Thread: Koni Shock absorbers

Thanks John, is the methodology the same for the front? The GL kit is a +2 inch front shock tower. The GL kit supplies the OME 60070L (80 series front) shock with 11" travel. Would I be dabbling with negative fate if I used the OME closed length as the comparable closed length.

Addressing your second last paragraph, would it be necessary to remove the shock and spring to allow the axle to drop under its own weight to get the max articulation? At present the open length of the old shock would be the limiting factor of drop and the new shocks hopefully would be longer travel.

If I get a solution I will be able to contribute to the post with some experienced data on the model number suitable for my given application.

cheers MLD

Can anybody tell me the compression and extended dimensions for the koni heavy track 30-1597 & 8. As suitable for the P38. I've trawled through all of the information that seems to be available and come up empty handed.

David, did ypu check the pdf rick posted up? Not sure if it does the 30 series shock though

Originally Posted by MLD

Thanks John, is the methodology the same for the front? The GL kit is a +2 inch front shock tower. The GL kit supplies the OME 60070L (80 series front) shock with 11" travel. Would I be dabbling with negative fate if I used the OME closed length as the comparable closed length.

Addressing your second last paragraph, would it be necessary to remove the shock and spring to allow the axle to drop under its own weight to get the max articulation? At present the open length of the old shock would be the limiting factor of drop and the new shocks hopefully would be longer travel.

If I get a solution I will be able to contribute to the post with some experienced data on the model number suitable for my given application.

cheers MLD

MLD, those figures i posted up are for 80 series/gu patrol combo, just not koni, but they are open closed lengths for ridepro shocks. Can get ridepro part numbers if this helps

Originally Posted by Vern

David, did ypu check the pdf rick posted up? Not sure if it does the 30 series shock though

Yeah. There are no dimensions shown in that pdf for the 30 series shocks. Seems odd given the document does make reference to them in other sections.

Originally Posted by davidsonsm

Can anybody tell me the compression and extended dimensions for the koni heavy track 30-1597 & 8. As suitable for the P38. I've trawled through all of the information that seems to be available and come up empty handed.

I'm away ATM with limited 'net and 'puter time and don't have my Koni info with me either but will look when I get home in a few days.

Dave, 7100's have better/shorter closed/open length than the 9100's in the same travel, and for what we do are a fine damper.

Jeff has freely given me a bucket load of info over the years and I've bought a fair few parts off him (valves, seals, piston bands, etc) but haven't spoken to him for five-six years or so.
He had something like six dyno's running there in Albury when I last spoke to him.
Rick Kemp at Toperformance was great too, but I don't think he's there now or has been for many years. One of the other blokes (the owner ?) and I had a good old 'discussion' once on valving
I thought he was missing the boat big time, but declined to tell him where

Originally Posted by MLD

Thanks John, is the methodology the same for the front? The GL kit is a +2 inch front shock tower. The GL kit supplies the OME 60070L (80 series front) shock with 11" travel. Would I be dabbling with negative fate if I used the OME closed length as the comparable closed length.

Addressing your second last paragraph, would it be necessary to remove the shock and spring to allow the axle to drop under its own weight to get the max articulation? At present the open length of the old shock would be the limiting factor of drop and the new shocks hopefully would be longer travel.

If I get a solution I will be able to contribute to the post with some experienced data on the model number suitable for my given application.

cheers MLD

The shockies that GL supplies with his kit should have a suitable closed length.

For some reason +2" is a common lift height for aftermarket suspension kits. It appeared to me to be common practice in the UK to lower the upper shockie mount by 2" if the suspension was raised 2". This allows the existing shockie to work with the same bump and rebound travel as before. But the bump stop needs to be lowered to prevent damage to the shockie on bump.

Here the practice was to fit shockies with 2" more travel, so the bump travel increases by 2" and the rebound travel remains the same. Now a shockie with 2" more travel has to have a body that is approximately 2" longer (to accommodate the extra stroke) so the closed length is 2" longer (and the open length 4" longer). This will necessitate moving the upper mount up 2". And is becoming the norm in the UK.

Be aware though that some people (I'm not saying this applies to GL) reduce the safety margin and don't raise the mount by the full 2", so they can get a bit more rebound travel.

I have not gone through the exercise of measuring the closed length of Landcruiser shockies to see how far the upper mount on a Land Rover needs to be raised to suit them.

I will stick with my previous suggestion if you want to choose the best open and closed length. You should be ok going with the Landcruiser lengths, but then you will not know if it could have been better with another available shockie.

Use the same approach, as per my previous post, for both front or rear.

The basis is that you never want a shockie to reach its closed length during a severe bump, or else it will get damaged and fail. You want the bump stop to limit the bump travel of the axle. However you have to allow for compression of the bump stop.

In the third last paragraph I said to "check the open length specification of a shockie having a suitable closed length."

So you use that open length from the specification to then "Measure the open length on the other side as a check to see if you have the axle articulated enough." Unless you have retained the springs (that is a separate debate) the spring won't have prevented the articulation on the droop/rebound side, but the shockie will.

If the shockie has prevented the axle articulating so the measurement between the upper and lower mounts is less than the open length of the proposed new shockie then remove the shockie so that it does. This is to ensure your closed measurement is not adversely affected by the extra articulation. What you said is correct.

Further to John's post, if you try and maximise droop travel allow at least 25mm bump stop compression.
It's surprising how far they compress, 20mm is dead easy on a small hit, and with over 100mm of available bump travel I have polished axle pads just driving on the road.

Mostly you only need to raise the towers 3/4" with TLC shocks, I've been able to go a lot less through some bush modifications/selections and remember that different brands of shocks use different open/closed lengths too, you must measure, remeasure and measure again before doing any mods.
You also need to extend brake lines, and if you are running a front anti roll bar the driveshaft will now crash into it during droop, modifying one thing leads to further modifications to get the suspension to work properly.
It isn't rocket science but you have to be aware and plan carefully, observe and if possible remove the springs and cycle the suspension through full bump/droop strokes to get an idea of how it all works.

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