Replacement rear coilovers?

[767Jockey]

Has anyone replaced their original non ride height adjustable Koni's on your Contemporary with ride height adjustable rear coilovers that were simple bolt in replacements? What make and model did you use, and where did you get them? I'm sort of playing with the idea right now, but I'd like to look further into it.

[RICK LAKE]

767 Jockey You need to measure the length of your shocks from eye hole to eye hole. QA1 shocks have a couple of different styles. You can get no adjustment, dampening only or 256 rebound and compression. If you shop hard you can get them for about $120.00 cheap than at Summit or Jegs. I got a set for my ERA with the custom 256 adjustments and springs for the front end for the same price the shock are for sale at Summit. Car handles great. I got my shock from a race shop in Maryland. Have to look for the place. Rick L. Ps if you go to the QA1 website you can get the shock numbers you need to price out. There site is a bit of a pain to find the correct number for your shocks. Get the measurement and e-mail back. You might want to go all the way around with springs and shocks. I am getting the rears and springs when I get back to work. Are you going to SAAC meet in august in Millville NJ? Rick L.

[767Jockey]

Thanks, Rick, I'll check out the site. My goal right now is to have the car done in time to take it to SAAC in NJ. Hope to see you there.

[RACER X #99]

Doug, I replaced mine with AVO years back and they are still working, at least they were before I wrote this.AVO invented coil over shocks.


AVO SHOCKS USA COIL OVER SHOCK ABSORBER SUPPLIER
RD

[NKOTB]

Chuck Gutke or Jimmy @ Cobra Restorers in Kennesaw, GA did mine. I'm sure they can send you the parts you need if you want to order them.

[1985 CCX]

Doug,

I would suggest keeping the older Konis, mine are the same and ride fine with new springs of course. They can also be rebuilt as another option? They are either two or three way adjustable damper, just not adjustable height. Springs will adjust at rest ride height for about $250.

If you must get new ones I suggest Koni or Aldan with a third choice of Spax. Be ready to drop at least $1200 bucks. Yes, they are not cheap but nothing is, not even the rebuild of the originals you have. There are cheaper set ups but they would be lesser than you have now, at least in my opinion. Damper adjustable Koni are nice, I even think you can sleeve the units to make them adjustable height. I have a catalog that shows this as well.

Keep the Koni's, they are as good or better than you will ever need and still better than most.

My 0.2$

[Shelboss]

Hi Jeff, I would be interested in info to adapt Koni's for adjustable springs! Also snap a shot of the new prop rod details, thanks
Art

[avanti-176]

I have the adjustable Aldans on mine and like them very much. Actually one of the things that gets complimented on mine the most by the oldschoolers who know what it is supposed to look like is the way it sits....they all say it is the only one they have seen around here that looks like it has the right stance.

[767Jockey]

Art, Google "Koni coilover sleeves", everything is in there. Complete kit is about $64 per shock from Summit.
Doug

[lovehamr]

This may be to simple but have you considered just removing one third to one half of one coil? This should lower your ride height while changing your spring rate very little and can be done with an abrasive wheel or the venerable “flame wrench.” Just in case you're wondering; it will raise the rate slightly but you shouldn't have the rubbing issues associated with the lower rate springs. As far as what it will do to your handling; well, with the lowered ride height and minutely raised rate I doubt there will be much of a change at all. If anything it will probably more favor over-steer but I'd give that a shot first before buying new springs. JMHO

Steve

[Shelboss]

The Koni coil overs on the JAG IRS use flat ground ends so you can't trim coils, oh well! The coil over sleeves look like a good solution Doug, is a $64 kit for one shock or pair?

[Shelboss]

Coil spring compressor, here's a cool use for those solid front rotors when you upgrade to vented Series II. YouTube - Safe Jaguar Spring Compression
The Koni catalog calls for 42 MM ID threaded coil over sleeves to go with the Jag 80 1491SPA1 shocks. My shocks are too large in diameter to fit these sleeves, they are 1.7" tubes, 1.9" at the perch. Has anyone been thru this problem?

[Shelboss]

I talked to the Koni rep who says the shock would have to be dissassembled to slip the threaded sleeve over the lower tube. If anyone has done this, can you measure from the bottom of the tube to the lowest position the spring perch will sit at? The stock lower spring perch is 1.25" so either the sleeve will have to extend further down or shorter springs used. Stock springs are 11" length, I would not want to use shorter than 10".

[treblig]

if you are going to replace your coil overs do it right.
1. get your lower front arms level to the ground that is ride hieght for the front.
2. level your frame.
3. measure your eye to eye on the rear (12.375 ride hieght) look for a shock that has the same ride hieght + or - .250 or .125 tol.
4. Price is everything, go cheap then upgrade. Why buy some $1600.00 shocks when you don't have the feel or understand the control. Every car is different.

[767Jockey]

I talked to Koni today. The adjustable sleeves can not be used on these shocks due to the fact that the upper spring perch is welded to these shocks. You can send your shocks to be modified, but after the parts and labor to do so it's about the same price as buying new ride height adjustable Koni's. I was bummed to hear that to say the least.

According to the Koni performance rep I spoke with today, who by the way sounded as though he really knew his stuff, there are mathematical formulas dealing with corner weight, preload, and unloaded length to figure the height and rate needed to obtain a specific ride height change.

I used a much more raw method - more like tossing a coin in the air!
Jeff G. got the ride height on the rear of his car exactly right using a 10" 250 lb. rate QA1 spring. However, he gets an occasional rub on a big bump. I used the uber scientific method of determining by rough guess that an additional 25 lb. of spring rate would do little to change the ride height, but may help a bit with the occasional rub over a large bump. I ran my highly scientific guesstimation past the Koni rep when he was done explaining the mathematical way to figure this all out. He paused, thought about my reasoning, and said "what the hell - sounds good to me, give it a shot." 10" 275 lb. springs were ordered today!

[Shelboss]

Hi Doug, did you talk to Gordon? Yes the Koni top hat cannot be used, but you can cut the tube off the Jag Girling top mount, use a spanner to disassemble the shock, and slip the sleeve on to the shock. The spring and lower threaded spring perch can then be put on. The parts need from Koni are the sleeve the lower perch, and a nylon 2.25" to 2.5" spring adapter. With the 10" length spring, this will sit about .5" higher than Jeff's car at the lowest setting. To go lower would require using 2.25" x 9" long springs and having an upper perch custom machined. According to Jeff, the HD Contemporary used 300 Lb/in springs which were a little stiff, so you are in the ballpark!
For reference, the Contemporary ride height gage is set to 12" with the shorter half shafts, the Koni's are 9" compressed, 13.25" extended eye to eye.

[Shelboss]

Here is an update on modifying Konis for coil-overs: I received my coil-over sleeves from Koni yesterday, they are supposed to fit these 80 series shocks. Mine do not! The shock body is 1.7" and the sleeve is 1.675", so I have to have the sleeves opened up. This may just be my older shocks, but beware. As far as getting the coil-over sleeves on, I made a pin-faced spanner wrench with 1.4" pin spacing that will unscrew the internals of the shock and allow me to slide the sleeve over. For refinishing Chevy engine orange is more orange than the originals, but Ford Red is a pretty close match for paint color. So far, I am into it for about $240 (sleeves, perches, 2.5" adapters, and paint).