JohnZ

Question.. Picked up Bilstein sport shocks that I ordered and they were not the adjustable ones, should I exchange them if possible or should I keep them, what are pros and cons anyways???

KurtW

. . .the height, which I think you do, there are several advantages. I didn't know that the non-adj. were still available.<p>The adjust. Sports have several simple grooves where the spring perches will go, not the traditional threading (if that was what you were looking for). Without the adjustable perches, your ride height must be changed via the springs, and you are stuck with where you end up. Also, the shock body itself is shorter, in anticipation of lowering, so that less of the avail. travel(stroke within the shock tube) is used up in the suspension's static position. This approach will leave you more travel without bottoming the shock wo soon, which is a drawback of using the springs to lower the car.<p>If you just ordered/received them, I would think that they would be the ones I described above - seriously consider sending them back for exchange if they aren't what you wanted.

Kev

Exchange them for adjustable ones, it's worth the wait

Todd

<<Also, the shock body itself is shorter, in anticipation of lowering, so that less of the avail. travel(stroke within the shock tube) is used up in the suspension's static position. This approach will leave you more travel without bottoming the shock wo soon, which is a drawback of using the springs to lower the car.>><p>This is a common misconception. Unless the valving is different between the HD and Sport versions of the Bilstein (regardless of application), the shaft length has nothing to do with ride qualilty. The Sport shafts are shorter to compensate for the shorter length of lowering springs so they do not pop out of their perches when the suspension is fully unloaded.<br>Learned that myself no too long ago...<p>Todd<br>Air & Water<br>www.awe-tuning.com<br>

KurtW

While keeping the spring from unseating when the suspension is in full droop is a by-product of shorter shaft length, this cann easily be addressed by use of a "tender spring." <p>The engineering/mechanical reason for the shorter shaft is to move the static position of the piston higher within the shock tube, up away from the damage of bottoming within the shock. If the shaft is shortened, this helps some, but to properly do this, the body must be shortened also, by about half of the shortening length of the anticipated drop (the other half is made-up in what is removed from the shaft, which gets just a little more length taken away). Otherwise, the chassis mount at the end of the shaft will simply slam against the top of the shock body at full compression, with unusable space left below the piston in the tube.<p>This is why FoxShocks, Konis, or Penskes (racing)are ordered with specs given buy a chassis builder. Example: In the early 80s I had a 280ZX/Electramotive GT2, which ran revalved VW Rabbit strut inserts in shortened 240Z struts (240 for different geometry).<p>So while your point about spring retention is valid, it's not the primary reason why shorter shock units are used when properly lowering a car.