thirdgenbird

PM edtay of your hunt comes up dry.

PerceptionProblem

I found a set of 83s, which look like they match mine pretty much exactly. Thanks for the heads up thirdgenbird! I'll update y'all when I get these home and try to get it going.

Something else I noticed: the collar doesn't seem to fit around the Koni insert rod (does that make sense?) there is something inside it that is stopping it from going down. Is that removable, or do I need to modify it?

PerceptionProblem

Update: I got the strut tops and springs off, but I can't seem to get the collars unscrewed. Any ideas/tips? or just brute force to break 30 years of sitting? My other collars weren't this hard to unscrew.

ZR8ED

Brute force is what you need.

As for the collar (gland nut) not fitting the Konis don't quote me on this, but I thought the konis or bilstiens required a different collar than the stock stuff. (boge/sachs). I am just doing this as well on my 86 hopefully this weekend.

PerceptionProblem

ALRIGHT! SUCCESS! So brute force didn't work for me, but a local shop took two minutes with a gear hammer and didn't even charge me. I found out that these (83) inserts came out as a unit. The old ones I had (with the 'obstruction' in the collar) were able to be cleared with a slide hammer. Not a big deal, I just didn't know if they came out or not.

I've got my new inserts in the strut housings, and I'm about to put the springs/tops back on and bolt them up!

Gawernator

Took me lots of brute force with a pipe wrench, nothing else would work lol

turbodave

Don't forget to put about a pint or so of oil in the strut housing before you seal them back up. This helps with heat dissipation.

PerceptionProblem

Crap. I wish I would have read that earlier today. :-( Well, everything bolted on and holy crap, is this a night and day difference! I'm getting the updated castor blocks in a month or so, I'll put a bit of oil in the shocks then. Not some bad once you've done it start to finish once, right? LOL.

Thanks for the support everyone!

turbodave

It's not that big a deal.(adding oil to the strut) I suspect most people don't. It will help extend the life of the shock but will not effect performance. Happy Motoring!