I was wondering if anyone is currently running Koni sport Shocks with the adjustable perches?

Preferably regarding a CRX chassis. If not, please comment on other chassis this may apply to. I wanted to find out first of all if this is recommended and what the specific ride height that was obtained by running the stock spring on a lower perch setting.

 

just an opinion. just an experience. im not dissing koni yellows. just sharing since its relevant to the OP when pairing koni yellows with stock springs on a crx.

i picked up cheap set of koni yellows for the rear only. thought id give them a try. im currently using tokico illuminas and stock springs. the yellows are the old euro style, with ITR eyelet style mounting, so it worked fine for my 88. it also had a welded perch and was not externally adjustable. it was compress to adjust, more on that later.

so i installed the rear koni shocks with my stock springs from the illuminas. i set the damping to maybe about HALF the amount of full turns. it was hard to first get the hang of adjusting. anyway i figured it out. went for a drive.

i did not like it. this was definately a case of over damped suspension. especially in the rebound since thats all that is adjusted which leads to "suspension jacking". as i would go over a speed bump (theres a few in my work parking lot i must go over) it felt like the rear would sag lower than before, and take way too long to recover. it also just didnt work right over a series of small road bumps, on typical california roads.

so i realized i simply had the setting too stiff. ok, so i took the suspension apart, compressed and adjusted again. this time to only 1 half (or maybe 1/4) turn from full soft. the ride was much better, the suspension jacking was much decreased. however, still didnt feel as nice as where i set my illuminas up. it still felt like the rear was dragging after i went over some bumps. i switched back to my illuminas.

and considering the price of koni yellows, and even at near the softest setting which was barely usable, why would i want to pay for them if thats all the "adjustment" that is usable with stock springs?

basically, my point is that i would strongly suggest not to use koni yellows with stock springs. i understand your question is specifically asking about the change in ride height using the available height adjustment perches. whatever hieght adjustment you can get, its not worth the performance of koni yellows with just stock springs, especially considering the cost.

ymmv.

 

Whoa, Tyson, you suprised me, I didnt recognize the Avatar.

Okay, agreed, I definately dont want to be on the stock springs for very long with Koni Yellows. I am still deciding between Eibach Pro's, Sport's or Vogtland springs with the yellows or if I can convince the wife, a set of GC's.

I know I'm probably better off waiting for the full setup and do install once, but my hands are getting itchy to do some work, and I may be able to pick up my Koni's soon, so i wanted to see if it was worth it to do with stock springs.

i had remembered reading that someone had done a similar setup do to classing restrictions and didnt want to change out springs, but i could be wrong on that.

Honestly, I get impatient - I want to do it right, but I want to get my car off the stock 4x4 setting and really hit mullholland (on my drive everyday from work).

Talk me down...lol.

 

if youre set on getting them, then just get them and try it out.

yellows are a great shock, theyll handle whatever other aftermarket, stiffer spring you put them with. just not stock springs in my opinion.

but you wont know yourself unless you try. youve got nothing to lose. just be careful when "testing" it out on mulholland... (i was there thanksgiving, saw enough ppl have accidents, bikes and cars.)

 

Cool, i may try it out, but as mentioned, take it easy. On mulholland, I love the fact that I can stay in fourth gear and still have fun at lower speed.

 

on my crx, i have adjustable perch yellows with ground controls (with their "street" spring rate). to me it feels over-dampened with this setup; i think it wouldn't be good at all with stock springs.

 

ok guys sorry for my newbness on suspension stuff, but im trying, lol.

this over-dampened feeling on stock springs w/koni's is due to the low spring rate of the stockers, correct?

if you had a higher spring rate, say 450-550, then this extra dampning would be needed, and feel right, correct?

sorry to theard jack, just seemed like a good place to ask...

 

KONI Sports are designed to be very good with stock Honda springs when set at the full soft setting. When I joined KONI, I had a 95 mile each way daily commute to work that I drive for over a year in a '90 CRX Si with stock springs on the lowering perch locations thus lowering the car about an inch in the front and about 3/4 inch in the rear. The lowering perch grooves were designed specifically for and only for use with stock springs to knock off some ride height but maintain stock spring rates. The car looked better and it handled and rode better with the combo of better dampers and a slightly lower CG.

All KONI shocks are designed to be installed at full soft to give the target ride quality and handling on stock springs. The adjustment range goes up from there for more aggressive use and preferences, aftermarket and perforamcne partts matching, etc.

 

Wow, my thread graced by CRX Lee himself. How ya doing man, I've been off HT for a long time and now I'm back to work on my own CRX.

Thanks for the info on the Sports with stocks springs. As far as the adjustable perches, with the stock springs, which adjustment did you use front and rear (very bottom, 2nd from top, etc)?

Do you happen to have a pic of the car from back then?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RSZero1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As far as the adjustable perches, with the stock springs, which adjustment did you use front and rear (very bottom, 2nd from top, etc)?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

On Sports (actually SP4front, Sport rear), there are two grooves front and three grooves rear. Stock perch height is the upper groove front and middle groove rear. For lowering the car on stock springs, use the lower groove front and rear to get the 25mm front, 15mm rear lowering. If you have Neuspeed SP3s, stock is the middle of 5 grooves so use the lowest groove again to get max lowering. Don't know the specifics but I think the front won't lower quite as much so you will have less rake front to rear.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RSZero1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do you happen to have a pic of the car from back then?
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No photos of that car as it was a nearly stock Si except the shocks that was a sacrificial high mileage pig (right at 1,000 mile per week from the commute alone). I sold it years ago and it became a land speed record car that ran on teh east coast and Bonneville and I understand it took a few records in small bore classes. With stock wheels, the car looked like nothing special and you generally thought the car looked "about right" for stock and not the 4x4 look that was obvioulsy higher than it should be.