Not sure if this has been covered before and could not locate this anywhere. But here goes. I have a new set of koni adjustable shocks for my 89 st162 and before fitting I decided to check the compression of them by hand. The rears felt the same to push down and returned at the same rate. The fronts went down the same but one took approximately 3 more seconds to return than the other. This one came from amazon.com usa and found out that they had it for 2 1/2 months before selling it. It also has no label only the details imprinted into the paint on the bottom. The other 3 struts all came from Victoria Australia and all have labels with make info on them. Does it sound like this strut might be ok or faulty. I will be running sports low king springs all round. Thanks.
the sticker doesn't matter. as long as it has the stamp in the metal. actuate the shocks 20 times or so. then see how it goes. if they become the same, no worries. if not, you got a bad apple.
One mistake many people make with these Koni inserts, is to not adjust them properly. They turn the adjuster knob all the way till it stops, left and right, without turning a 1/4 turn off the stopping point, this will kill them quickly. This seems to be especially true with a car that has been set to low without suitable bump stops in place. If you plan on lowering your car an extreme amount, you might want to look into Koni's specialty inserts designs for this purpose. Go to the Koni website and look for the 8611 race series inserts, they come in shorter shock body lengths. racerb
Thanks for the help guys. Got them fitted ok but i think main nuts on the top of the front struts were not tightened down enough before putting pack together. the whole shaft would move and i did not have a deep 19mm socket and was not game to rattle gun/inpact wrench them on in case i damaged the adjustment part. tried tightening further in the car and was able to get them up to torque specs but i believe due using locktite blue on them they may not be tight enough causing movement when i throttle up and the front out the car raises(makes a small clunking sound. Hopefully I can get a deeper socket and rattle them loose just enough to break the contact, then do them back up tighter without having to remove then from the car. I know you have to be careful tightening with a rattle gun as i have heard stories of people stripping threads of breaking bolts. I would obviously use the lowest tension setting first.
Are you using the fiber type locking nuts? If so, you should not need thread locker at all, just torque the top nut down tight and your done. Also if you are using stock top hats with the built in rubber bushings, the center hole is sometimes too small and the Koni threaded shaft will not slide through completely. I had to use a rat tail file to open the center hole for the Koni's to fit properly. And yes the very best way to torque the top nut down is the an air/electric impact wrench, and I use a standard 19mm impact socket, you can not over torque this nut, it just want happen. racerb
