I need some sleeves for the upper mounts on these used Konis I bought and I'm trying to reduce the amount of Lee bugging that has become kind of a hobby of mine lately.
I also completely forgot, until about an hour ago when I tried to install one, that the stock sleeves won't fit on a Koni.

I've tried my local nut/bolt place, McMaster, and Grainger and so far can't find the right size (which is about 1.5" length, .565 ID and .625 OD).
Any suggestions? Its just a steel sleeve, and I was thinking it wouldn't necessarily need to come from Koni. But maybe it does...

 

I seem to remember that I just drilled mine out. put sleeve in vice, put drill bit in cordless drill. Make the two meet straight on, done.

Edit: as i recall, that is what Lee had told me to do...

 

That's possible, but its going to leave the stock sleeve mighty thin walled.

 

Tried drilling the stock sleeve... Nope.
There's pretty much nothing left and the Koni still doesn't fit. Looks like the stock sleeve is maybe 10mm and the Koni is 12mm.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Catch 22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the stock sleeve is maybe 10mm and the Koni is 12mm.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Correct.

You'll have to get the correct sleeve.... no way around it really.

 

Leave the sleeve out and tighten the washer down tight. That way you have less movement in the rubber. That it how I have done all my cars.

Blake Meredith

 

I was just looking at it wondering why I couldn't just put it together without the sleeve. I didn't come up with a reason.

 

you can buy the hardware kit from koni, but it cost $45 a set !

go online to konis website.

it takes a week or 2 to get them

 

I would think that the main purpose of the sleeve is to enable the nut to be "torqued" down to something solid. This would (should) prevent the nut from backing off over time. The sleeve also serves to make sure that the bushings are compressed a specific amount consistently. I am sure the OEM designed those bushings to be compressed a specific amount every time for consistency from car to car.

Now if the desire is to get play out of the bushings as much as possible...then squeezing them more will do that. I would think a drawback to that could be damaging the bushing by getting it too tight. It may hold the nut just fine, but it *might* let the nut loosen over time on a car that does not have the front end apart on a regular basis.

MH$.02

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RexRacer19 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would think that the main purpose of the sleeve is to enable the nut to be "torqued" down to something solid. This would (should) prevent the nut from backing off over time. The sleeve also serves to make sure that the bushings are compressed a specific amount consistently. I am sure the OEM designed those bushings to be compressed a specific amount every time for consistency from car to car.

Now if the desire is to get play out of the bushings as much as possible...then squeezing them more will do that. I would think a drawback to that could be damaging the bushing by getting it too tight. It may hold the nut just fine, but it *might* let the nut loosen over time on a car that does not have the front end apart on a regular basis.

MH$.02</TD></TR></TABLE>

Don't the Konis get double nutted on top anyway? I would imagine that that would prevent any loosening over time. I know I used 2 nuts on mine, but I'm also using GC upper mounts, and I don't remember if I got the nuts from Koni or GC.

 

I have 2 or three sleeves you can have, i wont be able to send them out untill this weekend but let me know if you want them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TunerN00b &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Don't the Konis get double nutted on top anyway? </TD></TR></TABLE>

You got me. I have never owned a set of Konis...unfortunately. But, yes double nuts would stay in place.

 

Yes, they are double nuttified.

 

what sucks about konis nuts is that they are really thin and my cheap *** craftsmen wrenchs are too almost twice as thick as the nuts, so I can't use my wrench to lock the nuts together

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crazydave &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what sucks about konis nuts is that they are really thin and my cheap *** craftsmen wrenchs are too almost twice as thick as the nuts, so I can't use my wrench to lock the nuts together</TD></TR></TABLE>



+



= wrenches to use on thin locknuts.

You could also buy thin wrenches at a bike shop, but that's no fun.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Crazydave &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what sucks about konis nuts is that they are really thin and my cheap *** craftsmen wrenchs are too almost twice as thick as the nuts, so I can't use my wrench to lock the nuts together
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I never had a problem.

 

I cranked the bottom one down, put a Craftsman box-end wrench on the lower one... top nut was still free to spin, cranked that tight with another wrench. They don't need to be uber-tight.