Jhanna:

Today Saturday 4/17/04 Eric Hu and myself will play with the Koni adjustables.

Did you install the G35C base Rear Shocks yet?
And I take you have the Front Koni's at full soft.

Please reply if this is not your current set-up.

Later today I'll move the rear Koni's to medium firm. On Erics stock suspension. ( at least he can get new tires with the NNA 24 month policy )

My Suspension is 50% to 60% firmer with the Hotchkis Springs and Sways. My trust is starting to come back to the car.

If Eric like the 50% firmer setting on the rear Koni's - Then I'll try it too.

The Side to Side issue is probably because of my Hotchkis sways.
I'm at the Soft setting in the rear. And Medium in the front (58% over stock)

Over all the front tires feel well planted, and in contact with the ground at all times. Glides ove man hole covers, where the stock suspension would fell like it was coming up through the dashboard.

I don't want to add firmnes to the front. Yet.
I wan't to allways be able to see clearly out the rear view mirror.. Even at Speed !

Cheers Amy -

 

Amy,

What was Eric's feelings with the Konis on soft and the stock springs? It was my understanding that you want to stiffen the rear sway more in relatation to the front to lessen understeer.

 

I have the EVO front sway set to med and the Koni's set to med. I still have the old stock rear sway bar. A big but is that I am running 265's in the front and 295, streeet tires, in the rear.

The car is really balanced well. I ran Thunderhill at high speed and the car was just set in all speeds and corning loads. The only issue now is that due to the high turning forces I am seeing very high temperatures in the power steering fluid.

You just can't beat the balance though now.

 

CrayZ?

Did the EVO front Sway and Koni Struts Get rid of the "Plowing"?

With the rear Stock bar and Koni's on medium, can you get on the gas and "Kick out" the rear end?

I used to be able to kick out the rear "Easily". Now it's planted I think I'd need more horse power. And my rear sway is softest (Hotchkis 62 % over stock) with less understeer,

Got to go bail my buddy Eric out.
It's raining and he's at the dealership
(Performance Nissan Duarte) doing new TSB for feathering.

Let's see if the rain helps the "rear" kick..

Cheers Amy -


Cheers AMy -

 

The plowing is a thing of the past. I can kick out the rear or plant the rear. The balance is so good I can't believe it is the same car.
I autocross and I now have to relearn to drive and get on the gas earlier.

 

Do you have any advice about how to lift the car up to adjust the rear shocks?

(I *knew* I should have installed them myself: having someone else install them mans I don't know anything about where the adjustment point is or how to change it).

 

the rears are the tricky ones. they are at the bottom so you have to be houndini or remove the rear tires to use a allen head not sure which size. I had them installed also but the instalers allowed me to watch and took the time to show me the location of the adjustment for hte rears.

 

Does a 3/8" allen head on the rears sound right? Thats what I remember.

 

Sounds like you need the Nismo Power Steering Cooler.

 

I haven't stuck a allen wrench in but it might be as small as 1/4. I will do it tomorrow and let you know.

 

yes, for $200 it's cheap insurance.

 

How do you know the temp of the PS fluid???
I read that the Z has one already so should be an easier install.

 

Hi Boomer..

Eric Hu ( KONI ) and I had a great day..

At Performance Nissan in Duarte, his tire feathering problem at 9000 Miles.

Then about three o'clock down to my home in Orange County..

The size of the Allen Wrench is 2.5 MM About the size of the middle of a round toothpick. And have one allen wrench a size smaller about 2MM as a backup.

We used Eric's stock sizzor jack to lift at the rear lift point. This gave us about 6" to reach up to the slot in the rear Koni's.

The allen wrench moves the adjuster one quarter of a turn each time. We tried many combinations..

Affirmed we were full soft front and rear.. Then went to the middle of each adjuster front and rear.. Even though very very very firm - it was not pounding in the front - like the stock shock fell like it's coming out the dash.

We then set Erics ( he has stock springs and sways ) in steps back to softer in the front - 1/4 turn firm from full soft in Front.
Firmer yet no pounding on the floor boards.

The rear we went full soft, then just one quarter / one stop from soft, and called it done.. We tested every change with city streets and the infamous 405 north between the 22 and 605 - got off on Katella/Willow and back on the freeway to Magnolia.

Then it was my turn.. Set front to 1/2 turn from full soft.
Later this was set to 1/4 turn from full soft... ( *** the right value is between 1/4 and 1/2 of a turn) Fronts are done easily
Use a key to remove wire loom from clip on passenger side.

Now I have Hotchkis Progresive springs and Sways. There is no roll, at current settings. Middle 58% over front, 62% over rear ( softest )
The setting is full soft then just move the pin firm to the stop, then back to about half of the distance - this is like full soft and a Eighth of a turn. But better than full soft. Very odd. This makes me think the adjustment is made for long term.. This may have to be adjusted to find a new firmness every 10,000 miles as the shocks age. No wonder these shocks have a lifetime warantee.

we were driving around in the rain today, I stood on the car on the 210 on ramp, to try to kick out the rear end... Nope. a little tire spin, but car tracked straight.. That is balanced... heh !

Need more HP

That was a fun day.. Back to the grind...

Jeff when you get back, I need to talk about the front A-Arm kit.
Jason - still need a stock front A-Arm for a loaner...

 

Amy, sounds like you and Eric are having fun. Music to my ears.

 

"We are Driven"

From old Datsun ad !


-

 

I JUST now got done adjusting them. I ended up using one of those L-shaped allen "wrenches" and the micrometer says that the flat diameter is 1/10". The wrench is no more than 2" long and any longer is just harder to work with in the limited wpace.

The allen head doesn't need to be a tight fit in the adjustment holes. I suspect a 1/8" would work okay. And it doesn't take a lot of force to move the adjuster.

Adjusting is much easier than I expected:

Just jack up the car with the jack that comes with the car at the rear jack point just in front of the back wheel (I actually got out the manual to make sure that the jack point really is so close to the outside of the car).

Raise the car until the tire just leaves the ground. The wheel droops enough to give you about 12" or so of room above the tire into the wheel well. Use a good strong flashlight to illuminate the top of the wheel well so you can see the top of the shock.

Here's a (rather poor) diagram of the adjusting mechanism (and there are at least three mistakes on the page*)

Redfoot has a better image on this page (third image)


Insert the long end of the L into the slot while holding the shorter end of the L:

/----------------------> into the adjusting slot
|
|
|

^ shorter end of the Allen wrench in your hand (nice graphics, huh?)

The Konis are shipped initially at "full soft. You increase the rebound (make them stiffer) by moving the inserted key from left to right. The adjuster allows you to move at most 90 degrees (what Koni calls a "sweep"). So 4 "sweeps" from left to right amounts to a full turn, or 360 degrees.

If you could look down onto the top of the shock and view its cross-section you'd see the cutout which faces the outside of the car (if your installer didn't put it in backwards!) and gives you access to at most two of the adjusting holes and that limits the travel to a bit more than 90 degrees:



So, as I understand it, to set the rear shocks to midway between full soft and max stiff, make 4 sweeps (1 revolution) from left to right.

That's it. Put the wheel back down and do the other one.

To set the front shocks to midway between full soft and max stiff, open the hood, find the top of the shocks and use the little **** that comes with the shocks to make one full revolution in the "more stiff" direction as indicated on the ****'s top.

Adjusting all 4 shocks took me about 30 minutes this first time. I'll bet I could do it in 10-15 if I needed to. Very nice.

And halfway between full soft and max stiff is very nice, too: full soft felt just a little bit "floaty" or "mush-mobile" like. Halfway is reminiscent of the original 350z suspension without the jounce. In fact, it's a lot like the suspension on my wife's BMW 330ci; nearly perfect for a sports car that you drive every day. (Actually, the 350z with 50% Konis has a lot less body roll than the 330ci, but the straight-line ride over road irregularities is similar.)

I'll autocross 50% Konis tomorrow and see how it goes. I may end up backing down to 25% of the way from full soft to max stiff (1/2 revolution from full soft) and just leave it there ad infinitum.

I'm really loving these shocks. For those who didn't know the Koni model numbers of these shocks are:

8241 1216L Sport (left front)
8241 1216R Sport (right front)
8241 1217 Sport (rears)

So these are 8241 series shocks.

*Mistake 1: "Independently adjustable in both compression and rebound" should be "Adjustable rebound only".

Mistake 2: "Figure 1: Move pin left or right to increase rebound forces (counter-clockwise)" should be "Figure 1: Move pin left to right to increase rebound forces (counter clockwise when viewed from above)."

Mistake 3: "From the minimum or factory positions, there are 12 possible sweeps of adjustment (1 sweep equals 1/4 turn)." I believe that the 350z Konis have only 8 possible sweeps (two complete turns).

 

JimProuty:

Nice post - could you give us the real info on the Front adjustments..

We have the "Yellow Paper" from the bag that had the front adjusting ****.

It also may be "mis interpreded" The Pictures say + =180 and ++ = 360

We did not find a "STOP" when moving the adjuster 720 from soft to 720 firm. ( hope this didn't hut the valve. )

I suspect 360 and above is still full firm.. It felt like a truck but the "turn In" was awsum on Eric's Stock suspension.

Please add information about front settings.. Maybe we can create an English document fo the KONI's

Cheers Amy -

 

I had the same "helpful" diagram you do, but my installer lost it. Koni apparently uses those instructions for multiple shock models and I think they didn't carefully review them for applicability to our shocks.

I emailed Gordon at Koni asking him about how to set to full soft and he mentioned there IS a "stop":
As far as the max number of revolutions of adjustability for the front shocks, I'm just guessing that they have the same range (two full turns = 720 degrees) as the back shocks. And I'm not positive the limit for the back shocks is 720, either. I'll email Gordon again for clarification.

 

Nice write ups Jim. Let us know how you and the Z did with the Konis.

 

Amy,

I am running the Koni front shocks at 1/2 turn from full soft as full soft was not providing sufficient damping.
I still have the Koni's on the rear at full soft - have about 1,000 miles on them now. I will be going back to the G35 Coupe shocks on the rear as they still compare more favorably for traveling on concrete interstates and rough roads. I don't currently autocross or track the car. However, I can advise that the car is easier to control at the limit on hwy. entrance/exit ramps with the G35 shocks on the rear. Bumps and/or concrete segments do not upset the suspension at all, whereas the rear Koni's still want to cause some bounce which causes the tail to step out unexpectedly.
The rear Koni's did soften up considerably in the 1st 500 miles.
There has been no significant change in the last 500.

John