i'm psyched. i'm also cold, wet, and tired. had some interesting events during the install. i'll go into more detail later, i'm going to sleep now. btw, 700lb springs, revalved koni's and snow tires are not a hot ticket. the car is still bouncy, but i think it's the tires that are bouncing now!

nate

 

Hurry up....
700 lbs. front and rear?

 

700's up front for now, i'm seriously contemplating 700's for the rear though. i need to sell off some of my extra springs so i can afford to try some other rates out.

as for the install. everything went relatively smoothly. however, one of the front shocks seemed to be missing the stop in the adjuster. you could keep turning it past the normal range of adjustment. i called koni and was told to not adjust past the 2 full turns that is normal and that it shouldn't be problem. ok, no biggy. once i get everything mounted i take her around the block for a test drive. not 50ft out the driveway i'm greeted with a horrendous knocking sound coming from the left front. thinking i forgot to tighten something down, i go through and re-torque everything. nothing seemed loose.

i take it around the block again. still knocking. it sounds like the pinch bolt on the strut fork. i take it in again, loosen everything then re-torque again. i take it around the block again, still knocking. i finally remember the adjuster problem with one of the front shocks. (i'm slow) so i pull over and pop the hood. my intent is to verify that the shock on the left front was the one with the adjuster problem. so, i turn that one first. two full turns and it hits the stop. dropping the f-bomb about 40 times while i walk to the other side of the car and check that front shock. it too has a positive stop after 2 full turns.

now i'm back to thinking that i didn't tighten something down. i figured turning the rebound up on the shocks would help me identify if it was something attached to the shock or if it was a sway-bar link, etc. so i turn both fronts up one full turn, pull back out on the road, and.......no more knocking??????? what the f*** ? lee, can you offer any insight?

i don't know what happened or what was wrong, but it was quite as of last night. i'm going to go out today and play with the shocks more. i can't really tune for balance, as the snow tires have nearly zero feedback, but at least i'll be able to find any problems with enough time to fix them before the season starts.

anyone want to buy my spare springs??

nate

 

I'll IM you. The revalved SPSS valving has a bit more turns stop to stop than do the of the shelf KONIs. If a shock adjusts s stop to stop, there is no reason why you can't use the what range is there as long as you don't jam it at either end. There is very little reason to be up at max for very long except for tuning at a track or autocross because it makes so much force up there and will be overkill for the street.

 

for koni and lee. excellent customer service and support. just one more reason i'm glad i bought koni's.

the new setup feels pretty darn good on the road. steering feel and feedback are much better, even on the snow tires. the car has also lost that floaty feeling on the highway. the result is me being much more comfortable driving the car.

the uber civic is also sitting about 1/4" lower in the front with revised bump stops. bottoming is nearly non-existent and the one time it did bottom on a frost heave the stops were very progressive and the car regained composure very quickly. no dukes-of-hazard jumping. i'll be experimenting with lower ride heights until i can acheive -2 degrees front camber. i may already be there. the car was at -1.7 with last years ride height.

nate