Ok today I installed my Koni yellow shocks with GC springs and the problem is that the shock on the front driver side has been pushed farther down than it should be through the damper fork. The reason is that the bolt that tightens the damper fork was not screwed in all the way. I tried tighten the bolt as far as I can, but in the middle of it tightening, the bolt would suddenly just seize and I cant tighten it any further. Is there any way to fix this? Now my paint is scratched off and maybe I damaged the body of my shock. Help!

 

Did you install the brake line brackets from the stock shocks? If not, you need to do that because that's what helps keep the fork from slipping upwards on the shock.

 

Nm fixed the prob.


Modified by Andrew 825SM at 11:30 AM 6/12/2003

 

Isn't the shock supposed to be down all the way into the fork?

 

do the brake like brackets have to be on there????? i just put a set of gc's and yellows on my buddy's car but we left the brackets off.......hhmmmmmmmm i guess we will might be redoing those shocks

 

There is an indent on the shock where the fork pinch bolt is supposed to go thru, and this will *sorta* keep the fork in place, maybe for awhile, but remember that the fork and shock body are bearing the entire weight of the car's front end. About 1" above the fork, on the shock body, you should notice little bumps that stick out around the shock body. The brake line bracket slides onto the shock and stops at those bumps, then the fork slides on.

If you don't have the brackets on, then the entire weight of the car is bearing on the pinch bolt, which will eventually come out of that indent in the shock and will make the fork slip up higher. By having the bracket in place, the weight of the car is evenly distributed around the bracket, fork, and shock body.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cletus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">do the brake like brackets have to be on there????? i just put a set of gc's and yellows on my buddy's car but we left the brackets off.......hhmmmmmmmm i guess we will might be redoing those shocks</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope, I ran the Koni/GC setup for about 2 years with out the brackets (brake lines were zipties out of the way). For me that was about 70k street miles, 80 autocrosses and a couple of track days. Never had a problem. The bumps on the Konis prevent the shock from sliding into the for more then should once the pinch bolt is in place.

 

Yeah but if the forks slip (which they did on my friend's GS-R hatch) then it will cause unwanted alignment changes (camber and toe) and make the front sit as much as 1" lower than what it was previously. Also, if it does happen, the bolt coming out of that indent could possibly damage the shock body. I would get those brackets on there just to be safe.

 

I don't know.. I never put the brake brackets back on and after 3.5 yrs and 90+ auto-xes, and the fork is still in the right place. Tie wraps work great!
The Konis may be shot from too much abuse, but the fork has not moved upwards. I 'm not saying I can't see that happening though..