Different ID 240Z front strut dimensions?

[WA240Z]

Hello All,

 

Has anyone come across 240Z front struts with different inside diameter dimensions? I currently have the car with a suspension shop installing Koni adjustable yellows. The new shocks are 43mm OD, but the ID of the strut tube is only 42mm. The suspension shop has completed many upgrades on 240s and 260s, but has never come across this. They have spoken with Koni and another mob in Sydney, and apparently there were some struts with a thicker wall giving a slightly reduced ID. We are going to see if we can run a boring bar through the strut to open  it up 1mm in the lathe.

 

Any other ideas out there?

 

Cheers,

 

Billy.

[Riceburner]

Is it a heap of corrosion inside the strut? Sounds like a huge wall thickness otherwise

[WA240Z]

Hi Gareth,

 

That was my first thought as well, but the inside is actually in pretty good nick. I have managed to source an other set of front struts, hopefully these work out ok.

 

I was actually going though my parts book last night, there looks to be 8 different front strut versions over the years, 4 for pre 7/73 240z and 4 for post 7/73 260Z.

 

The beauty of working on 40 year old cars, its never simply straight forward.

[Retro Z]

Yes some 240z struts have thicker wall thickness. I encountered the same problem on my car and i too discovered the differences. Most guys strip off the paint on the konis to make them fit.

[WA240Z]

Cheers Retro Z,

 

Its good to know others have encountered the same issues. I hope this pair of struts I picked up yesterday have clearance.

[Riceburner]

Very interesting, do you have any idea on the different thicknesses the struts came in? Could be an easy way to drop some weight for the racers

[Retro Z]

The 240z struts weigh almost identical. Its varies .5mm wall thickness when i compared a 71 to a 73 strut. The spindle casting looked and measured identical just the tube itself was a smidge thicker, although the gland nut did fit both.

260z struts were substantially heavier being that they are larger ID and thicker spindle casting.

[Zedman240®]

I took to my Koni yellows with some wet and dry paper and took some microns of my shocks to get them to fit... I'm dreading the day I have to remove them..

[adam]

This is what I had to do to my brand new Konis

 

 

They wouldn't slide in due to corrosion otherwise!

[WA240Z]

The set of struts I sourced were slightly larger in ID by around 0.4mm. This allowed the new shocks to slide in thankfully.

 

So all is well again. Thanks for the info guys.