IMR-Merlin]

Final prep and ready for powder.



John Deere Green was almost a perfect match for the factory color



One mistake I made was not sealing off the iside of the tube completely when blasting the parts. I ended up with a ton of media inside the strut housing and it was embedded in the grease. I make a tool to get all the grease out. With a bunch of brake clean and some time, I was able to get all the olde sandy grease out.



Front assemblies re-assembled.



Final assembly....



Parts completed pile is starting to get bigger.....



Next project is rear spring plates.....

[Flieger]

Great pictures. Thanks!

[IMR-Merlin]

Got the spring plates done and ready to bond the inner races.

Here's the progression for the day.

I took a long look at the adjustable spring plates and due to the fact that I am using coil overs and want the cut weight I did some brain storming with Clint over the phone.



Before we get to that, I have a trick to get the rubber bushings off of the spring plates. I am lucky enough to have an oven in my shop, so unless you have a forgiving wife/girlfriend, this might not be an option for you. What I did was to preheat the oven to 475 degrees and I let the plate bake until the bushings began to swell (it's pretty obvious when it happens), once they did, I cut them with a razor knife and the scraped off fairly easy with a gasket scraper. After letting the cool, I was able to get the rest of the rubber with a wire wheel on my angle grinder.

Now, on to the diet.......

Seeing as the coil overs will act as my height/corner balance adjustment, I didn't see the need to run adjustable plates. I didn't want to pay to back date to one piece plates, so this is what I did.

I used a plasma cutter and cut off wheel to trim the parts I wasn't going to use....



Then I welded on the torsion tube less the parts that I am not using.



Prepped them for powder and get them in the oven....



Ready for the bonding work to begin tomorrow if I can break away from work.



Again, this is what I saved in weight on this project alone.

[Cory M]

Nice work and great documentation. I'm building another car, mostly street but track capable, and I'm thinking of going to coilovers on it. What spring rates are you running? Are those 8" coils? My main concern is limiting my front tire size, I need to be able to fit a 235-245 17" tire under SC fenders.

[ipapilot]

I've got the exact same concerns as Cory for a track only car... Need to keep all the front rubber I can..

[IMR-Merlin]

I will find out exactly what my clearances are once I start the install.

Here's the link to my build

new member 930 project

As you can see, I am a few months away from getting it done, but the plan is to make it a roller in the next few weeks. I will check tolerances once it's on the ground. But from what I have heard, guys are still running some good sized rubber on the car. I have 315's for the rear, so that is one concern of mine.

Rates as of now are 300# front and 450# which is the recommended rates from Rebel. This car will be street legal, but I have a feeling the rears may be a little soft. Only way to find out is to drive it.

If you read into the later parts of my build there is some dialog about tire sizes and clearances.

Another thread to look into is this one.

Coilovers,...WOW!...speechless

Jim is running similar rates, also a street car.

[ipapilot]

It appears Cory and I are both running narrow body cars and trying to keep 235/245 tires under the front. My front fenders are massaged and I'm maxed at -2 on camber and I still have the dust shields. If I have to pull the dust shields (same size as the springs) to get -2.5 or a little more, the springs just won't work.. The threads referenced above and others I've found are all running the same size tires but on a widebody car with much less camber. Regardless, look forward to seeing everyones updates!!!

[IMR-Merlin]

How are you achieving your camber gains? If you are clearing the dust covers with your current set up and are not using cambered spindles, you should be fine. If you are going to go with a cambered spindle and you know you already have the physical clearance now, going with more negative camber will only help the clearance issue with the fender. If you are concerned about having the inner tire rub the spring after cambering -.5 more, you could add a narrow spacer between the wheel and hub.

Maybe I am missing something here, what is the diameter of the dust cover vs. spring?

Brendon

[ipapilot]

All the camber is obviously coming from the perch, which is the limiting factor. Clint is currently decambering the spindles to the tune of -1.5 to 2 degrees. Once installed, I'll push the perches back out a little and have my -2.5 or so. Fender clearance is extremely tight but dust cover clearance has been fine. Decambering the spindle however may change that and require removal of the dust cover. My understanding is that the spring is very close in size to the dust cover. A spacer may be an option if the increased camber and spring rate would keep the tire off the fender..

I'll know the answer soon enough when my spindles come back from Clint. Either my tire touches the dust cover or it doesn't... I sent them to him to be dropped and gusseted for bump steer and got into this whole conversation on coilover conversions. He's welding the ring on just in case I pull the trigger on them later... Thanks for the comments Brendon..

[IMR-Merlin]

Clint is good people. His parts are spot on too.

I am thinking about re-working my spindles later on for better bump steer and camber. I have a spare set to work with. My goal with the car build was to do everything (barring CNC work) in my shop at the house.

[KTL]

Very nice work on the strut reconditioning.

BTW the 2.25 in. (ID) spring is larger diameter than the dust cover. Not by much but it is larger.

In the interim, if you find your dust cover touches? Get a rubber boot. The boots I have are nearly a perfect fit over the shock shaft. The part number is VW# 357 413 175A and is commonly found on 1997-2000 Golf III and Jetta III.

[ipapilot]

Thanks for saving me some time Kevin. I had assumed the same about the springs and rubber boots are actually on my shopping list.

[IMR-Merlin]

I can dig out my dust covers and compare them to my 300# springs later.

[earlyapex]

Very nice work.