Strut suspension differences ABY vs 3B

[QuattroFever]

Ok, been trawling various pages of info on ABY and 3B suspension diferences.

thought it might be good to put it under one roof with a relative name.

from what I understand the ABY had 55mm diameter struts and 14mm bolts and the 3B follows this theme but with 50mm diameter struts?

Only very early 3B's had CQ struts with 12mm bolts but should have been sorted with a recall and fitted with 14mm.

whats the talk of m50 vs m52?

[Error404]

not very clear cut i'm afraid. I have seen 55mm struts with 12mm bolt holes and 50mm struts with 14mm bolt holes

[Jamo]

3B and ABY came with 55mm tubes, up to 1993 was 12mm and post 1993 14mm for the fronts.

The reason I refer to year is that early ABY's had 3B parts on them.

Anything non 55mm is not 20v turbo struts and CQ struts front wise

Hence you can put RS2 front shocks on the Coupe range

[QuattroFever]

so the struts from ABY and 3B coupe's are identical all but the bolt holes unless you have something other than a 55mm strut...
which you shouldn't have if you have a genuine s2.

so as long as you have the 14mm holes (or you get handy with a drill) you can swap ABY and 3B suspension struts flawlessly...albeit with grazed knuckles and a brimmed swear jar!!

Am I still making sense here

[Jamo]

Yeah, I had to do that at the garage meet, had to drill out 12mm struts to 14mm

[4WheelDrifter]

AFAIK N chassis cars and onwards had M14 strut bolts, before that was M12. So regarding S2's only '91's had M12

I'm not going to argue with Jamo about anything to do with dampers, as he's done far too much research into that topic.

[Jamo]

Your right 4wheeldrifter except the damn lines blur when it comes to what's suppose to be dependant on chassis numbers

The only real way is to check what's on the car or what you buy, hence why people like KW insist you specify the bolt diameter when ordering!

[Rusty]

There's also the type of ARB that's fitted that affects the earlier strut design. I refer to ARBs as 'B3' and 'B4' style as that's pretty much what they were fitted to. S2 FARB is B4 style and has a tab on the strut and uses the drop links that any S2 owner will curse every other year or so, earlier B3 style attaches to the wishbone with some small bars and bushes.