80's strut compatibility

[mikaleda]

i have an 80 gl and i would like to know what years and models

(ex. gl, dl, brat) have compatible struts with this year. i have been searching local junk yards and from what i have been finding is a lot of the 80 gls have badly worn struts, also i went onto rockauto and looked at struts for an 85 gl, they sold economy struts for $30 (mine are $60). i have had experiences with rockauto before when i was trying to buy a rebuild kit for the same car they didn't have one listed for a gl 1600 but they did have one listed for brat 1600 of the same year. i have looked at struts for a dl on rockauto of the same year and they were considerably cheaper would those work? does anyone have experience with this?

[the sucker king]

That era car had different struts for 4wd versus 2wd. The difference is that the 4wd ones are adjustable via two nuts. also the top rubber mounts are mounted one way on the wagons, hatches and brats, and reversed on coupes and sedans (or something like that).

So it's best to grab the struts from the same body style car with the same trans (4wd versus 2wd).

But I can say from experience that anything from a gen 2 will fit on the car. You should definately grab two of the same though so you don't have alignment issues.

[mikaleda]

thanks for the info i know this may sound stupid but what years are gen 2?

[the sucker king]

82-87 brats, 80-89 hatchbacks (the ones with the pushrod engines), 80-84 everything else.

 

The brat 1600 struts you mentioned in first post won't work, they are for gen 1.

I have some monroe inserts new in box, I will look to see if I can grab a part # off of them. give me a day or 2.

[mikaleda]

cool thanks