How to rebuild/revalve 7100 shocks from Bilstein

Hey folks, here's a quick overview of how you can rebuild universal 7100 series shocks without any specialty tools, at home in your garage. These are a great product to learn about valving and rebuilding shocks on since they're so affordable and valve stacks are so easy to get.
You can checkout these shocks on our site here, there is a link in the description to download the instruction manual which includes all the valve stacks and part numbers for the specialty tools (that you don't really need) for your reference:
www.wheeleveryweekend.com/pro...
Here's some links to the tools/products i used in this video, the amazon links are affiliate links and i do get a very very small portion of any purchases made when clicking through them.
Vice soft jaws: amzn.to/3wbCVQZ
Gloveworks HD Gloves: amzn.to/3CbMlzz
Super Lube Synthetic Grease: amzn.to/3dtXf9v
Shop Towels: amzn.to/3QRbRy2
Powertanks shock inflators: powertank.com/collections/sho...
Reservoir Cap Removal Tool: www.schmidtyracing.com/Schmid...
Harbor freight pick sets: www.harborfreight.com/hand-to...
Shaft Seal Bullets: www.schmidtyracing.com/Shock-...
We also have shock/suspension tools on our site:
Shock Shaft soft jaw: www.wheeleveryweekend.com/col...
Fox No-Loss Nitrogen Gauge: www.wheeleveryweekend.com/col...
AGM Shock cap jaws: www.wheeleveryweekend.com/col...
Podcast:
wheeleveryweekend.buzzsprout....
RTT security mounts/Shocks/Merch:
www.wheeleveryweekend.com/
Instagram:
/ wheeleveryweekend
Thanks for following along

[@rickfazzini22]

Great humor! And excellent tutorial, much appreciated

[@LOYLSkipSh0t]

another great one! i think that after you do a couple of these videos with different brands and different shock types(bypass, ibp, whatever else) you should do an overall comparison video between popular brands of smoothbodies, ibps, bypasses once you have all this footage of the insides. it would be cool to know the differences and cost benefits of different types of universal shocks sold by different manufacturers, like what’s the difference between the fox factory series versus the performance and how do they compare to what king sells, etc. would be pretty cool

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Thats the plan. There's alot of folks who just buy shocks based on their colors lol. It seems the more opionated you are, the least likely you are to have seen the inside of a shock before. I want to try and give as much objective data from all the brands shine through as possible.

[@WorldFamous4x4]

@@WheelEveryWeekend WE COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER OURSELVES! AWESOME JOB! PERFECT GOAL TO SET! WE CANNOT WAIT TO SEE MORE FOOTAGE!🎆

[@SDwriter.and.surfer]

Watched it again for fun. Just FYI, at about 29:00 in, that first small shim not a preload shim---in fact it's kind of the opposite. It's what Bilstein calls the bypass plate. Basically, it creates a bleed. It ensures that a little oil can always get through the passages. Where Fox and others have holes in the outer edges of their pistons to create bleed, Bilstein does this by producing a very small gap between the piston and that first big, low-speed shim.

[@SDwriter.and.surfer]

Well done. Very thorough. FWIW, I installed 7100s on my Scout about 10 years ago. Had them apart many times to re-valve, change oil, etc. I hate that second c-clip. And it doesn't really have a practical purpose either. I never bothered to apply heat to the end cap; never even thought to. I just start tapping all around with a sharp cold chisel in that seem before working up to a small screwdriver. Cap always comes off fine. I have my peeves about the 7100s but mine don't have rezzies, just an IFP. And that can create a serious problem that I won't bore you with since you're not messing with that type here. By comparison, the Fox 2.0 Factory shocks that I recently changed over to don't have a second, inner c-clip, only the main one to hold the seal assembly in. It's all the shock needs. And I love that the Fox's end cap unscrews! And locks in place with a set screw. No need to mess with Loctite. The 7100s are excellent dampers though! I've never actually run any of the 5100 types but I'll bet the 7100s kick the poop out of them. Linear valving, lower pressure, tunable, uni-ball ends.

[@patrickschliesing1294]

Absolutely perfect timing! Thank you! I needed this video for my 7100's. I'd totally buy rebuild kits and re-valving kits from you if available on your site. Hint hint

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Glad it was helpful! We have a page dedicated for rebuild and revalve stuff specific to the 7100s that will be live this week. You can always shoot me an email and ill get you squared away until then.

[@rodrigobocaz6350]

Why don't you use the vacum pump you have at the shop to extract the air bubbles, then you can adjust the IFP position to specs and refill with oil the remaining volume

[@BattlePhrog165]

Awesome video! Very informative!

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Glad it was helpful! I'm shooting a video showing before and after revalves with complete specs in hopes it makes folks more confident about pulling stuff apart.

[@RAM5500CAMPERTHING]

Awesome video and very well done!

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Thank you very much!

[@russtynuts]

very cool ,,, what valving would you start with on a jeep tj ?

[@Ponch_1776]

Do the 5160s or 6112s need to be rebuilt at a certain point?

[@SubePelayo928]

Is there any identification on the 7100’s? Other than the blue bilstien print? My truck has silver shocks with resi’s and I need to rebuild them. They appear to be bilstiens but I can’t find anything on it

[@hdfrc6897]

👍👍👍 from france

[@leonardmoore7916]

How does Bilstein make the short body shocks, like what internal changes do they make to make it shorter? Are there any compromises or do the SB shocks work the same as the regular shocks?

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

Same as alot of companies its just a body that is 2" shorter, some will use shorter rod ends but this guy is already as short as can be. The tradeoff is you have less oil volume, that's actually why in the beginning the ifp depth is a little deeper than normal, the rod is going to displace an extra 8ml at full bump so you have to move the IFP back to account for that (i figured that would be too complicated for the video). Companies can either make "extended travel" or short body shocks in pretty much the same way. The extended travel ones are typically IFS coilovers where they take the spacer out that stops the piston from fully extending, that is in there because as it transitions from full droop to bump travel it creates a really weird pressure differential when you have almost no oil on one side of the piston. A similar thing is happening with the short body, there is less oil on top of the piston and although as the rod is coming out of the shock it is pulling some oil through the resi hose where there is alot of oil, there is still some odd pressure differential stuff happening inside the shock. My guess is this is probably not noticeable on any vehicle that would be running a 7100, and in fact i tried to do a video where i swap the rear of a truck with chevy 63s from 255/70 to 275/78 to show the difference and i couldn't feel any difference lol.

[@accordv6er]

​@@WheelEveryWeekendI... Actually understand that after rebuilding some icons. Now I have some 5160s that appear to be similar in build to these, just minus a.shrader which I can add. Not sure if I'll find parts for them though, but should be same shims/seals anyways. They're the same "short body" large resi- 11" stroke where most 4R shocks are about 8-9, but still 2" less OAL than most off the shelf "long travel" stuff, meaning no ridiculous bumpstop/loss of upper travel. Problem is they're off a Tundra spec, which is running leafs and of course designed for more loads. I'm in a coil sprung GX. Should I completely rework the valving? In general how different is the valving for leafs in terms of rates/curve? I'm tempted to just pull any duplicate shims or something. Just don't want some weird annoying response or bad manners. I feel like I really need to back off the rebound damping, like 25-30% and compression by maybe slightly less. And move to slightly more linear compression as well

[@rd4660]

Why send profits back to Germany? Buy American, there are plenty of good shock manufacturers right here in SoCal.

[@WheelEveryWeekend]

These are literally made in southern california, 20 miles from my shop. If you're under the impression that whatever shock brand from socal you like the best is actually USA made and not just assembled here with parts imported from asia, you should lookup your favorite shock company on importyeti.com. Over seas imports are legally public record. I have a feeling you will be pretty disheartened, just as i was.

[@SDwriter.and.surfer]

@@WheelEveryWeekend They're assembled in CA for sure. At the Poway facility. I'd assume that the parts come from Germany though, don't they? FWIW, I looked at that importyeti site. I don't really know how to interpret the results, and they seem to have dozens of "Bilstein" finds. If you can provide a link, that would be much appreciated. From what I can see there, "Fox Factory" in El Cajon doesn't seem to import anything. At least I can't find that they do.

[@marcusl1796]

🙄 【p】【r】【o】【m】【o】【s】【m】