Koni damper issues

**Dougal** · 25th September 2011, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by wagoo

Thanks Wayne, They were sold to me as rebuildable and they do have what appears to be a screw in retainer with two holes for what probably is a special spanner in the top of the main body.The body appears to be dent free and the shaft is straight.Do your drawings show these as mono tube or twin tube construction?

Hi Bill

I have some twin tube koni's (original rrc fronts, maybe 8" stroke) which I have stripped a few times.

I got a pin spanner, ground it for clearance and fit that in the vice. A pipew wrench on the welds where the lower cap meets the tube provide enough grip to unscrew it while only scratching the paint.
The screw cap with two holes is just a cap, the oring sealed cap is under it so there's no danger of spilling oil unless the damper how somehow pressurised itself.

The foot valve has endless options via shims and screw preload to set bump valving. I didn't write down the original shim arrangement or screw settings of mine so if you get them apart an exploded view photo would be great.
I gave up on them when I found a pair of new LC80 koni fronts for $80 each.

**rick130** · 25th September 2011, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by wagoo

Thanks Rick, that is great information.I just realised that the bump stop rubber on that damper had fallen off somehow, but that appears to be working fine now, but I discovered when I went to adjust the damping on the other side, that damper has got air in it and is inneffective for the first 50mm of suspension up travel when in the fitted position.I'm not able to bleed it out and there is no evidence of fluid leakage It appears to work ok by hand at a longer extension though Anyway i've got a shorter 12'' stroke version I can borrow from another truck while I play around with the faulty one.
Would the screw in cap be loctited in ? and if so maybe a little heat from a butane torch would break the bond?
Wagoo.

Hmm, you've got crap in there and the shim stack isn't working.

This is usually symptomatic of crunching them in bump and bits of metal are floating around, or a screw has come adrift and shims are floating around.

The caps aren't loctited, just tight.

IRC I just used soft jaws in the vice and clamped where Dougal suggested.
The pin tool I made is 2' long piece of RHS I had lying around, the pins are from two pin punches and a hole in the centre of the RHS for the shaft.

**wagoo** · 25th September 2011, 06:31 PM

Thanks again Rick and Dougal. i'll make a spanner during the week, and my dampers have big eyes on both ends so I'll be able to hold it firmly in the vice. I fitted the 12'' damper from the other vehicle, screwed the valving on both down to one full turn from maximum, and the truck rides and handles ok again.
Wagoo.

**wagoo** · 25th September 2011, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by Benny_IIA

Not really helping you fix you problem..

but what set up are you using in the front to travel a 14' stroke shock?

This is on a series 2A.
I have an odd setup that consists of a 3 link plus panhard rod, short stiff coil springs mounted behind the axle and directly under the chassis rails. the upper spring saddles are on pivoting arms. So the front end articulation is via the 'see saw' effect of having closely spaced springs and no binding of the control arms. There are a couple of photos of the vehicle on my thread about swivel ball splitting in the Forward Control Forum.I'll see if I can do a link thingy. Pictures by wagoo - Photobucket
Wagoo.

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