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Old June 4th 2018, 00:16
H2OSB H2OSB is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Modesto, CA
Posts: 197
Bored, looking through this thread, I thought I'd do a follow up of my last post.

I remade my struts using 944 strut housings (vs the Rabbit GTI housings I had before). Turns out 944 housings and stock 1303 housings are IDENTICAL except the top hole of the 944 housing is slotted. 100% certain of this as I layed them side by side. Contrary to an old argument the springs are the same diameter. I re-used the same ground control coil over kit I've had since about 2001.

I decided to remake the struts mainly because I felt the suspension sat too low with the combo of 2.5 inch lowering from the coil overs and about another .5 inch from the drop spindle effect caused by the 944 spindles I'm using.

With my GTI housings, I ground off everything until they were just tubes, then had a local race chassis designer create and weld on lower spring perches to support the threaded sleeve. Nothing revolutionary. Not the cheapest way to go either.

Even though I discovered 1303 and 944 housings are the same, since I now HAD the 944 housings, I decided to use for the extra camber adjustment afforded by the slotted top hole.

The way the GTI strut is shorter than a 1303 strut is by way of 1.25 inches shorter housing and 1.25 inches shorter insert rod. I didn't want to lose ALL of my lowering so i had a machinist friend make a spacer for the Rabbit insert to sit on (basically convex on the bottom and concave on the top). So I got the 1.25 inches back from the housing, but kept the 1.25 inches from the insert. Also, I saved a bundle by keeping the factory lower spring perch and had the same machinist make a bushing to fit betwixt the coil over sleeve and the strut body. All of the weight is supported by the factory spring perch. He also made a ring for the top. Both bushings keep the sleeve from rattling around. I also slipped an o-ring down around housing to help.

I'm still running 120# springs, but i swapped the 12 inch Eibach spings for the 10 inch Summit Racings springs from my son's car's coil overs. Turned out to be a better fit, lengthwise for both cars. BTW, both cars use 2.5 inch I.D. springs.

That's about it.
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johnL (aka H2OSB)
'74 1303, Outlaw sedan (with a GL flavor)
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