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Working on getting the shock absorber in the front strut. Strangely enough, when fully tightened, there still is a distance of a couple of millimeters between the threaded ring (link1, #3) and the front strut (link 1, #1).

I'm not sure if that was the case when I removed the original shocks a while ago.. is this gap indeed normal?


Thanks, Thomas


1) http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E12/S ... _absorber/

You have a bad shock with a play that shouldn't be there? I had to change both my front NYK struts after only one year and went for Bilstein...

I actually had the opposite problem recently. I had a pair of strut inserts that I bought for my old '76 530i. I tried to put them in the housings for my current '77 530i and they were too tall. They did fit perfectly into my e21 323i strut housings though .

An easy fix is to just take a few washers and put them under the strut inserts. that should make up for the slack w/o causing any problems.

The gap definitely isn't normal. Maybe the shocks are wrong? I had that with a set for me e21. The part number said they fit, but they were no where near right.

thomas_m535i wrote:Working on getting the shock absorber in the front strut. Strangely enough, when fully tightened, there still is a distance of a couple of millimeters between the threaded ring (link1, #3) and the front strut (link 1, #1).

I'm not sure if that was the case when I removed the original shocks a while ago.. is this gap indeed normal?


Thanks, Thomas


1) http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E12/S ... _absorber/

Are you talking about the space below the retaining nut here?

This is a photo of the strut, as it came out of my car. These are heavy duty bilsteins that had been previously installed. There is a space under the nut. On the new ones that I installed, I did not check if there was the same space. I think so.

<table><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KW ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UZQuuBHQvx4/TMIht ... C03764.JPG" height="400" width="300"></a></td></tr><tr><td>From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/blaisedesco ... tr></table>

This forum is great. Thanks guys for all these good insights, and Blaise for the superb picture. That is exactly what I mean.

Pete K: is the situation on the picture of Blaise not normal? I bought the front shocks at Walloth&Nesch, were listed as M535i compatible. The #nr on top of them also seems to correspond with original... Unfortunately, I didn't compare them with original when they were still out.

Also, I'm sure I can't get the retaining nut tightened any further -> First used the vise grips, but due to the extra space under the nut, I actually ended up using a blunt pointed chisel and a hammer to be sure (might not be the best option ).

Well there should be no play under there at all. I tightend the nut with a blunt pointed chisel and a hammer aswell but even though the nut got a little loose after about a week. This caused a slight play under the nut and caused some cluncking noises. I had to get the blunt pointed chisel and hammer out again to fix it. Luckily I was able to do this with the shocks on the car.

Long story short: fill the gap! (and don't care about the hammer method even though the bilstein tool should be a cheap one. However I don't know where to get it.)

Thanks Jan. Argh, I've just fully tightened the top nut (self-locking) on the damper.
However, I'm not sure if it would've been possible to place a spacer ring under the damper retaining nut in the first place (seems these are inseparable from the damper).

Hey guys,

It seems that people are not aware that Bilstein sells a tool for this nut that is only about $5. The tool is about as well made as the price implies, but it works.

I will take a closer look at the gap the next time that I am in there. I was able to torque them down to spec.

BTW, the 1977 strut differs from the 1976 and takes a different bilstein shock model. The nut that we are discussing is not the same (different thread).

There can be a space between the "head" of the nut and the top of the strut, but not between the bottom of the nut and the shoulder of the shock. If the shock body can move in any direction, something is not right.

The special tool is the way to go. You can apply the right torque to it which is hard to measure with a hammer and chisel.

Thanks guys, really appreciate your input.

I totally agree on the Bilstein tool, but didn't know where to get it, at the time. If I do it again I'll get the tool for sure.

@Blaise: I didn't know there was a difference it's not in the book I used to select the bilsteins. (It's a non issue for me since I have the right ones but perhaps for other users it's a "good to know".)