Damper question

[JT191]

I am faced with a situation where I am forced to build my own coilovers from scratch for a rare vehicle. There are no new OEM struts available for the vehicle any more, and no aftermarket OEM replacement struts were ever offered. So sleeves over stock struts are not a possible option. I also need something that is double adjustable (for both compression and rebound). The best option I have come up with so far is to build a fully threaded body sleeve to go over the Koni 8611 cartridges, and then to mame bottom brackets to attach to the spindles that thread onto the damper body. Basically another version of the Zzyzx setup that is offered for Subaru and Mitsubishi (but not sold as parts).

 

The technical assistance people at Koni have been extremely helpful, though I have never used their products before.

 

I wanted to see if there were any other options before jumping in woth both feet. I am sure that other people have built coilovers from scratch, either because they have no other option or because they wanted to.

 

Are there other cartridges by other manufacturers that are better than the Konis? Or maybe there is someone hiding somewhere who is selling fully threaded bodies?

[DriverGT5]

What type of suspension are you working with? QA1 makes some universal coil-over combos that weld in place. I've heard good things about them and know a few people that use them on road race cars from Corvettes and Mustangs, to Lotus kit cars. They sell them at Summit and Jegs and you may look into it.

 

Koni makes good stuff for the money too. In the end, I'd lean toward the guys putting in the time to help you out.

[JT191]

It's a compact car with a four wheel macpherson strut suspension with the two bolt spindle bracket (as well as the brake line locator and sway bar bracket) welded to the bottom of each strut housing, to attach to the spindles.

 

I looked at the QA1 stuff, and it looked perfect except for two things:

1. Most of them have the lower heim joint to connect more like a shock absorber, and I would have to chop that off. It would make me really nervous to put a hack saw on something with that kind of value.

2. The ones I could find with double adjustment had one of the knobs sticking out the bottom of the housing, where I would need to thread my lower bracket on, and I couldn't tell if the permanent part of the assembly stuck out of the housing, or if it was a plastic knob that pressed in from the outside and could be removed while the bracket is threaded over. I could put a access hole or slot through the side of the bracket, but it would make things a little less than convenient for adjusting the bottom bracket position.

 

 

I agree, the helpful company seems like the way to go. And I have always beleived that doing something the hard way is usually the way to end up with the best result. But I don't want to get done only to have someone tell me "You should have done it this way, it would have cost you a fraction of the price and time".