Koni Sport Shock Install Q&A
 

Seeing that I'm bent on making to the National Tours and ProSolos this year, I have a set of Koni Yellow unwittingly sitting in the parcel box still since I have never done shocks in my life. Thanks to Phil at DPE for your darn special buy that made me weak and got onto the Koni bandwagon. :banghead: :puke:

I researched on the board and found a few pertinent threads on the subject of install, though no complete DIY as far as I can tell. The available ones are:

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension-55/koni-sports-tein-hs-installed-77349/ olddragger
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-racing-25/koni-shock-install-78328/ whiterex
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension-55/koni-shocks-60580/ TheDosDog

Based on those posts, it looks like the instruction provided by Koni is inadequate. Additionally, some modifications will be required in terms of bump stop and spacer. I would like to get the following questions addressed prior to undertaking the install job. Your help is much appreciated!

1)Given my lack of shock install experience, would you still recommend me trying, say with helpers/buddies and drill/power tool?

2)I have access to the specific pages on Workshop CD, though how accurate/helpful is it in your opinion?

3)ULLLOSE mentioned that the job is doable without an alignment afterwards. Is it possible to explain how in terms of what not to take apart?

4)Any specific tips/guidelines/watch-outs for shock DIY?

5)Between Tanabe/stock front bar, which one should I pair the Koni with and at what settings front/rear? I purposely saved the stock knowing a day like this would come! Feel free to PM me on this one since the shock settings may be considered as a trade secret. I realize that attending Dial-In as offered by Evo School is the way to go, but I would like to get the baseline set-up and just concentrate on driving for this year.

Thanks for any help/insight!

A friend to help with the install would be a good thing to have, especially if you
haven't done one before.

Here are some instructions I wrote up after I did my swap. I found a posting in
this BB about installing some Tien springs that I used as a guide. Search in the DIY
section for it.

### Front Springs ###

Tools needed:
12, 14, 17, 19, 24(15/16) mm sockets
6 mm Allen wrench
14, 17, 19 mm wrenches
12 mm drill bit & drill
Torque Wrench
Spring compressors
Jack Stands
Floor jack


1) Jackup the front of the car, I slide the jack under the front cross brace
and jacked up there, install jackstands to secure the car

2) Remove front wheels

3) Pop the hood, and remove the engine cover

4) Remove the strut tower bar (2x12mm on each side)

5) On the lower control arm remove the 17mm bolt that holds the base of
the strut on

7) Remove the two upper control arm 14mm bolts

8) Remove the 3 upper hat 14mm nuts, after this the strut assembly should
drop down a bit and you should be able to angle it out (top first) by moving
the control arms it out and remove it from the car,

9) Use a spring compressor while undoing the struts

10) Take note before you dis-assemble the strut of the relationship between
the studs on the top plate and the bottom of the strut. Also note the
location of the rubber pad between the springs and top plate. Makes it much
easier to line up the strut when re-installing it...

The shop manual gives a diagram for re-positioning the strut hat with
a range of degrees from the bottom bolt hole to holes in the hat. look it up.

On second thought, use some paint and mark the top plate and the spring
before you dis-assemble the strut. Then you don't have to guess where to
align everything up...

10) Carefully undo the 17mm at the top of the strut assembly, the assembly
will pop apart when it comes off so be careful and remember to gather up all
of the pieces if they fly out.

11) You will need to drill out the hole in the stock bump stop cap to 12mm.

12) Reassemble the front strut using the new parts and old parts;

Basic order is: nut, washer, donut, strut hat, rubber pad, gold sleeve,
bottom donut (has a lip that faces up), bumpstop, spring, plastic washer, strut

Torque top nut to 37 ft/lb.

13) The reinstallation is the opposite of the removal, first slide the strut
assembly back through the upper control arm and under the fender

14) Screw on the 3 14mm bolts for the upper hat, torque to 34-46 ft/lb.

15) Reinstall the 17mm bolt through the base of the strut, torque 65-87 ft/lb

16) Screw in the 2 14mm upper control arm bolts but do not tighten them
all the way.

If you tighten them now when you rest the car down the front will be
excessively high and the rear will look squatted like in a weight transfer,
dont ask me how I know this

17) After both sides are complete reinstall the strut tower bar 2x12mm on
each side (TQ 20 ft/lb), and reinstall the engine cover

18) Reinstall the wheels

19) Lower the car down and let the car settle on the front suspension,
I took a quick drive around the block

20) Rotate the wheels so you can tighten the upper control arm bolts.
torque to 65 ft/lbs.

21) Enjoy your new springs

Instructions for the rear springs...

### Rear Springs ###

Tools needed:
12, 14, 17, 19, 24(15/16) mm sockets
5 mm Allen wrench
14, 17, 19 mm wrenches
Torque Wrench
Spring compressors
Jack Stands
Floor jack


1) Jack up the rear of the car, i jacked under the rear diff and placed
jackstands under each side of the rear to secure it

2) Remove the wheels

3) Under the car mark the lower control arm alignment bolt so you can return
it to the same setting, mark the front and back of the bolt (bolt and nut side)

4) For driver's side, remove the 10mm nut that holds the lever to the
headlight adjustment control

Note: Not needed on all RX-8s as my car did not have the self-leveling lever...

5) Undo the 14mm nut to the swaybar link and swivel the link out of the way

6) Remove the 19mm alignment bolt for the control arm

7) Wiggle the control arm until it drops out of its bracket

8) Undo the 17mm bolt at the bottom of the strut.

9) Remove the 12mm bolt near the top of the strut where the strut goes into
the trunk area

10) Pop the trunk and undo the tabs holding the side carpet, pull the carpet
back to expose where the strut is

If you have the spare tire kit, remove it first.

11) remove the 2 14mm at the base of the strut and the 2 14mm bolts into
the gold bracket and remove the 2 14mm nuts and pull the bracket off

12) You can now pull the strut out; if it seems to get caught on the
suspension you can try rotating it like a screw until it becomes free.
Or push the bottom of the shock toward the center of the car.

13) Use a spring compressor when dis-assembling the struts

NOTE: Carefully note the orientation of the strut hat on the assembly
as you have a very small margin of error when re-assembling the mess...

On second thought, use some paint and mark the top plate and the spring
before you dis-assemble the strut. Then you don't have to guess where to
align everything up...

14) Carefully undo the 17mm at the top of the strut assembly, the
assembly will pop apart when it comes off so be careful and remember
to gather up all of the pieces if they fly out.

15) Reassemble the rear strut on the new shocks, re-using everything
but the top nut that is replaced by the nut Koni provides.

Basic order is: nut, washer, donut, strut hat, gold sleeve, bottom donut
(has a lip that faces up), bumpstop, spring, plastic ring, strut

Torque the top nut to 37 ft/lb.

The shop manual gives a diagram for re-positioning the strut hat with
a range of degrees from the bottom bolt hole to holes in the hat. look it up.

16) The reinstallation is the opposite of the removal.
Loosely screw in the 2 14mm nuts from the top to hold the strut in place
for the next step.

17) Slide the bottom of the shock on to the hub assembly. I had to use a
floor jack to help compress the shock. Torque the bolt to 65-87 ft/lb.

18) Torque down the 2 14mm nuts from the top (TQ 34-46 ft/lb)
and then the 12mm from the bottom (TQ 18-24 ft/lb).

19) Reinstall the gold bracket and its 2 14mm nuts (TQ 28-38 ft/lb)
and 2 14mm bolts (TQ 28-38 ft/lb)

20) Reinstall the side carpeting

21) Reinstall the control arm in its bracket and slide the alignment bolt back
in place, tighten this back down to where your original alignment marks were
(TQ 87-101 ft/lb)

22) Reinstall the swaybar link and tighten its 14mm nut (TQ 32-44 ft/lb)

23) If driver's side, reinstall the arm to the headlight level control
and secure with its 10mm nut (TQ 15 ft/lb???)

24) Reinstall the rear wheels, remove jackstands and jack.

- Give it a try yourself. Its waaay cheaper that way. With what edj hooked you up with, should be no problem.

- If you plan on going to all of these national events, you will want a nice aggressive alignment anyway.

- I could care less if anyone knows my setup or runs it. It all comes down to driving the course.

Rear - Full Stiff
Front - 50/50
sway bar - MS(not mazdaspeed) front sway on softest setting
Alignment
Camber - -1deg on front/-1.5deg rear
Toe - 1/8"total toe out in front - 1/8"total toe in rear
Castor - 6deg

At the national tour event at Ft. Myers, none of the RX8's had similiar setups. If you really think that setup is the key, pay no attention to mine, it was the slowest.

Thanks to edj and whiterex for chiming in. I digged out the spring install thread edj
was referring to, https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-yourself-forum-73/diy-lowering-springs-install-23403/. Let's hope my
car buddies really like me to get me thru the install.

What is MS if not MazdaSpeed? I know Whiteline makes an adjustable one, not
sure about MS.

As far as I'm concerned, all of you have a lot to offer/teach since I just started the sport
with one season of RX-8 experience. I'll be happy to have your result when my time comes.
Somehow, I have a feeling that I'll be settling in nicely with last place, running 70% worn SSR to the shred until picking up v710.

MS in this case is a prototype TeamRX8 bar. Until you pick up some more experience, just stay with the stock bar for now.

Nice work edj... The only thing I would add is that the only part I take off the rear is the endlink from the swaybar end, I don't take off any of the other suspension parts.

^^^ I find myself having to take off the rear cam bolts. But not having to remove anything but endlinks up front. :dunno:

NOTE - I installed springs on my wifes NC(miata) yesterday, the suspension is a lot more like an rx8 than the NA or NB.

Some people claim to take the upper control arms loose in the rear rather than the lower one, it didn't seem to make sense to me but I've never actually tried it that way myself

swaybars are supposedly being fabricated as we speak, but I'm reluctant to say a couple of more weeks for the hundredth time ...

I'm going to have a used set of standard Koni's completely assembled with OE springs and hardware FS soon, so they will be plug & play for someone who wants to run Stock class rules

Use this...

http://www.swankmonkey.com/mazda/rx8...rs/index3.html

For the front:
Just remove the upper arm...

For the rear:
Just remove the lower arm that connects to the camber bolt. When installing it back, one side went pretty smooth but the other side, I had to remove the upper arm so I can fit the coilover.

I just installed my shocks/springs a month ago and it was the first time as well... It was waaay easy... What took me the longest was the &%$#&% compressor tool that kept getting stuck.

Don't forget to torque the bolts ONLY when the suspension has settled and the car is on its wheels.

Good luck,
Carlos

I don't understand why everyone takes the rear arms off???? Pull the shock/spring down just enough to get at the top shock bolt and then you can remove the shock and leave the spring in place. No need to take the arms loose and lose you alignment settings. The rear spring a soft and short enough you don't need to compress them.

I put lowering springs on about a year ago, and put Koni's on last weekend. both times I removed the upper A arm from the car (not the hub) and in the rear I removed the cam bolt in the rear.
just thought I would throw in my .02


P.S. I also take note of the cam bolt and washer location, and install in the same place.
also both times I have planned on takign the car down for an alighnment anyways.
ULLOSE, taking the car down very soon for the new auto cross setup.

Different strokes for different folks...

There are many many ways of doing this. You just need to pick the one that is easier for you.

BTW,
I didn't remove the rear lower arm... I just unbolted the camber bolt and rotated the arm outwards so I have space for the coilover to be removed.

My 2 cents,
Carlos

Yeah... I like to do it without taking the rear arms off so if I am at the track and want to adjust the shocks I don't have to worry about screwing up the alignment. Set a new record for myself, adjusted boths rears in an hour. :icon_no2:

In an effort to resurrect this old thread, here is what went down:

Put on the REAR ones only, since it took ~5hrs for the very first one, and only 1hr for the
other. A big shout-out to bxb40 for being the wonderful helper who brought over his gf to
watch our misery and giving tender massage when needed (to him only). :slap: :whipping:

Some observations (please correct/comment) since we were really clueless:

*For shock adjustment, we didn't have the vise depicted in the Koni instruction sheet
and the website adjustment page. So instead, we pushed the metal rod all the way in with
eyelet sitting on the floor. Then we turned the rod clockwise until no more, and dialed it
back one half turn (180dg). So the stiffness is set at 80% or so, since we counted 5.5
half turns instead of 5 for the entire range reported here.

*The order of strut parts assembly was different from what edj wrote. From top to bottom:
new Koni nut, gold metal plate, rubber, metal tube, rubber, gold bump-stop end plate, bump-stop
, and white plastic insert.

*Could not set the top thread of new shock the same length as OEM shock, meaning exposed
thread on top of the new nut in the truck. We used the combination of 5mm Allen hex wrench and
close-box wrench to tighten the nut, where it simply stopped turning at certain point. Not sure how
to torque it as suggested.

*Had to loosen rear sway bar and end-links in order to clear the allowable space. Did not touch
control arms so the alignment should not be affected. Used spring compressor on the car since
we figured the spring might expand after we loosened the top nut and the bottom 17mm mounting
bolt/washer.

*With just rear OTS-Koni on, the car transmits road irregularities much acutely. The rear goes
up and down (oscillates) over bumpy road instead of smooth and delayed motion. Solid thump over
potholes and cracks instead of clunking noise from before. Rear follows front instantaneously, no more
lagging sensation.

Thanks again for all the help. We will tackle the front this Sunday after autox school/competition.

it's 2.75 full turns, so your 5.5 half-turns is correct

you shouldn't really have to run them over 50% if you have the rear alignment set properly, though some hard-headed people disagree ...

next time take both end links loose and then rotate the swaybar completely out of the way, then drop the camber adjustment bolt out of the rear control arms and swing them completely out of the way. I know Ullloser doesn't like to do this because he's afraid he won't get the alignment back properly, but I can remove and reinstall both sides in 20 minutes this way, it gives you clear access to pull them in/out easily, IMO it's a lot easier to do off the car if you have a spring compressor, he uses the weight of the car as his compressor, two different ways to skin the same cat, or you could have the rear shocks converted to externally adjustable (adjustment tab at the top) and then you only have to unbolt the shock assy and let it drop to reach the adjuster with a knob then bolt it back up.

and we all know that there's only one way to set up the car "properly"...the bag-head way :worship: :puke:

lol, I'm not the one who's so hardheaded to not have tried it the other way :rolleyes: go ahead and ride around on the stiff setting full time, no skin off my back :)

:SHOCKED: :worship:

I think I need to move to a place where Natl RX-8 people live so I know WTF
I'm doing, on-and-off the car. On other positive note, I could only get better
from this point on after doing the install. The dealer quoted $800 for labor-alone
for the entire install :jerkit:

ps. Got Sticky Pod on the way as part of self-gratification/improvement. Will see
how good it is. Look out for videos soon!

watch it, buddy...I haven't tried the other way because I'm lazy ...my hardheadedness has little to do with it :p:

I guess I'll just have to suffer. :crying:

And here we have EVIDENCE that THE BUCKLEY is WINNING with a SUB-OPTIMAL SETUP!

That's why I knew he'd be so DOMINATE this season. Folks, he's simply THAT GOOD. Baghead knew it, or he wouldn't have run off to STU!


#1 Buckley-Fan

how about sub-optimal competition; the people he's run against either are inexperienced or had issues, it's not like he's thumping Strano's MR2, that said the word is he drove really well at the WR Pro, if that's the case then I'm happy for his success. Apparently this year's sub-optimal setup is better than last years. FWIW, I actually have at least three Pro Solo events planned driving other RX-8s, he'll get his chance to pulverize me soon enough.

since you're his #1 Fan maybe you should let him show SS how to bring the win home ...

Hahaha...now who is "chumming for a rise". :)

I'm just messing with you, Mark. Obviously a little birdy finally filled you in on who I am. Oh well, it was a fun run for Buckley-Fan.

Should be fun watching you guys in Peru.


#1 Buckley-Fan signing off

LOL, looks like I got #1B-F's goat ... :p:

Yeah, mine must have been set up wrong last year. I mean, I read it on the innernet, it's gotta be twue.

--kC
(1/4 turn from full stiff)