RebekahsZ Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 The strut rod extension is about 1-1/2" shorter on the koni 8610-1437RACE than it was on the Illumina BZ3099s. Really only effected the rear ride height, but I no longer need droop limiter straps in either front or rear. I have never run any preload before. I plan on installing the next longer coil spring and cranking some pre-load into the rear springs to see if I can bring the rear back up. Am I right to say that I can compress the spring a full inch before significantly increasing the effective spring rate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
74_5.0L_Z Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 (edited) How much did you shorten the rear strut housing? You aren't at the limit of your strut travel (in rebound), are you? What is your spring rate and free length? If you do not have variable rate springs then your spring rate should be almost constant over the usable range of spring travel. Edited January 6, 2014 by 74_5.0L_Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socorob Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 a 280 strut insulator would raise it about an inch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 (edited) 74_5.0L_Z, I was kind of hoping you would chip in, since I know you did the koni thing recently. I have plenty of remaining travel-in fact, I have two spongie bump stops on the strut tube to try to limit my compression to 1.5" (to keep car from squatting too much when drag racing). My housings were already shortened by a previous owner. For the fronts, the 1437s went in with no spacers-I put two flat washers in on the passenger side just to make sure my gland nut didn't totally bottom. For the rears, I ran the same spacers inside the tubes that I had with the BZ3099s, but I added a small stack of flat washers too in order to get the gland nut to cinch down nice and tight with just one thread exposed-all spacers are in the bottom of the tube, under the base of the shock. I have two sets of springs. For the rear (since that is what is low), I have a 10" spring and a 12" spring - both are 250#. They are constant rate springs. The longer is a hypercoil from johnc and the shorter is not marked for brand, and it is from Ground Control. The 12" has wider coil spacing. I am going to order a set of thrust bearings and a spanner wrench from Jegs tonight-only thing delaying the purchase is deciding among the vast array of different coilover spanner wrenches available and my inexperience in knowing what will work and what really matters. My adjustable lower seats have round holes in them, so I'm going to pay $35 for a spanner wrench with round "fingers", whereas a simple toe-nail style spanner wrench is only $6 from Speedway! Hope to play some tonight with a jack to see how much droop the car has now. I will probably wind up with a car that has zero droop and a good bit of pre-load at ride height whether I like it or not. Another option is to have a big aluminum "biscuit" machined that can bolt to the top of my DP camber plates (kind of like socorob suggested), and increase ride height on the top end of the strut assembly...damn the domino effect! Any more advice after that "War and Peace" explanation? Edited January 6, 2014 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
74_5.0L_Z Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) I haven't used the Tokicos, but if they are gas pressurized like the old KYBs then they provide a significant force to extend the strut. Konis are not gas charged and provide no force unless the shaft is in motion. Preloading the spring will restore the ride height. I'm guessing that the rear of your car has about 650 lbs of sprung weight on each of the rear tires. So, if you install the springs without a preload the spring will compress about 2.9 inches. If you preload the spring by 1 inch then you will only compress the spring an additional 1.9 inches when you put the car on the ground and you will have that much rebound travel available Definitely get some thrust bearings to put between the spring and lower perch. I used to preload my old 250 lb springs. Before installing the thrust bearing, it was a herculean task with all of the weight off the tire. After installing the thrust bearings, I can adjust the ride height by hand while the car is on the ground. I got my thrust bearings from Speedway Motors. I was going to paste the URL, but the editor is not allowing copy/paste. Edited January 7, 2014 by 74_5.0L_Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 From the way the tokicos behaved, I would say you are correct-one of my shocks "went bad" and when I compressed the shock by hand and let go, the strut rod shot up to full extension fast and HARD. I considered that shock "bad" because the other shocks returned to full extention slowly and controlled. Will order up the thrust bearings-been all over the internet looking at them between appointments today; they all look about the same-between lower/higher prices vs free shipping/paid shipping all the vendors are about the same. I presume that one should lightly grease the bearings? Sometimes I don't know whether or not to grease things that are exposed to the environment without a seal-seems like the grease just attracts grit...Thank you for all your advice. Hope to meet you in person some day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 All parts ordered up. Man, I can spend it! Measured droop from static to when the rear tires start to slip: 3" as measured at the top of the fender arch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socorob Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I greased those bearings on my Z although it hasn't ran yet and my last car. They were on there a few years with no problems. It made adjusting them with the $5 wrench from my local speedshop like nothing with the car on the groundt. If you have a local speedshop that caters to circle or dirt track they may have them there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 (edited) Did what you fellas recommended. Ordered thrust bearings and a Joe's short coilover wrench from Jegs. It showed up the NEXT DAY! Tore everything down and installed the 12" springs instead of 10" springs. Put is all back together and set ride height. I don't know how you guys can get hands on the lower seat with the car on the ground-I have to remove the tires. Droop is only 1-1/2 to 2". Anyway, I have photos of the supplies and a photo of the "final" ride height. The weather was great here today (shorts weather-last week was FREEZING), so I took it for a test drive and gave her a bath to get all the iron filings off the paint job. Now, to figure out how to get one of the koni adjuster tangs un-stuck - didn't check it before installing. Any suggestions appreciated. Edited January 11, 2014 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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