Shortening front struts ?

J

John Buchtenkirch

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I’m just curious, does anyone know of someone who has shortened the front struts on a E9 or E3 ? The more critical question is what strut inserts would then fit the shortened tubes that are in the range of being 1 ½” to 2” shorter than the stock E9 inserts ? Thanks ~ John Buchtenkirch
 
I think Ireland Engineering shortens the front struts to for their coil overs conversion kit.
 
Won't standard Bilstein Sport inserts handle that change? I believe they compress about 1-1.5 inches more and with (assuming) stiffer springs your travel will be controlled.
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by 'shortening'. If lowering the spring perch is what you are doing, the stock insert will work. If you actually shorten the strut by cutting the tube, you will need a shorter insert.
I put E12 struts on my Bavaria and the lower spring perch is 1/2" lower than the stock strut. I used the stock Bilstein inserts.
 
Forgive me but my memory is getting fuzzy, but when I shortened the tubes on my e12 race car I think we used blisteens from a camaro , before using custom deals from Ground control . If this is for a street car it may be a bit overkill??

you might contact Ground control to see what they can do for you , middle of the road pricey and their customer service just sucks . Im actually right now having some total custom dampners being made for my e9 car by MCS , and I don't want to know what they cost !

I would get an insert then shorten the tube to fit the insert , instead of trying to find an insert to fit the tube ??

I may still have a set of those Camaro insert if your interested

BD
 
YES…….. absolutely, shorten the strut tube to fit an existing shorter insert from Koni or Bilstein, I don’t have Jay Leno’s car budget so I have to work with existing off the shelf components. My plan is to add a spacer between the bottom of the strut and the lower ball joint, ideally that spacer should be the length equal to what is removed from the strut tube, then you haven’t changed the geometry of the suspension or more important the steering linkage…… just moved the spindle pins upward on the struts.

The front of my coupe has already bottomed out twice in about 3000 miles of traveling so I wouldn’t want to lower it any further with shorter springs than Carl’s, that would only further limit the downward suspension travel. Also right now my control arms are parallel to the ground (which I consider ideal), I’d like to drop the nose a bit more without changing their angle / relationship to the ground. Being a long time hot-rodder thru & thru, stance (tire sizing + relationship to the body) means a lot to me but I refuse to give up handling :shock::mad::mad: just to gain that correct look :D. ~ John Buchtenkirch
 
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Vbigdog said:
I spoke to Ireland Engineering a few weeks ago, the sales person said they no longer offered an E9 suspension.
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Either you misunderstood or the person you talked to was mistaken. Ireland still does plenty of E9 suspension setups. You'll want to talk to Jeremy, he's been doing them for a couple decades.
 
Here's what I came up with.

Here’s what I came up with after careful measuring. I measured the distance between the lower ball joint and the inside of my 16” rims last night, it is 1.659 which is slightly over 1 5/8”. So ideally I’d need a strut insert 1 ¼” to 1 ½” shorter than the stock E9 insert to pull this off correctly, any more than that and after installing the spacer you would end up with the ball joint hitting the rim. My other concern is, the corner marked by the yellow arrow could hit the brake rotor :( if spaced straight down…………. I couldn’t tell because the dust shield was blocking my view of the rotor, possibly a member with parts removed from the car could inspect for that interference problem. ~ John Buchtenkirch

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AceAndrew said:
Either you misunderstood or the person you talked to was mistaken. Ireland still does plenty of E9 suspension setups. You'll want to talk to Jeremy, he's been doing them for a couple decades.
Click to expand...

Said salesperson acknowledged IE sold E9 setups for years, but no longer offered parts. Appears some sales training is needed.
 
A fellow on one of the E24 forums shortened his struts for a coil over suspension, so that an E30 cartridge fit. The one guy I am thinking of did a meticulous conversion. He was not happy with the out come as he felt the ride was very rough. Why not call Bilstein and see if they have dimesnsions on various struts they carry and then shorten your strut tubes to match. Springs are available in standard diameters and you can order with the tension rated in pounds. The E24 guys seem to be most happy with approx 300#, +/- rated springs in the front. Again these are used in coil over setups.

For a complete coil over kit check out "Ground Control" I believe they use Konis.They will sell as a kit or you can send them your struts to be modified. Either way, if Bilstein, you will need sport shocks as the stroke is shorter and will allow full drop provided by springs you use. I have had my suspension in and out using various Bilstein and Koni product along with B&G springs. The result is I settled on Bilstein Sports.
 
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