Re: Initial setting for Koni sports

[Stuart Thomson <stuart.thomson@domain.elided>]

As I said in the first place this comes from the "horse's mouth".  The 
guys here who distribute Konis are the people quoted.  Amongst other 
comments they made, they specifically stated that the reason Konis are 
adjustable is to take up wear, an added bonus is that the adjustment can 
be useful for changing the ride characteristics of cars.  This is of 
particular use for track cars, where some tracks require a firmer 
suspension setup than others, instead of swapping springs etc. you can 
sometimes adjust the shocks enough.  The particular products they 
stressed for these applications are externally adjustable.

Standard type shocks (red and yellow, for Koni), which are great for 
road use are adjustable for wear, you need different rebound etc. for 
different road surfaces, so adjusting the shocks to the settings you 
describe would provide for a firmer ride, and probably better handling 
in most circumstances, and is probably the way to go, but that's not the 
reason the shocks were engineered that way.

According to the charts the Koni guys showed us the red shocks in full 
soft are harder than most OEM supplied shocks, the Yellows in full soft 
are about half way through the adjustment range of the reds.  I have a 
105 series Alfa with Koni reds 1/2 way in the front and full soft in the 
rear, with harder shorter springs.  This seems to work well for my car, 
but others may like it harder.  As you can see a lot of setting up 
suspension is a matter of taste and potential use.

Cheers
Stuart
On Thursday, June 20, 2002, at 06:44 PM, Chris Sweetapple wrote:


> It simply isn't correct that Konis are adjustable to take up wear, the
> whole point of them being adjustable is so that the driver can make 
> changes
> to achieve a better ride/handling compromise.  Wear has nothing to do 
> with
> it, in fact in my experience Konis pretty much last forever.  Forgive my
> ignorance but I think a Verde is some form of Milano or 75 as we call 
> them,
> in which case I have little experience of these, but if I was selling a 
> set
> of Koni Sports to someone with a 105/115-Series road car, I'd advise 
> him to
> start with the Konis screwed up about 2/3 of the way (quite hard) on the
> front and about 1/3, maybe even less (in other words quite soft) on the
> rear.
>
> Chris Sweetapple
> Highwood Motor Company
> Swansea, U.K.
> www.highwoodalfa.com
>
> Message text written by INTERNET:alfa@domain.elided
>
> > > Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 11:22:05 +1000
> From: Stuart Thomson <stuart.thomson@domain.elided>
> Subject: Damien's Koni's
>
> Hi All,
>
> According to our local Koni distributor, who spoke at the club meeting
> last week, the Koni shocks are set at the factory for standard
> suspension, no adjustment necessary.  The adjustment mechanism is there
> to take up wear only.  Usually they are set at full soft (which is
> generally harder than the stock, worn? dampers).  So take em out of the
> box and bolt em on.
>
> Cheers
> Stuart
> On Wednesday, June 19, 2002, at 05:57 AM, alfa-digest wrote:
>
> > From: "Crane, Damien" <Damien.Crane@domain.elided>
> > Subject: Initial setting for Koni sports
> >
> > Greetings to all
> >
> > I have a quick question.  I just got some much need Koni Sports for my
> > 88
> > Verde.  Assuming that I have stock springs, does anyone have a
> > suggestion
> > for an initial setting to match those springs, either in # of turns
> > or % of
> > the way from soft to hard?    (or maybe they are correctly preset from
> > Koni?)
> <<
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