Front Strut ? How is the bottom of the, insert centered in the tube? Options

[john rogers]

After rebuilding my front end with new struts and Koni inserts we are having a problem getting camber to come to zero. I run bias ply cantilever slicks and they like 0 deg neg camber. I remembered the old KYB inserts had a depresion in the botton of the body and when I looked at the bottom of the strut tube there was a boss that would locate the strut bottom. The Koni inserts did not have this depresion and in fact they have an extension about an inch long that is measured and cut as necessary to get correct insert length for the strut body. This extension had a depresion in it but I am thinking it is not big enough to locate over the strut tube boss and what has happened is the insert has gotten cocked to one side so camber is off and can not be fixed? I double checked with Koni and they said these are the correct inserts so I am puzzled?

The question is: has any one experienced this and does anyone have a strut with an insert laying around so they could check to see what the bottom of the insert and the strut use to stay centered? I would appreciate any info available as we are really scracthing our heads over the alignment issue.

This might explain why the car turned right very well at the race last weekend but not so well when turning left???!!!

[Jeroen]

what type of struts are you using?
(boge or koni)

[john rogers]

The inserts are Koni Sport and we figured it out we think. The shop had several (6) new pairs of 914 front struts and found that the tolerances in putting the forged spindle on was really poor. In measuring the distance from the centerline of the spindle to the upper edge of the tube there was a variance of nearly 3/8 inch over 6 different struts. We also checked the drilled hole for the ball joint and found variances there too??!!

As for the inserts, the Koni's have a slightly larger bottom so they center them selves in the tube very well and were not moving. We did find the strut mount area was moving together when full weight was put on the car about 1/2 inch total even though I have the upper box section braced from where the center was cut out to mount the fuel cell. The double 1 inch x 3/16 steel braces which were fastened in the center were deflecting or bowing so the upper fenders were moving in. We are going to use some cro-mo tube and triangulate the fender area so it can't move which is why there are additional braces on many race cars.

I guess this never showed up much until I replaced the 9 year old KYB inserts with some good ones??!! When we get finished I post some picts.