Koni shocks help.

[MICRASKYLINE]

Got some koni shocks from ebay some time ago. had them deliverd and just left in the shed as just waiting for group buy springs.

Was washing my car today and looking at the front struts and the springs are held up by a circular bracket, went to have a look at the konis and no such brackets in the box, do I re-use the ones on the standard shocks or is there a part missing? if there is a part missing, whats it called?

photo is what I got from the ebayer.

please advise!!

Cheers

 

[Craig]

You re-use the cup from your old shocks, I know that Mike has done this recently so will be able to help a lot more than me, try PM'ing him

 

[mike]

the rear one's are a straight swap as far as i know.

The front ones are more interesting.

1) Jack up the car and put stands under the axle's
2) Remove wheel
3) Open Bonnet and undo the nuts holding the strut in place
4) Undo the lower two bolts and move the brakes out of the way to be able to remove the strut
5) Put springs clamps on and tighten

6) using a 14mm swan neck spanner and a set of malek grips undo the nut on the top of the strut. After the nut is off remove the cup, bump stop and spring.

7) Using a power drill, drill a hole into the base of the strut (in the middle) and then pour the oil into a bucket. (Tip : drill a hole into the top of the strut to help the air enter the strut, this should be done as high as possible.

8) Get a hacksaw or a angle grinder and proceed to cut the top of the strut off so you can get the piston out. Try and do this just around were the strut straightens out at the top (roughly 5-6mm from the lip)

9) It's now a case of using a metal file to smooth the internal edge so you can put the Koni insert in.

10) While the Koni is in the strut, turn it upside down and check to see how much more you need to cut off to make the Koni nearly touch the bottom of the strut. Will need roughly another inch cutting out.

11) After you have cut the strut to the right length, its time to make the hole in the bottom of the strut big enough to take the screw. In the end i filed the hole to the right size.

12) Give the strut a quick clean and the put the Koni back in. Follow the bit of paper that comes with the koni's. It goes screw, metal ring, washer, strut and finally Koni inside the strut.

13) The black rubber thing goes around the top of the strut to stop dirt getting inside#

14) The white ring loop's just goes on the top of the Koni.

15) Follow instructions 6 to 1 to put the back on the car.

Mike

 

[Retepetsir]

Glad I didnt have to do that for mine!

 

[MICRASKYLINE]

Cheers Mike
Going to print it out for my mechanic!!!

 

[K11_Dave]

RE: RE: Koni shocks help.

Glad I didnt have to do that for mine!

Likewise!!! :glance:

 

[mike]

Its actually not that hard, just get a spare set from a scrap yard.

Mike

 

[Zephyr]

to add to what mike said something i encountered was that the bump stop rubber thingy (at the top of the strut) its hole was to small for the koni piston so had to make it bigger

(tip?) the way i made my holes bigger was by using a drill piece n going around the edge of the hole again n again until it got bigger (didnt have big enough drill piece esp for the bottom bit)

(tip2?) to get more of the oil out quicker (after making a hole) move the piston in n out n it kinda squirts it out if u get what i mean heh

(tip3?) if access to the top nut in the middle of the black thing is hard to get to, u can remove the black metal thing by bending the clip things at the ends of it

its very easy to do (me some guy without any experiance of cars did it myself just abit time consuming(few hours each side) n the nuts maybe abit of a bugger to get off. maybe a fair bit cheaper doing it urself depending on what prices ur garage is asking)

 

[mike]

to add to what mike said something i encountered was that the bump stop rubber thingy (at the top of the strut) its hole was to small for the koni piston so had to make it bigger

(tip?) the way i made my holes bigger was by using a drill piece n going around the edge of the hole again n again until it got bigger (didnt have big enough drill piece esp for the bottom bit)


(tip2?) to get more of the oil out quicker (after making a hole) move the piston in n out n it kinda squirts it out if u get what i mean heh

(tip3?) if access to the top nut in the middle of the black thing is hard to get to, u can remove the black metal thing by bending the clip things at the ends of it

its very easy to do (me some guy without any experiance of cars did it myself just abit time consuming(few hours each side) n the nuts maybe abit of a bugger to get off. maybe a fair bit cheaper doing it urself depending on what prices ur garage is asking)


Above information was provided by Zephyr

Information added below is other things i have thought of.

1) Your always better off spending a bit of money down the scrappy on a set of struts as you may want to return the car back to standard one day.

2) Also allows you to make them up in your spare time (5 months, lol) and then swap them over in a couple of hours.

3) Continuing on the theme of buying spare struts, reason 3. If for some reason the nut that holds the piston does not come undone due to rust you are left with a couple of options;

a, drill the nut until it breaks (hard and time consuming, Gets harder as the jobs goes on.)

b, (my prefered method), tighten the springs as much as you can and with the use of cable ties hold the springs as far down as possible. Then get out your industrial grade angle grinder and cut the piston rod, swearing is allowed at this point along with threating the strut the same fate if it gives you any grief. Dont bother with a hack saw as the piston will chew them up.