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03-12-2007, 09:37 AM | #1 | |
Scooby Guru
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Koni Insert Install Step-by-Step (56K Warning)
Email from Koni representative detailing their ideas on adjustment. I originally found this on miata.net:
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread...ni+adjust+soft Quote:
I am not going to go through the whole process of removing tophats and springs because that is really well documented other places here on NASIOC. These instructions will be assuming you are starting from bare stock struts and I am not going to go back into the final assembly with springs and tophats either since that's also documented well. The donor struts came from an '04 WRX Wagon and seemed to be in really good shape. All of this would be better done in a vise, but we did not have one available in my garage. I really need to get a nice workbench. The first step is to mark the center of the bottom of the strut. Try to mark as close to dead center as you can since this will be the hole for all your future drilling. After you have marked the bottom with a punch, you can drill a small hole to release pressure in the strut. You will have a small fluid explosion when you drill through here and it WILL be messy. ^^^^ People have clarified that this will not happen if you drill them upside down in a vise. You will have a small off-gassing, but the fluid will stay in the strut. The next step is to measure from the top of your new insert to the set of little raised bumps on the strut body (sorry, no picture of this right now, but you can see what I mean in a few later pictures). BCF Catalogue has extreme sports equipment, too. Ours measured 46mm and looking at the instructions that came with the inserts this meant we had to measure and cut 40mm off the top of the stock struts. In the following picture you can see the cutting taking place with a big pipe cutter. The pipe cutter works for the front struts, but does not fit on the rear struts. We had to use an angle grinder and Dremel to cut those. Finished product after cutting. The pipe cutter did a great job of making a clean and smooth cut. The struts cut with the angle grinder and Dremel required some smoothing, but they also came out well. The next step is to drill a bigger hole in the bottom of the body where the bolt will be attached to hold the insert inside the body. The instructions call for a 14mm drill bit. We used a 9/16" drill bit. I had to go and buy a set at Harbor Freight in order to get a metal bit big enough. This is why you need to mark as close to the center as you possibly can with that first punch and hole. Ours was a little off, but it turned out okay. The 9/16" bit is slightly bigger than 14mm, so you will have a tiny bit of play, which is probably better since it's going to be hard to get the exact center. Now that cutting and prep is done, we can start the assembly. Take the little rubber boot and slip it onto the strut body. Insert the new Koni Insert into the strut body. Here you can see the little raised bumps that I talked about earlier for measuring. The insert will slide down until these bumps rest on the strut body. The insert will not be flush with the bottom of the strut body yet.
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Last edited by Jard; 09-19-2007 at 02:44 PM. |
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03-12-2007, 09:37 AM | #2 |
Scooby Guru
Member#: 34935
Join Date: Apr 2003
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MAIC
Location: Silver Spring, MD
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Take the bolt for the bottom of the assembly, insert it, and begin to tighten it down. We torqued to the specs on the instructions, which was 55 ft-lb.
You can now see that the bumps that were resting on the strut body have been sucked down into the strut body by tightening that bottom bolt. Take the rubber boot and slide it up over the gap. That's it...all done! Now reassemble as you normally would and reinstall. If you have any feedback to make this better, I'll be happy to make edits. Last edited by Jard; 09-19-2007 at 02:44 PM. |
03-12-2007, 09:48 AM | #3 |
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I was the patsy that drilled the first two struts. I would recommend using a vice for both the punch and for drilling. Also try to keep your head behind the strut while drilling. I have sweatshirt and work gloves soaked with hydraulic fluid. You really do not want your face anywhere near the blast area.
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03-12-2007, 09:50 AM | #4 |
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I think that about covers it soup to nuts. These went on my car btw, and me likey.
For the drilling, cutting and draining of the struts I'd recommend a drop cloth. It is really messy. The grinder for the rears was a god send. It is very hard to cut those straight, but afterwards I touched them up with a dremel to even them up and remove any burrs. |
03-12-2007, 09:51 AM | #5 |
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Great job illustrating how easy it is to do.
Most people are intimidated by doing the Koni inserts |
03-12-2007, 09:54 AM | #6 |
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Looks good. What are your thoughts on the ride? Do they require a brake in of sorts or is it just plug-n-play?
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03-12-2007, 09:57 AM | #7 |
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drinking beer and making fun of people covered in hydraulic fluid helps too...
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03-12-2007, 10:04 AM | #8 |
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I am not aware of any break-in necessary. Maybe someone can comment on that. I really like the ride. Full soft is very close to OEM and full stiff is WAY stiff but'll be nice for track or autox. I'll be messing with the settings for a while to get the right DD setting I imagine.
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03-12-2007, 11:13 AM | #9 |
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Nice pics. I'm thinking of installing the Koni's on my 05 sedan. Did you stay with the OEM springs?
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03-12-2007, 11:22 AM | #10 |
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03-12-2007, 11:23 AM | #11 |
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03-12-2007, 11:47 AM | #12 | |
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Great work on the step-by-step photo and instructions -- thanks!
Quote:
Last edited by thorongil; 03-12-2007 at 02:54 PM. |
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03-12-2007, 01:10 PM | #13 |
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Good writeup.
Any pics of the rears? Just not enough room for the pipe cutter on the back? I have also heard that if you do the initial hole with the struts upside down, that the gas can escape without as much fluid blowing out. The fluid can be drained out later. |
03-12-2007, 01:16 PM | #14 |
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Very nice write-up!
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03-12-2007, 01:26 PM | #15 | |
Scooby Specialist
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Quote:
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03-12-2007, 04:58 PM | #16 |
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03-12-2007, 05:08 PM | #17 |
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lets see some pics, i'd like to see how much of a drop you had with the RCE camber plates.
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03-12-2007, 05:17 PM | #18 |
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I think this may deserve a sticky.
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03-12-2007, 05:23 PM | #19 |
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I will take pics tomorrow. And I have pics of the car before with just STi springs on it too to compare.
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03-12-2007, 06:00 PM | #20 |
Street's closed, pizza boy
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03-12-2007, 06:22 PM | #21 |
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Very nice... I just did mine last week, and will reinforce/add a few points:
1) It's not that hard. I thought I would order them professionally assembled, but after some encouragement here, I tried it myself and despite my lack of wrenching skills, it went fine. Sore arms from using a hacksaw instead of that nice pipe cutter, but I got a good workout that day 2) If you go the hacksaw route, you'll definitely want a workbench with a vice to hold the strut body. Keeping the hacksaw cut oiled will make the cutting much easier. And a Dremel to smoooth out the uneven cuts will help. 3) Yes, holding the strut perpendicular to the ground while drilling will prevent the major explosion of oil delivered when drilling horizontally as pictured (I'm glad I had my glasses on while doing that first strut!) And yes, it smells about as bad as old tranny fluid, especially when it has exploded all into your hair 4) My bottom punch was pretty off-center on one strut (about like the picture here) and I thought I was hosed, but as shown above, there was enough play with the 9/16" hole that it bolted up fine. 5) I left a little more strut body than needed (i.e. cut a little high), such that the bottom bolt wouldn't reach the struts with the washers on. With the washers off, I could at least get a few threads of the bolt into the strut, tighten bolt (which pulled the strut into the housing), then remove bolt, apply washers to bolt, and finish it off. Saved me a trip to the store to buy a longer bolt. I know some people mentioned using a hammer to gently tap the strut into the body and I tried a few blows with a rubber hammer, but it's such a tight fit, it didn't seem like there was any way that would work. And thanks, I now see that I should be pulling the rubber boot all the way up to the gap at the top of the strut. Nice write-up! |
03-12-2007, 06:33 PM | #22 |
Street's closed, pizza boy
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Oh yeah, you might want to crosspost this to scoobymods
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03-12-2007, 07:17 PM | #23 |
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03-12-2007, 07:38 PM | #24 |
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When measuring the top of your new insert to the set of little raised bumps on the strut body, draw the line the whole way around the strut body by taking the measurement every few mm then connecting those dots for a more accurate cut.
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03-12-2007, 07:40 PM | #25 |
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You should be a hand model.
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