kioh

I thought I'd share some pics of the Konis I finally got around to building. There really isn't much excuse for choosing AGXs over Konis just because the build seems intimidating. It's pretty easy to do yellows in B13 fronts. I basically got this done using a bi-metal hacksaw, a dremel, and a my trusty workbench. The only thing I got my mechanic to do was cut/prep the housings(mostly because I didn't want to deal with getting rid of the strut guts) and weld on the flat perch for the threaded collars.

1 inch hole in the bottom of the housing.


Koni insert with the threaded part cut and the welds smoothed out. I took the paint off the bottom so the JBweld would go metal to metal.


Had the top of the housing cut a few mms below the Koni nubs since they won't be in play. The OD of the insert is nearly a match for the ID of the strut body.



Through the bottom.


I placed the headset spacer and washer in position and inserted the koni all the way in. If it moved the washer I took my dremel to it and ground it down a bit more. As long as you are fairly accurate cutting the Koni there won't be much to shave off. I left a little gap between the threaded nub and the washer but I wanted as much thread as I could keep.


Koni hardware, bolts cut to size.



Finished product. These will be paired with 10 inch 325 springs.


The rears I got used from a forum member. They have B13 front inserts and they'll be getting 7 inch 250 springs.


I have some minor questions though:

This is only going to be daily driven, will camber plates be needed? I like the Cusco plates but I don't know how much travel they eat up.

Does anyone have a solution for dust boots? I don't think I've ever seen a pic of a GC setup that had a dust boot.

If anyone has any suggestions about anything else I'll need or might want to get please share. The only thing I added beyond the standard install was some gasket maker that I cut and put between the flat perch and the threaded collar. It's probably redundant but I figured what the hell.

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Shawn B

Awesome work sir.

1) Camber plates are not necessary on a DD.

2) Buy two (2) sets of front OEM dust boots from Greg V at G-Spec. The front OEM dustboots have an easily removable bumpstop inside, they come with the dustboot. Remove the (new, free) OEM bumpstops on both pairs of dustboots. Utilize your Koni bumpstops instead (you do have Koni bumpstops, corrrect?).

The Nissan OEM rear dustboots have an integrated bumpstop. It is all one-peice and cannot be removed.

Hope that helps.

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2004 Tahoe, stock and fully loaded.
'93 Classic - Original Owner, "OEM Plus" modifications

* The best offense is a good psychosis. *

wes

Make sure you use the white discs that sit on top of the strut housing that Koni supplies!

Oh an nice job!

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MotoIQ

kioh

Thanks guys. I think this was the most rewarding mod I done so far. I'm definitely using the little plastic discs but I only have them for the fronts. For the rear I cut a small notch into my Koni bumpstop but I may try to find piece of plastic I can cut to make my own.

I measured my front strut dust boots today and it looks too big(diameter) to fit inside the GC springs, but I'm sure there's a solution somewhere. Just need to be creative.

98sr20ve

Looks perfect. Dust boots ussually don't fit under GC because the springs are too small on the inside.

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Steve

06 G35 6MT

kioh

Yeah, that's what I figured. I'll go sans boots for now but I'm thinking of trying motorbike shock boots.

98sr20ve

There really is just not enough room. Spring is real close to the strut housing with the GC stuff. Anything you try runs a big risk of getting packed up between the tophat and strut body. You don't need them so don't sweat it.

kioh

Cool.

kioh

Well I got the car on the ground today and the fronts worked out well. The rears however are too damn low. I had put them together with shaft topped out and just hoped that the 7" 250 spring would not compress to much. I found that with the car off the ground the wheel gap already looks lower than stock. When the car settles the tires are almost tucking. I turned collar as much as I could by hand but I can't get it anywhere near the 1" below stock I was hoping for. At best I figure that I'm currently dropped 2" below stock:

I really only want a ~1" drop in the rear but I don't think I'll be able to get the adjuster up any higher without compressing the spring and in that case I would be preloading the spring more than I'm comfortable with. The shaft just doesn't go up high enough. FWIW I bought the rears used http://www.sr20forum.com/suspension-...koni-reds.html

From the FS thread: "The ones on the right are rear shigspeed housings that can only be used with a coilover setup. They have a B13 front insert and actually are longer than off the shelf for more droop travel (about 2")"

I MUST be doing something wrong, either that or the previous owner really likes his rears low. Can anybody help me out with this?

98sr20ve

I like a 8 inch spring in the back of a B14.

kioh

It's a B13 actually. The problem is I just can't use the shaft travel that gets taken up when the car is on the ground. If I measure the compressed length of the spring and use a spring compressor to compress the spring to that length before putting the car on the ground I might be able to get the ride height correct.

98sr20ve

Measure the amount of room you have to lower the spring at your current setting. If you have 1 inch that you can lower the car and you want the car a inch higher get a spring that is two inch's longer. Then the spring will be near the bottom of the threaded collar. You have more spring travel as well and less issues with coil binding. Springs need generally need to be 3-4 inch's from the top of the strut body. You need to know your coil bind measurement or the stack height of the spring.

kioh

My problem is that the strut shaft will not go high enough to put a longer spring in there. The threaded part would be be well inside the spring making it impossible for me to put the upper mount on without compressing the spring. Unless I SHOULD be compressing the spring to assemble the strut. I'll have to get a bind height measurement then because there is more than enough travel back there. I'll try to get a measurement of how much shaft there is too.

98sr20ve

None of this jibs with my past experiance. Admittedly its been a while but a 7 inch's spring should have plenty of play in it to install. Lower the perch to the bottom of it's travel. What Koni did you install in the back? How low did you set it in it's housing? It is possible to over lower the koni in back of a B13. I don't take it more then 1 inch lower in the back. So a B15 Spec V insert would have to be raised in the housing for it to sit properly in the back.

kioh

I bought the rears used a while back. They are shortened B13 reds. As per the seller:"They have a B13 front insert and actually are longer than off the shelf for more droop travel (about 2")". In hindsight I really should have just made my own set.



That spring is stamped 180.64.44 BTW. So it does indeed look like I would need a longer spring.
Here is where the perch is set. It is about 2 inches below the top of the strut. I can drop it no more than another 1/2 inch before the tire hits.

I guess I just want the ability to go closer to stock height so I might swap them for AGXs.

98sr20ve

That doesn't make sense. The B13 front is already too short to use in the back of a B13. When you put a front insert in the back of a B13 you have to use "about" 1 inchs of spacers to get it to work right. If they didn't JB Weld them in place take the rears off and try to take the insert out.

kioh

I didn't see any JB weld around the top so I'll give that a try.

kioh

Well, taking apart the rears was a good idea after all. While we were looking for something to use as a spacer my mechanic found the rear control arm bushings that I had replaced with an Energy Suspension set. As it turns out they are about the same diameter as the threaded knob at the bottom of the Koni insert. So he cut them to size and I found some longer bolts and everything was put back together. Now the rear is set at a respectable height and it no longer looks like I have a dead body in the trunk.

Turbo91SER

I have a similar Koni reds and GC's on my B13 and love it.
9" 315's in the front 8" 250's on the rear.

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'91 SE-R FMAX DET - Stripping for the new project! - '92 SE-R - New project!
'93 NX2000 - Son's DD - '08 Infiniti M35 - Wife's DD - '00 Infiniti G20 - My DD

SkyShepherd

Hey Kioh,

The B13 is looking good! As far as the shock boots go, I found the energy suspension boots work best, although they are still a little bigger than they need to be. I picked mine up at Mopac in Langley, although your local Lordco should either stock them or be able to get them in a couple of hours from the depot. If you have issues with the eibach springs rattling, you can spiral wrap the springs like so (please excuse the blurry cell phone pic):

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Sad little 91 NX... recovering nicely!