Konis and H&Rs are a NIIIIICE combination.

I installed the Koni rears the other night.

The rears did help improve the handling even more, but not nearly as much as the front Konis did. The improvements are that I there's less understeer, and I can pull my line in better by applying throttle at the apex. I can follow a tighter line. To be honest, though, just having the front Konis on with the rear Tokicos was a pretty decent handling setup. I imagine it'd feel similar with front Konis and the stock rears. If cash is a problem for someone, I see no reason why they shouldn't consider just upgrading to front Konis, then decide later to get the rears.

It's fantastic how well the suspension soaks up huge bumps now. I still find myself expecting to get bumped around after a major dip, but the Konis completely eliminated all rebounding oscillations. Speedbumps feel totally different now, too...that's the only time the struts feel a little harsh, as there's just NO after-bump rebounding oscillations to lessen the harshness of the bump. I can live with it, though

The old Tokicos seem to be fine, but the fronts have pathetically little compression dampening. I don't remember them being this weak when new. I can push the rod in with one hand. Not much resistance at all. Also, they seem to be especially soft over the first inch or two of compression before stiffening up, which may have been why the car wandered so badly on the highway with Tokicos, and the point where they stiffen seems to vary; first, after 1 or 2 inches, sometimes not until 4 inches. I think that caused the wandering problems because the tires just weren't planted well, and the front tires just kinda moved up and down easily, the car moving around as a result.

FYI I have the following settings on the Konis:
Fronts are set to 3/5 half turns
Rears are set to 3/5 half turns

 

I'd buy some if I knew my engine was alright.

btw: Just how difficult is it to reajusted the rears?

Matt P.

 

nm

 

oooooooo... *drool drool*

that's great to hear. how long did the install take? Victor (so cal guy) took over 8 hours to install the cartridges, but his drill was weak sauce.. so that probably hindered the install time...

what do u think of setting to stiffest setting for track? worth it? or too hard?

 

A huge pain. You have to completely remove the strut and fully compress it while turning.

On the bright side, I think 3/5 stiffness is good initial setting, so there may not be need to re-adjust. From my experience, slightly too soft is better than slightly too firm, both from a comfort AND performance standpoint. I set my fronts a little too stiff and the tires skipped over bumps on curves rather than following the contours of the road. Slightly too soft just didn't quite have the snappy turn-in and response, but at least the traction was there. Even the softest setting on the Konis feels quite a bit firmer than brand new Tokicos, although not harsh.

 

didn't everyone say the same thing when their Tokico's first went in? I think this time around I'm going to wait till someone puts some miles on it and them comes back with a report.

 

I honestly can't think of how it could have taken that long. I used a friggin hacksaw (flimsy one at that) and it only took 2 hrs for both. Cutting through the tops of the strut was the hardest part. Drilling wasn't that bad I thought, but you know how important it is to have the right (sharp) bits...makes all the difference in the world.

Installation of the Koni struts on the car is the same as any other struts. I took probably 6 or 7 hrs total but I forgot something on one of the fronts and that put me back an hour. Other little screw ups as well along the way put me back a little also. It's a 4 hr job at a shop, typically.

 

I honestly can't think of how it could have taken that long. I used a friggin hacksaw (flimsy one at that) and it only took 2 hrs for both. Cutting through the tops of the strut was the hardest part. Drilling wasn't that bad I thought, but you know how important it is to have the right (sharp) bits...makes all the difference in the world.

Installation of the Koni struts on the car is the same as any other struts. I took probably 6 or 7 hrs total but I forgot something on one of the fronts and that put me back an hour. Other little screw ups as well along the way put me back a little also. It's a 4 hr job at a shop, typically.

As far as the optimal setting for the track, it depends on the springs you have (you know how H&Rs are not super stiff), but also on the track itself. If the track is really smooth (read: little to no ripply-type bumps), you might be able to dial up full stiffness, or 4/5 anyway. For the street, I've found that 3-3.5/5 is about the maximum on my car before the suspension starts skipping and loosing traction. Adjusting the fronts really make quite a difference (much more so than the rears)...like I said, there wasn't a gigantic handling difference between the (old) Tokicos and 3/5-stiff Koni rears, but there was a big difference between (old) Tokico and 1.5/5-, 3/5-, 3.5/5-, and 4/5-stiff Koni fronts. I think as long as the rears are set pretty close, you should be fine with the easy adjustments on the fronts for a track set up.

 

H&Rs were on the car previously. I paid $209+shipping through the TireRack.

I got the Konis through Cattman for $480+shipping, I believe. Damn expensive but appear to be worth it, at least thus far. Nice thing is you can adjust them as they wear to counteract the softening. Konis have a limited lifetime warranty, too (original owner only).

I had to buy new dust boots/bump stops as well. My old ones were trashed. Really a good idea to replace these as they protect the (exposed) strut rod. I got new "spacers" (look like gaskets to me) also...these stop some of the squeaking noises from car chassis to strut mount rubbing. All in all this OEM crap cost me like $140 (best price, too - Courtesy). RIDICULOUS, but what can you do?

 

I didn't mess with it, thankfully. The rear of the car seems to have been raised ever so slightly with the Konis on. Maybe my imagination, maybe they'll settle, maybe it actually is a little higher than before, but the rear of the car doesn't appear to sag like it did *slightly* before. The rear Konis have adjustable spring perches so you can raise the rear ride height by ~5/8" or so. It would have looked funky had I raised mine. But...if you have stereo hardware back there (or store corpses, etc), I can see this being a benefit because you can level the car again.

 

I too installed my Konis and H&Rs on my 98MaxSE over the long-weekend. Basically, I took it easy during install and took me 6 hours. Cutting the original OEM struts the first time around was all a learning experience. I found that using a sharp blade hack saw at exactly 25mm from the end of the strut is perhaps the thinnest spot on the strut. Also, I followed the proceedures outlined in this url:
http://pws.gamewood.net/~mb800/struts/struts.html
to be quite useful.
Another tool that will help things is a bench vise to grab on the struts when doing the work to be very useful.

Strut settings (still experimenting):
front: 3 half turns
rears: 2.5 half turns