L-Body upper strut mounts??

[Turbo_Rampage]

Hey, I recently put some new Koni coil over struts on the front of my 82 Rampage, and i have been having troubles with my upper strut mounts. I bought the KYB upper strut mounts and bearings, but the new mount doesn't seem to work with the hat... I don't know the technical name for the part, but it's the steel disk thats on the very top of the strut mount and the main strut rod nut holds it down, and the "hat" moves with the struts when you turn the steering wheel... I hope i made sense, . The problem i'm having is the new strut mount seems to be to thick in the rubber part causing the "hat" to crush against the new strut mount plate when i tighten the main strut rod bolt down, making the hat not turn anymore with the mount. I cant even get the hat to seat against the bearing coller to torque the nut down.. I put the old strut mount and bearing back on in the meantime until i figure the problem out, but the original nylon bearings are worn out and i don't want to run them to long. The local shop didn't even want to do an alignment, because it has side to side play with the car jacked up in the air. I even ordered another set of strut mounts from Napa because 1981 to 83 had a different part # listing, but when i went to pick them up they were identical to the KYB ones i got. Has anyone else had any problems with there strut mounts in there L-bodies? The original mounts on my car don't seem to have a very thick rubber bushing on the strut mount and thats the problem i'm having with the new mounts, they are too thick and the hat doesn't have a deep enough dish to it to reach the bearing coller. I took pics to help explain myself better, but i cant seem to upload pics on my crappy internet. I noticed the newer L-bodies have a different looking hat then the ones on my 82, so maybe i need the newer ones to work with my new strut mounts. I also tried using the new bearing on the old mount, but they didn't work...


I swear my 82 Rampage is the blacksheep of the L-bodies, because every time i go to replace something it's different...

[rbryant]

What type of coilovers did you use?

I know that ground controll has a couple of different style hats. Some of them have a flat top while others have a top that is designed to go into the mount like this one designed for VWs (look the same as the ones I got for my charger):

http://www.ground-control-store.com/...p/II=111/CA=65

If you have one of these without the top designed to fit against the bearing it will be a problem:

http://www.ground-control-store.com/...hp/II=77/CA=24

If you need a different mount the Neon mount will also fit with a very slight mod but the lbody one should be fine with the right hat.

-Rich

[Turbo_Rampage]

They are the ones supplied with my Koni coil over struts, and they look like the one in your first link, but thats not the problem i'm having. I guess i never explained myself well enough, it's just hard to to tell without pics. The problem i'm having is on the very topside of my struts mounts. If i could upload pics it would be so much easier to explain... Here is a pic from my site, and this is the upper "hat" i'm having troubles with... I don't know the name for it.
I noticed the older L-bodies have a way different looking hat then the newer ones. Mine has a plastic washer clipped around the bottom side of it (you can see the four clips sticking up in the pic above) and the newer style ones don't seem to have that.Thats the hat thats bottoming out on the strut mount when i crank strut rod bolt down. I even removed the plastic washer underneath the hat in hopes to gain more room, but it still jams up against the strut mount. Here is what the other style looks like, and i'm wondering if i need these ones instead?

[Turbodave]

You'll probably need ones like in the second picture. That's what were on my 83 Rampage, and what's on my other L-bodies.

I put new strut mounts on my GLH recently and noticed that they rasied the front of the car by almost an inch, I looked at sets from a couple different manufacturers and they were all almost the same. It could just be that my originals were that sorn out, but it's still frustrating to have my car looking like a 4x4. I'm hoping that with some driving they will settle.

[Turbo_Rampage]

You'll probably need ones like in the second picture. That's what were on my 83 Rampage, and what's on my other L-bodies.

I put new strut mounts on my GLH recently and noticed that they rasied the front of the car by almost an inch, I looked at sets from a couple different manufacturers and they were all almost the same. It could just be that my originals were that sorn out, but it's still frustrating to have my car looking like a 4x4. I'm hoping that with some driving they will settle.

Thanks for the info. I will try and hunt down some of the newer style hats at the wreckers.. I checked one of the local wreckers today, and they crushed every car in the yard, and it was full of TD's, a couple Omnis, Chargers etc, These new strut mounts will raise my car up about an inch by the looks of it, because the rubber part of the mount is way thicker, but i'll just have to turn down my coil overs some to even the car out again, I have one more question about the L-body strut mounts... With the car up in the air and no weight on the wheels what prevents the upper strut mount bearing from moving side to side in the mount? especially when the coil over springs don't preload the bearing anymore?

Thanks again guys for the help!

[devlish]

i got my coilover set from FWD last week in the mail, and it looks like a very nice set! the only question i have is, most coilovers i've seen have two threaded perches that "lock" to each other at your set height. this appears to only have one perch, and a tiny little allen set-screw to keep it at the desired height. is this correct?? it seems as if that set screw will tear into the threaded sleeve, and make future adjustments difficult.

thanks in advance.

[Turbodave]

Kurt, your correct on how the set-screw works, and it probably will mar the sleeve somewhat. I haven't heard of it causing enough damage to prevent adjustment however. Worst case, it's nothing a file and a little sandpaper can't fix.

[Turbo_Rampage]

i got my coilover set from FWD last week in the mail, and it looks like a very nice set! the only question i have is, most coilovers i've seen have two threaded perches that "lock" to each other at your set height. this appears to only have one perch, and a tiny little allen set-screw to keep it at the desired height. is this correct?? it seems as if that set screw will tear into the threaded sleeve, and make future adjustments difficult.

thanks in advance.

The set screw on the threaded perch has a piece of nylon on the the end of the screw, so when you tighten it down it doesn't damage the threads. Can you let me know if you have any side to side play (with weight off the wheels) in the upper strut mount when you get them installed?

[devlish]

sure, hopefully they'll be going in late this week. the FMIC pipes are getting re-rolled this week becuase i blew one off at 18psi. so i'll let you know over the weekend.