easy streets air struts

I cant use the factory strut/unv. strut bag type set up, I have almost no room trough the upper control arm for a regular style bellow style bag. That is why I had to go w/ the unv. chapman style sleeve bags. I have no complaints about them just the rattle, I also turned the adjusters all the way to the stiffest position and it is almost gone. The thing keeping it from going any lower is the front stuts are just bottomed out. If I could take about 3/4" out of each arm of the strut mounting fork and re-weld them, I would still have plenty of clearance over the axle, and get the drop I want. I just don't know how safe it is to cut/weld those arms. Any input?

Control Arms someone that knows what there doing could put some truck bags on that... It would lay out... That is one thing I wish I had Upper Control Arms

what the diff. between a chapman strut and a nonchap and a macpherson

Well a chapman strut, the coil/strut assembly is very thin. On the Mcphersons, the coil is bigger in diameter and I believe they turn when you turn the steering wheel. They come in double convulated air bag.

jay: you gotta realize I'm not challenging your statement that the easy street internals can be poor...I've thought that about all their struts in the beginning. I'm just saying that when a layman does a diy aftermarket strut install himself and experiences a rattle, 9 times out of 10 it's from something coming loose. And you gotta admit that it's hard to diagnose problems on the internet from just reading text, so it's easier to tell people to spend the 5 mins to double check all their fasteners than to tell them to just take apart their struts, esp if the 5 min look-over can usually solve their problem. And the coilovers I mention are full coilovers with internally-threaded through nuts... those definitely tend to loosen up, especially after track use. I always make it a practice to double check and retorque them after a hard run/day at the track, but that's no different from checking everything else on the car (cooling system, all fluids, brakes, bushings, etc.) after racing it. A car driven on the street won't see the same amounts of stress, but like I said, I very often see people who install their own full coilover (not coilover sleeves) setups need to retorque the upper nut after it develops a rattle soon after installation. I'm sure you've seen this occurance too... maybe not with setups you've installed, but other folks with their own cars...

02 ramon: If your strut is maxing out before the uca or any other suspension part has made contact with anything else, then try redoing your bottom mount on the strut. I cut into my easy street strut bottoms to inset my bottom eyelets. I also offset them to accomodate the lateral movement of the bottom mount as it travels (to better keep the strut centered within the strut tower when it compresses). That way I was able to get the strut to go lower than possible otherwise... so right now my front end is maxed out on the uca bottoming out against the spindle... and that's after I've already shortened the uca for the additional camber, caster, and travel. Another thing you can do to get additional drop from the strut is to move the top mounting point up, but depending on your setup, that might require a bit more modification to your strut towers...

dwight: The first time I saw easy street's strut on a Scion I was very disappointed, too. I asked the guy to lower his car all the way, and he replied that he was already full down. I was like holy shit my roomate daily drives his xB lower than this on coilovers! It also sucked that they knew about the misalignment issue and never did anything about it, leaving people to get a big surprise after they install the struts and having to spend more money on eccentric bolts and camber plates just to get their camber back within spec. Anyway, a couple years ago I was messing with some friends' xBs and had made a short stroke strut that would allow the car to ride very low while maintaining adequate travel (i.e. good ride while low), and also allowing the car to go way lower than easy street or air runner's offerings. If you're interested, I can try and dig the jig up out of storage...