Front Suspesion problem E9 1971 CSa (Netherlands)

[fredel]

Hello all,
I am restoring my E9 from 1971 (3.0 Csa). At this moment I am working on my frontsuspension. I ordered the Bilstein B6 shocks. They do fit, but they cant be mounted. because my suspension is not standard. I did call woth Wallot & Nesch (Germany) and at requiest I sent them pictures. The send me an email with the following:

the struts you have are CSL Motorsport ones with a so called up side down shockabsorber.
We don´t have that kind of shockabsorber.

Does anyone regonize this problem? It seems no one has those shocks, or have seen them.
At Wallot they say that the suspesion is very rear and special.

Picture 1: the old shock and the new Bilstein, they look different
Picture 2: the old one has a screw at the bottom, the new one has not
Picture 3: the old "housing"has no way (rifling?) to screw /fasten the new one
Picyure 4: the screw at the new Bilstein.

Hope to hear from you,
Regards Fred (Netherlands)
www.bmwe9.nl

P.S. I hope you understand my writing

 

[DAVE]

Hello all,
I am restoring my E9 from 1971 (3.0 Csa). At this moment I am working on my frontsuspension. I ordered the Bilstein B6 shocks. They do fit, but they cant be mounted. because my suspension is not standard. I did call woth Wallot & Nesch (Germany) and at requiest I sent them pictures. The send me an email with the following:

the struts you have are CSL Motorsport ones with a so called up side down shockabsorber.
We don´t have that kind of shockabsorber.

Does anyone regonize this problem? It seems no one has those shocks, or have seen them.
At Wallot they say that the suspesion is very rear and special.

Picture 1: the old shock and the new Bilstein, they look different
Picture 2: the old one has a screw at the bottom, the new one has not
Picture 3: the old "housing"has no way (rifling?) to screw /fasten the new one
Picyure 4: the screw at the new Bilstein.

Hope to hear from you,
Regards Fred (Netherlands)
www.bmwe9.nl

P.S. I hope you understand my writing

Hi Fred

Yes they a deffinately not standard struts.

 

[Mike Goble]

Does the shock fit into the tube? I put some E12 struts in my Bav and the threads at the top of the tube were 48mm, and the locknut on the shock was 50mm. I bought some 50mm locking collars and welded them to the top of the tube. A couple of flat washers in the bottom of the tube take up the slack.

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/...548&ssid=0f97d1a9-c261-4d80-9704-fc0571bab492

 

[2275xxx]

All monotube Bilsteins are of the upside-down type.

This is a Bilstein upside-down strut :






But there are two ways to use Bilstein inserts:

(A) Shocks (= inserts mounted inside tubes) into stock struts.
(B) Inserts directly into modified struts;


(A)
Typically the Bilstein B6 and B8 shock absorbers, which are installed in place of the stock shocks - no need to use modified struts.
Here the upside-down inserts are mounted inside tubes with exactly the same dimensions as stock shock absorbers.
This is what W&N is selling and what most people use, because it is straightforward.




The drawback is that you are using a tube (body of the shock) inside a tube (strut) --> more weight.


(B)
The sportiest road cars and the race cars use inserts directly in the struts.
In this case the struts are modified so that functionnally they are at the same time the external tube of the shocks and the struts.

On BMWs you recognize this type of struts because they have a nut at the bottom, to maintain the thin rod of the insert.
These struts are what we call either BMW Motorsport struts or Alpina struts (and what was used on non-Citypack CSLs).
But they are not sooo exotic: you find exactly the same setup on many Porsches and on many other sport/racecars.

Here is a shematic example of a modified strut :

http://i.imgur.com/qIOaPz8.png


This is what you have, apparently.
Now your choice is either...
to keep your new shock absorbers and find normal E9 struts,
or to keep the CSL struts and have the CSL inserts reburbished (this can be done by any Bilstein appointed agent).



Marc

 

[federico]

Hello @fredel, it seems I have the same problem as you had. How did you solve your problem?
I only have one 40mm shock and I would like to know if you can help me finding one or a couple, if possible. Thank you! My son is studying in Leyden Univ these days and getting them wouldn't be a problem. At Wallothnech they have been nice telling me I can resend the shocks they sold me, as they don't fir but they don't have the normal struts for the BMW 3.0 csi, so I can't build the car...even with the normal suspension, so any help would be appreciated.
regards Federico