Lessons learned, ..regarding Koni Sport adjustables... |
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Lessons learned, ..regarding Koni Sport adjustables... |
naro914 |
Mar 14 2016, 07:30 AM
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#1
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Losing my mind... Group: Members Posts: 2,476 Joined: 26-May 06 From: Charlotte, NC Member No.: 6,073 Region Association: South East States |
**NOTE: on 3/20 I changed the title of this post because at first I just had a question (this post)...but now I am sharing my experience regarding replacing your 914 suspension with Koni Adjustable shocks because a lot of people asked or seemed interested. Jump to Post 13 for "The rest of the story"....
_________________________________________________________ It's been a while since I've posted a stupid question - heck I've been so busy lately and not done much with my 914's in months that its been a while since I've posted ANYTHING at all... (Papa Smurf is away at Dawe's Motorsports winter camp spending all our retirement savings and Huey has been sitting patiently in the garage waiting for nice weather...) So here's my dilemma: I ordered a full set of Koni Sport adjustable shocks for Huey, and I got the coil-over set up from Ground Control for the rear. They came Friday, and I was excited to get working on them Sunday (was busy Saturday). So...after doing a bunch of things to our other cars that needed the lift, I got Huey up there, took off one of the rear Bilsteins (figured I'd start on the easy end first, easy remove and install right?) and looked at what I had in the new box, and what I had on the old shock. I realized I needed basically all the hardware that goes above the spring hat (washer, threaded collar (Porsche calls it a bushing) and rubber bushing) that was below the hole, and the bushing and washer above. Basically everything above the hat except the top nut (which they give as a lock nut). This is where the stupid question comes in: Are there different threaded collars (bushings) for Bilstein and Koni? Look at these pictures: First one is the threaded collar, screwed all the way down on the Bilstein as it's supposed to - and the rubber bushing goes over it. The second one is as far as the collar will go...which is not at all because the thread pitch on the Koni is different!! Do I need a special threaded collar for Konis? Did they not send me something I should have? Suspension is something I've honestly never messed with... I'm going to call Ground Control later today, but thought I would throw this out there to the World braintrust and see what responses I get since I'm SURE some of you have upgraded to Koni adjustables... Thanks! |
naro914 |
Mar 22 2016, 03:55 PM
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#2
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Losing my mind... Group: Members Posts: 2,476 Joined: 26-May 06 From: Charlotte, NC Member No.: 6,073 Region Association: South East States |
There should be a clip under the lower spring mount you can move down. The threaded coil-over collar is down as far as it can go...no further down Boge struts will work also, Koni struts take a special top retaining nut, Do the threaded collars have a counter bore in one end, maybe they are up side down on the shock. Also check to see if the hat is all the way down..there may be s slight step on the shaft , not allowing to down further.. Carry On... Not upside down, the spring seat that you spin to adjust actually has direction on it (up and down) and it spins the right way, so the threads go the right way... Yes, hat all the way down. There is a step, but that's where it sits on to stop. so yes...Boge struts work perfect, Koni it turns out do not with the hardware they send...actually, I don't think they would work at all (or at least the Koni's we tried). Look at the picture of the inserts in Post #1: see the tapered section at the bottom? The narrow tapered on the Koni strut housing goes much higher, meaning the insert does not go down far enough...like by almost an inch! So...find a set of Boge front struts, they work perfectly... So do the 10 inch springs in the kit make the car sit higher than stock springs? Unfortunately I don't know what stock height is so I can't comment there. When you order the Ground Control Kit, you specify the spring (rate and length). I didn't know length, so he sent 10", which is what he says they normally use....so maybe that's closer to stock height? Huey is pretty low... Gotta thank Cody and John Forbes at Black Forest Racing for helping me out with these. Luckily, they had the struts (both Koni and Boge) so we could try them out, get them assembled, and have them ready to put back into the car. |
McMark |
Mar 23 2016, 07:02 AM
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#3
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914 Freak! Group: Retired Admin Posts: 20,179 Joined: 13-March 03 From: Grand Rapids, MI Member No.: 419 Region Association: None |
There should be a clip under the lower spring mount you can move down. The threaded coil-over collar is down as far as it can go...no further down But did you see from the pic, there is a snap ring on the shock itself. You have to remove everything from the shock to get to it. Spring, threaded collar, etc. If your setup came all assembled, you wouldn't be able to see this clip. I think the threaded collars can be flipped as well. |
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