I bought some tokico illuminas meant for eg/dc. One of the front struts is shorter than the other, is that how theyre made? and which side of the car does the shorter one bolt up to?

 

Looks like one is just more "uncompressed" than the other.

 

oh wow hahaha... tripping about nothing.

 

but they should extend freely.

if they dont, its blown.

and im not quite sure theyre the same. check the stamped part numbers.

 

Can you pull the shorter one to extend it more?
The fully extended one (on the top) looks to have the spring cup not even holding the top end spring.
The one on the bottom looks like the cup is making good contact with the spring.

I would think the bottom one would have pushed all the out like the top one did.

 

I was able to pull it up a bit yeah. But. Im worried about the rears, the coilover sleeves are sitting kind of slanted, or maybe im just tripping about nothing again. The guy i bought these off of said theyre gc sleeves but it doesnt say gc anywhere on them. I know theyre not ebay sleeves because i have some and they re really loose on my stock struts. The illuminas are tightly on there, csnt move them at all. Can someone examine the pics and tell me if the sleeves are slanted, and if its a bad thing?

 

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No those are just eBay **** coilovers

Ground control are a red anodize with gold anodize perches and eibach springs. And they would sit inside the rear cup and not slant like you see.

Your seller lied to you so the condition of those shocks is completely suspect.

 

Your right i google imaged gc sleeves. They look diff thsn my ebay sleeves tho. My ebay ones have number . From 5 to 55. Also more spaced between the settings. I dont think the struts are blown tho, i can only push down on them with alot of force. My stock struts... i can push down on them with 2 fingers.
I installed one in my wagon, lowered it about an inch at the setting theyre at lol.

 

they are suppose to come back up by themselves after u push them down.
at a good pace too. If not they might be suspect.

 

The one(s) that are not fully extending by themselves are very suspicious.
I would take the spring off to give it a better go at testing.

Slanted sleeve doesn't belong on that shock body.
It should have a few large orings on the shock body to hold the sleeve concentric about the shock body.
Your first pic shows the top of the sleeve pitched completely to one side - almost like it's just free floating and can wobble side to side.

I found this pic on the internet.
Bottom oring has electrical tape to hold it in place.
Eventually the installed taped all the orings so they wouldn't roll down the shock body.

If you don't have orings, you might be able to strips of a bike inner-tube instead.

 

The weird thing is the sleeves don't move at all. Its like they're stuck in there. Should I try and take them out and try to make them sit straight.

 

I think that would be a good idea. The bottom of the spring should sit on the entire bottom perch. Right now you are just hitting at a high point which can't be good.

 

Back in the day when I used ebay coilovers, some of them had allen head set screws that held the sleeve tight to the strut. Check for those. They might be hiding under the collars.