Advice on top fittings/adaptors for Bilstein Sport Struts. PLEASE!

Geneman · Geneman's Garage

HI Peeps. I searched all over and could not find this discussed. need help badly as trying to leave for sebring in 2 weeks

JUst received a new set of bilstein RSR race struts.. full assemblies from Ira at tarrett. ( these are 220/100, non adjustable but will have to do for awhile)

I had single adjustable JRZs , quite old, but good ( until I snapped both of them in a shunt at daytona in Nov...) . they were attached to blue monoball race plates up top...they look like old elephant units.

The problem is: These JRZ struts had two ( top and bottom) bushings. that sat on the top of the JRZ and mated it properly to the monoball.

However, these bushings.. about 15.7 ID , do not fit onto the top of the new Bilsteins... see pic. the OD of these new bilsteins is like 17.5 or so.

Does any one know if and where I could get some new bushings that could fit? should I just drill these out and try to re use.

Better to just get two new monoball plates ?? ( $$)

asking the braintrust . THANK YOU!!!

FRank

NotStock · 01-13-2023, 05:51 AM

Measure the ID of the uniball. Its probably some off the shelf uniball in an inch dimension. Those spacers are misalignment spacers + integrated bushings for the strut top to get down to the dimension of the strut top. If it was me, I'd machine them or make new ones to fit the bilstiens. Its strange that the old struts had a different dimension at the top. I'd venture a guess that the camber plates you've got came with the old struts and are custom for that application, but with new spacers you should be able to make them work with new struts.

Dpmulvan · 01-13-2023, 06:56 AM

Looks like you have just enough room to drill them out Or a 20 minute job on your friends lathe to make new. Spherical bearings can be purchased at McMaster Carr if they have something that will work, might have to machine a Circlip groove.

stownsen914 · 01-13-2023, 10:04 AM

Frank I had a similar issue when I went to replace strut inserts with standard Bilsteins and found the top mount was non-standard. As suggested, you can open up the old bushings, or if you want to preserve them, have them copied with a larger ID. Any shop with a lathe can do either.

Cory M · 01-13-2023, 11:09 AM

Those look like old Racers Group plates. They copied a bunch of existing products back in the day. The Tarett camber plates can be ordered with inserts for a variety of shocks. If you don't want to drill out the adapters you have now you could call Ira and see if the bearing size is the same, then he could send you some of the correct adapters.

Geneman · Geneman's Garage

Thank you everyone, after a day of panic. I found an old school. machinist guy that had a king hell lathe about the size of my first pinto......way out in the sticks in PA... when I pulled into his farm. I was pretty sure he had the shotgun out... but turned out to be the nicest guy imaginable and hugely talented. he put the fittings in the lathe. 1o mind later perfect! real machinists I bet are pretty hard to coind these days... . would not accept more that 20 bucks. great people..

Cory M · 01-13-2023, 01:37 PM

Nice. Glad you got it resolved and it sounds like you found a great resource too. You got to love an old school machinist working out of a barn. I had a similar experience working on a large industrial engine once. We were hosed and needed some parts to be modified, literally in the middle of nowhere in Utah. Found a guy with a shop for servicing his tractors. He got the job done overnight and charged us maybe a hundred bucks. We tried to pay him more and he wouldn't take it.