Okay, i need some help here. I have been driving on these konis for about 10 months now. I have GC 400/600 rates on my 90 crx si and went through AGX shocks quickly. I purchased the koni's cause i know that they are the flagship shock OTS. now i think i am having issues with them. I have very little shock travel(less than 3"). Posted are pics of the shocks. One is showing that the welded on bump stop gives me almost three inches of shock travel.

question1) should i have more shock travel

Another pictures shows that the shock will stay at the bottom at full stiff...it will take about 1-2 minutes for full extension on its own

Question 2)Should the shock rebound that slow?

Another picture shows the shock mated to the GC and the total height. Any thoughts??? I keep bottoming out even while autoXing and im tearing the azenis up.

 

Do you still have your brake bracket?

And mine are real slow like that too. Remember, it's a damper, not a spring.

 

If the shock piston extendes at all on its own, thats a good sign that the nitrogen charge is still inside the shock. As for the stroke lenght, it looks way short to me. What model of shock do you have? I know the Neuspeed version of the Koni shocks has a "droop limiter" inside that keeps the shocks from extending all the way. The idea was to keep the coilover/lowering springs from coming un-seated at full droop (some places require fully seated springs to pass inspection). Easiest way to tell is by counting the number of snap ring grooves that are cut into the body. Regular Koni Sports have 2 or 3 grooves, while Newspeed's have 5.

 

Are you aware that your supposed to remove the brake line bracket from your old shocks & put it on the front Koni sports? If you don't, the Koni's will sit really low in the fork, and you will have to raise the spring perches up to compensate. A lot of racers use this technique of shaving or deleting the brake line bracket to add extra shock travel on lowered or race preped cars...

 

Oh wait, I forgot you drove a CRX. I'm not sure if thats how it works for the CRX, but that is how it is for my EG civic. On the civic there was a collar with the brackets that was pressed onto the base of the shock. If you originally had aftermarket shocks, you may not have had this since their construction can/would differ. I noticed on my CRX that it didn't have the OEM shocks, and the brake line brackets were tac welded squares that wouldn't be compatable with konis.

You can see the black collar here above the fork on the right (the one on the left has been shaved for the fork mounting mod):

 

In this pic you can clearly see the ring on an 89 CRX Si front shock. My aftermarket shocks on my 89 Si (that the previous owner had installed) look nothing like this...

 

The front shock on and EF/CRX has very little stroke from the factory, that is how Honda made it. The Konis have the same stroke as the stock units. Off the top of my head it seems like it is only about 85mm or so and your wphoto pretty much back it up. I know this to be true as our Force vs. Displacement dyno at the office usually runs a 75 mm stroke and you have to be careful when putting a CRX/HF damper on it so you get a clean stroke without topping or bottoming. So yes, you should have about 3+ inches of total shock stroke on your CRX front suspension. Remember that at approximately .7:1 motion ratio, three inches at the shock become nearly 4.5 inches at the wheel.

A few other notes: That is not a "welded bump stop", that is the bottom of the pin detail that locates the top washers, etc. Where are your bump rubbers? Those at 450 lbs springs, not 400s or 600s. Yes, the shock at the firmest setting should take quite a long time to extend on it's own, definately several minutes from the gas pressure alone. That is exactly what it is supposed to do when you stiffen up the valving to allow very little oil flow through. As mentioned above, the fact that it is self extending at all in any amount of time confirms that the shocks still holds it's gas charge which it one bit of evidence that all is well. The factory brake line bracket is not welded to the stock shocks and it slips right off and onto the Koni with a little bit of persuasion. If you had aftermarket dampers on before, they may be welded on. Having the brake line bracket is not necessary as a simple zip tie will hold the brake line. The presence or lack of presence of the brake line bracket has no bearing on ride height or load carrying.

From what I see from the photos and your description, I don't see that there is likely anything wrong with the shocks other than you don't have any bump rubbers in there. You are running only a 7 inch spring (I use 8s on mine all around) so that would explain why you are near the top of your threads on your GC system but you can still no higher. Remember with that motion ratio, 1/2 inch at the shocks is nearly 3/4 inch at the wheel. If you are still tearing up your Azenis, I am guessing you are saying that you are rubbing them on the fenders. If so, raise the car or roll your fende lips and make sure that the tire size and the wheel affset are appropriate for the car.

 

How much bump stop are you guys using? You can go as little as one inch, but thats not leaving you any room for error. Your probably better off not having the brake line brackets, so you do get that added travel (when lowered of course). I most deffinently agree with tire rubbing issue. Azenis (RT-215) tires are notoriously wide (wider than they say), and that makes for more difficult fittment...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by suprfast &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my brother said that the shocks are bottoming out because the nylon white washer was pushed above the welded in stopper. Would adding the ground control strut mount aid in any way?
kris</TD></TR></TABLE>

It doesn't sound like the GC mount will help your problem. Are the extended upper mounts that your using, allow the shock body to travel "inside" the extended portion? If it doesn't, the shock body will be crashing into the upper mount before the bump stop can begin to compress rendering it useless. You didn't show us a pic of your shocks assembled with the "extended" top mounts...

I'm pretty surprised that the shock would be able to push the white plastic washer above the metal stop WITH the bump stop in place. That washer was between the shock body & the bump stop right?

Lets double check a few things here (refer to pic below):
1. White plastic Koni washer goes between #12 & #4/5
2. You have #12, #14, #7, #8, #13, #7 & #6 in that specific order
3. The top nut (#16) was tightened down all the way until the washers (#14 & #6) were solid against the sleeve (#13)

If #14 or #6 is missing, or the top nut isn't fully bottomed out, the shock piston will not be held in place properly allowing it to move up & down as suspension is loaded/unloaded.