I have koni struts that came on the car. I ground away the spring perch and installed HELD coilover treaded collor and strut relocation addapter. The addapter is necesarry because I have an 88 cradle on my 86. My Springs are 12 inch 2.5 ID GroundControl Eibach 325 Lbs. The Coilovers is adjusted to a slightly lowered height from stock. I want to lower it further but I already have ran out of travel as it is .

Driving over a medium sized bump the top of the strutbody smacks into the spring retainer ring that is wended to the botom of the strut relocation addapters from Held Motorsport. The impact is jarring to say the least.

I wonder whether buying a new set of Koni Special (red) struts will solve the problem. Perhaps my perticular Konis are different (longer strut body) as they are older and not extrernaly adjustable as the new omes (8741-1063)

Is there anybody who has Konis that would be willing to measure the length of their Koni strut body? Maybe one of us is in the process of rebuilding has their struts off the car will take a tape measure to it hopefull . Please also mention if they can be adjusted while on the car and how old they are. Thanks in advance!

Also is anybody with konis struts and held addapters finding that the koni strut body is wider at the top causing it to not fit inside the upper spring perch of the held adapters. How is your ride?

Last but not least, I was looking at the koni .pdf files you can download from their site and noticed they offer a "Cut Your strut"
cartrages they offer. You are supposed to hacksaw your old strut body to the desired length and drill a hole in the bottom of the strut. Then you incert the Koni cartrage and secure with a ring and nut at the bottom of your old strut. You can buy the cartages with the stroke and damping range you specify. You can even have bump adjustment aswel as the more standard rebound adjustment. Has anybody done this or heard of anybody that has?


Thanks
Iwan

I don't have Koni's but my strut bodies measure 13". I havn't heard of anyone in the Fiero world using the Strut Inserts that you found on the Koni website but I really like the idea. I am wanting to make a set of coilovers and would love to have adjustable damping but I can't get past having to cut the spring pearch off of such an expensive strut. I sent Koni North America an E-mail asking if they had a strut insert to fit the Fiero application and will let you know how they respond.

Thanks for the response. Keep me updated on the info from Koni, Thanks.

I'm looking at the 8611 Koni series shock insert which are available in 4 strutbody lengths (A): 39cm,33cm,31cm or 29cm.
To determine which struts are the best fitting, I'm following the instructions in the KONIMotosportCatalog.pdf.
So I'll be removing springs and bumpstops (and swaybar) from the car and jacking up the chassis first to determine the droop. Then jack up the suspension to determine upward travel and thus maximum strutbody length (A) needed for my fiero at my current rideheight ( and also for a lowest rideheight I am likely to ever want to set the coilovers at).
Only problem is that I cannot jack the suspension up high enough because the struts I have now are too long bodied and hit the inside of the strut tower (Held adapter plates, upper spring retainer ring).

I think I'l end up cutting the struts and making them shorter (then weld the cap back on so it has a rod to attacht at the struttower). This would only be for measuring purposes. just to find which length A I need to buy.

If I chose the shortest length that would probably never hit anything and so would be fine. Only it is best to use the longest length possible because it would be stronger an more durable. I would hate to buy the 29cm body length only to find out after install that the 31cm would also have had enough clearance!!

Another thing that is important is the inside diameter of the strut you intend to cut up and use for the inserts. It must be larger than the outer diameter of the incerts.
All above mentioned inserts have diameter of 43.5mm which should fit ok. But the 31cm incert has diameter of 45.5mm which I believe is exactly the same as the inner diameter of a stock strut tube. So may fit or not depending on tollerances. Could be a gamble..

Anyway, any input, ideas warning etc are very welcome

Thanks Iwan

Hi Iwan, if understand correctly its the shock that bottoms out...arent they the wrong ones to start with? Maybe its easier to buy new/correct ones and it may work...do you have the id of your current shocks?
Sorry Ive no more help than that. (btw I may be able to get 20-30% discount on koni's, well several years ago though)

I have a few more numbers for you from a set of Monroe struts that I cut up this weekend to see if I could find an appropriate strut insert as well.

Stroke = 6"
OD of strut tube = 2"
Wall thickness = 0.100"
Top 1/2" Wall thickness = 0.060"
Internal strut depth = 11 7/8" = 302mm

Unfortunately it looks as if there isn't sufficient depth for anything other than the shortest one that you found. The good news is that the ID is plenty large enough at 45.72mm. Also it appears as if you are supposed to thread a nut on the top of the strut body in order to retain the strut insert. In order to accomidate this design you would either have to thread the strut body or weld a threaded portion to the body. In the case of the struts that I have the top portion of the strut is already machined to a larger diameter which would make it necessary for me to weld the threaded portion on.

I was hoping that I could find something more like the "cut-a-strut" design where it bolted in through the bottom. It appears as if that would eliminate alot of these problems.

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When I get home Friday, I'll measure the length of my Koni's that just came in.

Brad

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Thanks for the replies!

Roderick, you are right I probably have incorrect koni's on my car at the moment. I cannot detect partnr's anywhere while the shock is in the car though, do you know where the partnr is stamped? My shock body measures 35cm, I did measure that.

I am real interested to hear what Brad is able to measure on his new konis. Also brad are they externaly adjustable and can you see a stamped partnr anywhere?

Jefrysuko, I actually thought 8610 and 8611 where the "cut a strut style inserts" with the bolt through the bottom and rubber band to cover the cut of the strut. Looking closer it seems they are a different system. I was not able to find pictures of how the insert does mount to the strut at the top or the bottom.
Is it supposed to have threads on the Inner wall of the strut top?

I think the koni I have now is like that (The outer diameter of the strut increases towards the top of the strut). Its a shame that its total length is too long at the moment, and after I shorten it, I loose the threaded portion up top...... I wonder is it like the 2816 incert that requires a custom threaded outer strut with mounting eyes to be fabricated?

If it is then it may be better to go for the 2817, which is a complete strut with a detachable cylinder at the botom to which the mounting plates for connecting to the knuckle need to be welded. (it is a semi finishes strut). Wonder what one of those would cost though.....

Thanks
Iwan

quote Originally posted by fiero-iwan: I cannot detect partnr's anywhere while the shock is in the car though, do you know where the partnr is stamped? My shock body measures 35cm, I did measure that.

I only have red koni's at the front so I dont know about the rear's ....looking at the koni info the rears could be 8741-1063 for all years including 88

Brad did you get round to measuring the strutbody length of your new konis. I'm real curious.
Also brad are they externaly adjustable and can you see a stamped partnr anywhere?

FieRo thanks for the partnr. I found that too in the Koni pdf's but I would like to know where abouts on the shock this partnr is supposed to be stamped.

Thanks
Iwan