Lessons learned, ..regarding Koni Sport adjustables... Options

[naro914]

**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"....

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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]

So here is "The Rest of the story" regarding replacing the shocks (front and rear) on Huey with Koni Adjustable Sport shocks...

Huey had Bilstein front and rear sport struts/shocks with it turns out only 140 lb springs and 21mm torsion bars. As you can see above, my plan was to replace these with Koni sport adjustables, 225 lb srpings, and use the Ground Control set up with the coil-over spring perches. Easy enough....

Once I got the threaded collars I needed (read above), I figured the rear would be a piece of cake. Wrong. First...the threaded part at the top of the shock is too short, so...when you screw the threaded collar on, put the rubber bushing over it, push it up through the body, put the top rubber bushing and big washer on...there's barely enough thread showing to bite on the nut!! I FINALLY got it to bite so I could screw it down, but was not 100% convinced that I have full engagement to the nylock nut, so I took it off and put a wavy lock washer on...making it even MORE difficult to get the nut to bite. After a while of swearing and having my wife help push the shock up as hard a she could from the bottom, I got it to start to thread and was able to crank it down...wow...

Rear done right? Nope...had to adjust the height. So I tried...but as far down as the spring perch will go, I'm still 1" higher than the car was before!! A whole Inch!! I'm down to the last threads on the coil over sleeve...so I can't go any lower. The only solution is shorter springs. They sent 10", I guess I need 8"...and now probably helper springs too... <sigh>

OK then...onto the front. But guess what? You can't put Koni inserts into Bilstein struts! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

There's an article on Pelican Parts from Wayne that explains this..maybe I should have read this first?? http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/1...s/63-Shocks.htm

So...I took the ENTIRE front assembly off - destroying both tie rod ends and one of the pinch bolts at the bottom of the strut/ball joint connection. (Not to mention dumping about a pint of brake fluid all over the garage floor...but that's another story!!) I'm hoping I can find a Koni strut assembly from a few local guys I know...we'll see.

But I figured while I'm here, I'll also replace the ball joints. One was kinda crunchy feeling. and it give me a good chance to really clean up everything under here.

So...lessons learned so far:
- Make sure you have all the hardware (I honestly still don't know about the front..yet)
- If you're car is low, get shorter springs if they're stiff because they won't compress as much as the stock ones will.
- you CANNOT use Koni inserts into Bilstein struts - check that first!!

I will post more once I get the Koni struts to complete the story.

IF I've done something wrong here, someone please tell me!! Did I miss something?? I don't mind learning as I go...frustrating that I have to keep waiting for parts, but that's part of the learning process. Suspension is one thing on Huey that I had never messed with, so it's interesting... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

[gabeurgelles]

So here is "The Rest of the story" regarding replacing the shocks (front and rear) on Huey with Koni Adjustable Sport shocks...

Huey had Bilstein front and rear sport struts/shocks with it turns out only 140 lb springs and 21mm torsion bars. As you can see above, my plan was to replace these with Koni sport adjustables, 225 lb srpings, and use the Ground Control set up with the coil-over spring perches. Easy enough....

Once I got the threaded collars I needed (read above), I figured the rear would be a piece of cake. Wrong. First...the threaded part at the top of the shock is too short, so...when you screw the threaded collar on, put the rubber bushing over it, push it up through the body, put the top rubber bushing and big washer on...there's barely enough thread showing to bite on the nut!! I FINALLY got it to bite so I could screw it down, but was not 100% convinced that I have full engagement to the nylock nut, so I took it off and put a wavy lock washer on...making it even MORE difficult to get the nut to bite. After a while of swearing and having my wife help push the shock up as hard a she could from the bottom, I got it to start to thread and was able to crank it down...wow...

Rear done right? Nope...had to adjust the height. So I tried...but as far down as the spring perch will go, I'm still 1" higher than the car was before!! A whole Inch!! I'm down to the last threads on the coil over sleeve...so I can't go any lower. The only solution is shorter springs. They sent 10", I guess I need 8"...and now probably helper springs too... <sigh>

OK then...onto the front. But guess what? You can't put Koni inserts into Bilstein struts! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

There's an article on Pelican Parts from Wayne that explains this..maybe I should have read this first?? http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/1...s/63-Shocks.htm

So...I took the ENTIRE front assembly off - destroying both tie rod ends and one of the pinch bolts at the bottom of the strut/ball joint connection. (Not to mention dumping about a pint of brake fluid all over the garage floor...but that's another story!!) I'm hoping I can find a Koni strut assembly from a few local guys I know...we'll see.

But I figured while I'm here, I'll also replace the ball joints. One was kinda crunchy feeling. and it give me a good chance to really clean up everything under here.

So...lessons learned so far:
- Make sure you have all the hardware (I honestly still don't know about the front..yet)
- If you're car is low, get shorter springs if they're stiff because they won't compress as much as the stock ones will.
- you CANNOT use Koni inserts into Bilstein struts - check that first!!

I will post more once I get the Koni struts to complete the story.

IF I've done something wrong here, someone please tell me!! Did I miss something?? I don't mind learning as I go...frustrating that I have to keep waiting for parts, but that's part of the learning process. Suspension is one thing on Huey that I had never messed with, so it's interesting... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

So do the 10 inch springs in the kit make the car sit higher than stock springs?