Sticky thread. Rebuilding Bilstien shocks/struts

#1

Below is a post by Ryan@Stewart Development.

[i]I do not like my first post to be a cheap plug but we can rebuild them. We have the spec and have restructured to handle the demand. we are at 2454 D North Fayetteville Street Asheboro, NC 27203, our telephone number Tel: (336) 472-8772. If you need immediate help please feel free to contact me here on spece30.com or email me. Our new shop gives us more room and provides a better work environment to service your shocks. I am hear to help with any questions you have with shocks so feel free to ask me…

I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Ryan
Stewart Development
www.stewartdevelopment.com
336-313-9638[/i]

#2

I gave Ryan a call. They apparently have been rebuilding Bilstien shocks/struts for the Miaters for a while now. Rebuild cost is usually $76 + shipping which is ~30% cheaper than new shocks and ~45% cheaper than new struts.

Cost another $10 if you want a new rubber bushing at the base of your shock.

We talked a bit about what kind of service life we should be expecting out of these given a racing season of 10 weekends. He said…

Outfits that are renting race cars go thru 1-2 sets/yr.

Folks that care about being front runners get 1yr.

He seemed somewhat taken aback when I mentioned, with some embarrasment, that I went probably 125 track days on my first set. They were leaking, so I replaced them .

#3

There you go. Front runners 1 year. Mid-pack 6 years works just fine for me, haha.

#4

What about mid pack guys who like to jump curbs?

Don’t the rules specify rebuilding by Bilstien only.

#5

[quote=“turbo329is” post=68657]

Don’t the rules specify rebuilding by Bilstien only.[/quote]

Yup and I hope it stays that way. Too many opportunities for “performance enhancements”

#6

I believe Mikey is correct. In case anyone is thinking of breaking this un-tech-able rule by using Stewart, I thought I’d share a couple observations. While I have no direct experience with Stewart, I hear great things about their work from the Spec Miata crowd.

The historical issue has been customer service. It appears that Ryan is doing a great job of turning the business around in that area – and I would send a spare set to them in a heartbeat. I haven’t yet heard of success stories in the turn-around times so I’d be cautious about sending your only set of shocks.

There are some threads over at mazdaracers.com if you want to dig through the dirt. Again, I think all that was missing from Bernie’s operation was a good front office guy and Ryan appears to be the fix.

#7

What is mentioned has been an issue in the past. I am trying to work on that with Bernie and fix the backlog. All I can say is give us a try.

We were a National Sponsor last year and you can tech the shock on the dyno.

#8

[quote=“Ranger” post=68648]He said…
Outfits that are renting race cars go thru 1-2 sets/yr.
Folks that care about being front runners get 1yr.[/quote]

5 years on the Nationals pole sitting car. Just saying…