[bmw] Bilstein front struts for E12

["Gregory Bradbury" <gregory891@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Looking for those who have been playing with BMW's for some to remind me of 
what we (I) forget.  The E12 and some early E24 cars (and E3 & E9 cars if 
you bent a strut and bought now) changed design in mid 1976.

From memory the collar nut is a different thread size (M48 x 1.5 vs. M50 x 
1.5) and the tube of slightly different lengths.  I seem to recall that you 
can use early with late (or the reverse) but that you need a spacer in the 
bottom of the strut tube.

Normally you can use your ETK or microfiches to see what version you have.  
Unfortunately the car I'm going to upgrade (a South African E12 530M) is out 
of bounds on the VIN side.  Anyone recall how to recognize this, remember 
the story of what is what, etc.?  My project on this is to upgrade the front 
suspension to E24 struts (E12 M535i's used them too) which give you a larger 
spindle, bearings & hubs (which are the same as the E23).

Any of the Firstfives crew able to help?

TIA,

Gregory in Geneva

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