[s-cars] Coilovers and Konis rates

Wed May 14 10:31:36 EDT 2003

I am positive that the rebound adjustment in the koni sports is
ridiculously high at full.  I sat down with about 5 different shocks off
of several different cars most of them valved for way more spring than
on the urs4 even considering it's weight.  I think the bennetts
recommend  this because the bump in the front's and rears are so low.
If you have to live with what you have then this may be somewhat of a
fix for low front bump, but I suspect you will end up pumping your
suspension down.

I used 3/4 in the rear and 1/2 in the front, they are difficult to
adjust and between 1/2 to full they gain a ridiculous amount.  They also
vary a lot between shock so use a fish scale or your best calibrated
elbow instead of counting turns.  I set one and adjusted the other to
match.

I also noticed that the bump between each shock was off quite a bit, I
didn't have time to take them down to the local shock dyno but I
definitely believe Morris suspension when he said 30% diff between
shocks for koni's mass produced shocks is in spec.

I guess my comment would be that there is plenty of rebound for 400lb
rear springs but not enough bump.  I am running 375lb springs in the
front and there is a similar problem there, actually there is way to
much rebound available in the front.  From talking to koni they claim
they do this so that as the shock wares out you can get it back.

One thing to recognize is that these shocks where never designed for
these spring rates so it is no surprise that the bump is off.

I put 2-1/4 rear springs on my koni's using some nuts and threaded
collars I got from A1.  The fronts I used nuts and collars, and a steel
washer to sit it on that I got from Ground Control.  I suspect ground
control will have the collars and nuts for the rear.  I made a top shock
mount that fit's under the rear rubber top mount.  In the front I made
top spherical bearing mounts as well as spacers to fit the top spring
perch.

For the rears you can either do it the way I did, 8" 2-1/4 400lb springs
and custom top spring perch.  Or you can use 2-1/2 400lb 7" from what I
was told to clear the happersised rear boar, and let them sit in the
stock rubber mounts.

In the fronts you will need some kind of spherical bearing mount, I
simply made one on the lathe and welded it to the stock camber plate,
then cut a groove for a retaining ring to retain it.  I made some custom
piece to space it down to the top spring perch.  I used an off the shelf
top spring perch.  I then got a 55mm steel washer from ground control
2.50 ea. A 55mm threaded collar and nut about 60 ea, cut off the spring
perch and pressed on the washer, welded it to the strut and pressed on
the collar.  I also got thrust bearings for the bottom of the springs, a
necessity on a strutted car to ensure no coil wind up, although the
spherical bearing should do some of this work.

With a lathe a welder and a press, you can make the fronts like I did
for under 200, under 300 with springs. A1 is slightly cheaper than
Ground control, I had to machine the I.D. a bit, and ground control no
double has one's that fit.  So the rears with springs for like 120, with
springs 220.  I had the 400's laying around so that is why I run 2-1/4
instead of 2-1/2, although either will work fine.

If you got money and want to do a real nice job, I would do two things,
one get hypercoils spring perches, they are hydraulically leveled, and
two get tender springs at least for the rears so that you don't have to
worry about making sure they stay in place when you jack the car up.

I use 8"375lb springs in the front and set the front ride height higher
than the rear, to get back some suspension travel.

I like to use the lightest springs that I can get away with, and I think
I am pretty much there.  I like to keep the rear rate a little higher if
nothing else so that I don't bottom out when I have the car loaded down,
family and baggage.

I have the larger front sway bar 28mm and to compensate I have the
happersized rear bar with drop links approx +1" longer than was shipped
with the kit, this is because I cut my rear cv on the right side with
the shorter link.  I have the rear bar set on full soft.

The next step for me will be koni double adjustable in the front and I
have some double adjustable fox's laying around a 5$ eBay buy that I may
put in the rear.

I would also suggest that if you are at it and I should have done this
also, use the shorter koni double adjustable struts and instead of
spacing them on the bottom, cut the top of the strut down to allow for
more suspension travel.  I didn't have a problem with bottoming out the
car, but I also run the front of my car fairly high.  I also made some
custom poly bumps that fill the void between the strut nut and the top
of the shock.  I then used some from snubbers from fox or koni, but the
real progressive foam ones instead of the black rubber crap that the
factory put on.  All of this because I dislike the feeling of bottoming
out the suspension in a corner at 120mph.

I had problems with the nose of the car coming down too fast because the
koni sports are so soft on bump.  I know up the rear rebound but again I
think this is a mistake, the problem is in the front not the rear, or at
least that is what I believe, I guess I will never know until I try it
with some correctly valved front shocks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Neil Swanson [mailto:neilsphoto at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 4:28 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Coilovers and Konis rates

Hey all,

Don't know who posted the question about 2B'suggestion
for running Konis Sports with coilovers on the rear at
max rebound but I'd have a question.

With what rate spring on the rear are they saying max
would be best?  I've read of some listers finding
400lb springs are the max spring rate for Konis
sports.  After that even max rebound can't control the
spring recoil.

A little OT but does 2B sell the parts to make the
Konis coilovers or do they only sell complete
coilovers assembled?

Another question.  I know Ground Control has threaded
sleeves for 2" OD Bilsteins but what about the smaller
@1.6" diameter Konis? I remember reading about early
CO kits for the 4Ks where duct tape had to be wrapped
around the shocks to fit the sleeves snuggly.

Neil

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