is it true that early housings and hubs have larger wheel bearings and spindles?

Are any of the other parts (wheel bearings, shocks, caliper mounts, etc.) either NLA or hard to get?

Making coilovers (eventually) and don't want to use the wrong struts. I have two sets of late housings and buying one set of early housings. Plans are to shorten them & run Rabit inserts, etc.

Anyone have coilovers and a preference or know which are better? If I run 15" wheels and LP tires I don't want to start chewing through bearings on the street.

IIRC, the '77 had a larger spindle diameter equal that that which was used on the 323i for all years. Other than that I am unaware of any difference between early & late models, perhaps the retaining nut on the top of the strut tube that keeps the strut cartridge in the assembly, possibly one has threads on the outside & one on the inside of the strut tube, but that may just be the difference between M20 & M10 struts, I'm not quite sure, but something to pay attention to.

15's & 50 series tires shouldn't have too much of a difference on the bearings, but if you are concerned, the larger spindles & hubs from the 323i or 320/6 (and possibly the '77)would definately be more conservative.

Aparently theres a difference in the hubs from 78-79 and 80-83, but I don't know what it is. As said, 77 and all 323i have much larger spindles, and shock tubes. Afaik, the rabbit shocks only fit shortened 320i struts, not 323i.

Theres nothing wrong with either setup.

Too bad you didn't have your stuff down here on Sunday. I shortened two Rover struts and added new perches for the coil over sleeves. I also made up two coil over struts for Al's TR8. Each one took about two hours of work to finish. I ordered four 5" sleeves and four adjuster nuts from AFCO. Total pricve was $122 for all four delivered. Not too bad of a price. Nuts were $14.76 and sleeves were $13.43 each. Inner diameter of the sleeve is a hair larger than 2 inches.