tom what are you running for front brakes?

Quote:

I found this on another thread. I know the VW jetta/rabbit bilstein sport inserts are smaller in diameter than the Koni's for the rabbit (BMW 2002 people do this as well, that's how I know). I'm very curious to know if the VW rabbit bilsteins would fit, since they might be the easiest way to fit a good quality strut insert.

those won't fit the struts due to the larger diameter tube, and they're prolly not the right valving for a street 1200 anyway

Hey,Sundat1200 try Monty @ Bits and Pieces.(562)420-3557 he's in SoCal and he supplies all us Datsun racers. He is a Koni distributor. Larry.

Well the rabbit is only a bit heavier on the front wheels, (My autocross rabbit weighs about 1700 pounds, but it does have more weight bias in the front than 1200.) The bilstein heavy duty struts (not the sports) would probably be fine for street use. The way the valving self adjusts in bilsteins makes for a MUCH more comfortable ride than with Koni's.
It looks like I'm going to be curious about this until there is definitive proof they won't fit. It doesn't seem like anyone has actually tried this. If the VW KYB's fit, it's a reasonable to believe these COULD fit as well. if they do, it could solve alot of us American's suspension problems..

According to a post I found on vwvortex.com the VW bilstein strut inserts are 1.5 inches in diameter. Now that we've got that on the record, what is the inside diameter of our strut tubes?

sure, try it out for yourself and see how you like it, but you'll need to change struts because (like i said) they are larger diameter (like 510, z etc)

Another VW Rabbit bilstein option (if they fit) would be these "touring" inserts, which are OEM style inserts. They list for a rabbit at shox.com only $209 for a set of four. They may sell just the fronts for alot less. that's a good deal for an insert that might work great. I personally used these on a rabbit and the ride was as comfortable as a rabbit can be..
Pictured are the actual rabbit inserts.

Matt I want to the 280ZX brake and coil over strut back around 95 mainly because Tom Neely at Neely Motorsports had a smoking deal on the entire front suspension...........this was about the time that tub GT-5 cars faded from SCCA Nationals. Before that I used Ferodo pads with the stock brakes. The pads helped a lot but I still thought the brakes reeeeeally weak. Since I use/abuse the brakes to rotate the car this may be a factor coloring my opinion.

OK Back on topic:

Around 1991 Dave Turners Performance World in San Diego gave me a whole list of cheap alternative stuff for 1200 suspension. One of the things was options on stut inserts and for the life of me I can't find it(I looked last night) but there was a real common car that had a strut that interchanged. I seem to recall it being 3/8ths of an inch shorter so you needed to shim it up. Could be it was a VW insert as my buddy Jerry the parts manager works at a place that specializes in VW stuff.
Now for the really sad part I gave away a whole stock front suspension set-up to one of the Utah guys and the struts have said inserts , which we could read the part number off of......aaaack

Tom

ok thx tom ..

sundat's "we" is a doubting thomas