Great job on the video and all the work on the suspension. Where did you get the springs and adjusters?
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Thank you. I was referred to Mark at Ground Control by a few forum members to set up my spring rates. He is the go-to E30 guy at GC. Give him a call and he will set you up with the right spring rates for your model/usage. The coilover conversion kit costs $399 and you get to pick your preferred spring rates.Comment
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How do you tighten the the top hat? When I go to tighten mine the shock just spins and the nut doesn't go anywhere. And how tight should the nut be?-1987 325is coupe(SOLD)
-1990 325i sedan
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Step 12: The next step depends on how much you shortened your housings by and your strut insert choice. You want to be able to tighten the insert down snugly with the collar nut. In my case, I had to make a 1.25" spacer out of metal tubing to achieve this.
How did you know how big to make the spacer, was this based off the 2" you cut from the strut tube, minus the thickness of the collar nut?sigpic
Rebellion Forge Custom Fabrication
1988 325is - TrackRat in progress
Instagram @rebellionforgeComment
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If you look in the very top of the threaded shaft of the shock, there is an input for an allen wrench. You need to find the right size (don't know exact size off the top of my head) and figure out a way to tighten the nut while keeping the shaft in place with the allen wrench. In my case, I took a vise-grip, locked it tightly to the correct size socket and used that to tighten it while I held the shaft in place by putting the allen wrench through the hole of the socket. Hope that makes sense, kind of hard to explain through text.
As for tightness, I just did it until it felt nice and tight, I didn't follow any torque specs or anything. I think I need to go back and retighten it a bit though, I'm hearing a bit of a clunk from the front end on bumps.
This is kind of hard to explain, but I figured out how big to make the spacer by figuring out where the strut had to sit in order for the collar nut to thread all the way in and keep the strut insert really snug in there.
This is what I did:
Clean all the threads in the strut housing really well and cover all the threads in anti-sieze lubricant. Then, without the strut insert in place, just try threading the collar nut as far down as you can go to make sure that it will smoothly tighten all the way down. Then I noted where the collar nut sits on the strut insert, and then basically measured where the strut insert would need to sit in order for the collar nut to be able to thread all the way into the strut housing and keep the insert tight in there at the same time.
That might be really confusing, I hope that makes some amount of sense.Comment
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Also, here is pretty helpful picture which someone sent to me in a private message to help them figure out where to make the cuts in the strut housing for the shortening process. In his case, he wanted to shorten the housings by 1.5".
In case you can't read the text well or are still confused, do the steps in this order:
1) Yellow line - represents where the original spring perch is cut off. Just above the weld
2) Red line - the first cut made to separate the housing. Just under the weld of the original spring perch
3) White line - the second cut made to determine how much you are sectioning out of the housing. This is up to you, just don't cut more than 2".
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DUDE........So awesome, VERY HELPFUL!
Is there an off chance you remember how long the coil springs in the front are? I have a wild hair brain idea to build my own.
Great thread man, awesome information!sigpic
Rebellion Forge Custom Fabrication
1988 325is - TrackRat in progress
Instagram @rebellionforgeComment
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Yup thats what I needed
How do you like those spring rates? With your front shock inserts you used the Billie HD's. Is taht why you shortened the sleeve, to compensate for the stock length shock? I know the sports are like 2" shorter, would there be a need to remove that much material from the sleeve if they were used?sigpic
Rebellion Forge Custom Fabrication
1988 325is - TrackRat in progress
Instagram @rebellionforgeComment
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I used Bilstein HD's from a 325IX model E30, which are shorter than a Bilstein HD for any other E30 model. I believe they are roughly 3" shorter than any non-IX E30 model front shock insert. This is why I needed to shorten the strut housing. Without the spacer, I would've needed to shorten the housing by 3-3.25" which would've been way too much.
It's hard to compare because I've never driven an E30 with a different coilover setup. On the freeway it feels really nice, on crappy roads it feels pretty crappy, but that is to be expected with a stiff coilover system. Having owned 5 or 6 cars in the past equipped with coilovers, I'd say the ride quality is pretty average. It works well for me, and I can comfortably daily drive the car at this height. Cornering feels super solid to me, but then again I don't have much experience with performance oriented modifications. All my cars are daily drivers and that's all I really use them for with a bit of spirited driving on the back roads. Overall I'm happy with it.Comment
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Thanks for all the info man. Great looking car too.sigpic
Rebellion Forge Custom Fabrication
1988 325is - TrackRat in progress
Instagram @rebellionforgeComment
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Did you have to sand/file down the inside of your housing to get the shock to slide in.Comment
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Just commenting to let everyone know that I edited the original post with some helpful and important information regarding this setup. If you plan on running 325IX model Bilstein HD's for your front shock inserts, please read what I wrote in the first post regarding cutting the internal bump stop in half before installing the inserts.Comment
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