Way back when I bought this car, it was still on it's Original springs and they were too soft in my opinion. On of the things I changed was going to the adjustable Koni's that I set at the highest setting as a sort of judgement call. The car has the 550 springs up front and the 7-leaf in the rear, but now it's a little too hard... So I think I need to re-adjust the Koni's down again. Is that possible. What is the exact procedure as I don't have the instruction sheets for them anymore.

Thanks

 

I have the Koni classics. Here is a link to the procedure. http://www.koni.com/car-racing/technology/adjustment/

My set up is very similar to yours. 550 in front and 360# mono in back, shocks set on 5.

 

Just to be sure it's the shocks (I also have the guldstrand front sway bar links) : is your car as rock hard as mine ?

 

I don't know if this procedure is appropriate to your shocks or not but this is what you had to do to for the Konis that I had on my 72 Alfa Romeo:

Compress the shock fully until the adjuster engages.
Screw the top of the shock clockwise until it stops.
Unscrew counterclockwise 3 turns to return the shock to the factory setting.

Unscrewing less turns makes the shock harder and more makes it softer.

Best shocks I have ever had BTW.



Rick B.

 

 

550/300 is approximately what the gymkhana cars were equipped with. It was firm, but not rock hard. 550/360(FG) is not much different. My 78 definitely doesn't like rough road or potholes, but it's not horribly bad.

 

Okay, maybe I should clarify. I'm just driving this car after a full body off resto. So the experience with it is rather limited as I still have other stuff to sort out. Anyway on the way to technical inspection I had to pass over a concrete paved road that runs (with military base on both sides). The road is concrete slabs because its often used by tanks and armoured vehicles and such. It's not the most straight road;
My DD drive doesn't seem to bothered to much with it, but my vette seems to bounce on it quite a lot.

I do not mind a stiff suspension on a sports car, but when everything starts to rattle it's rather annoying.

 

I was trying to establish a baseline.

If you've driven a newer Corvette Z06, the road feel for the 550/300 setup should be a little worse. I wouldn't call it bouncy, maybe "jittery" is the right word? Hard upsets, like potholes, can be a little painful.

Playing with the shock settings certainly wouldn't hurt.

 

 

Because your car is a certain weight and spring rate, etc.., someone else's setting may not be ideal for your individual car or driving characteristics or roads that you travel. Naturally if you have F-41 suspension, then someone running an aftermarket shock successfully might be able to give you a setting that will put you in the ballpark, and maybe you might hit the magic point exactly.

Based on what you said "Bouncing" that is not good. The first inclination is that the shock are heavy set and bouncing you into the air, but just the opposite. Explanation- the shock are just there to control the springs movements and action. Thus if you are bouncing--- the spring is sending you into the air and the shock is not controling that!!!

If you said it was skipping over the bumps, then different story. I like a more race tuned suspension, so I like running down a road at 45-55 with a slightly bouncing front end, because when I get on the gas to go up in speed, the heavier springs will glue the tires to the pavement and the car won't bounce. Thus lighter springs, and then adjust the shocks to them. My suspension is set to where I at substantial speeds, just kind of skip over the irregularities of the road.

But also sometimes the shocks can be set so hard, that they are overriding the springs to a point and then you feel like you are hitting rocks and that can be uncomfortable.

With the suspension springs that you are describing on your car, the vast majority don't favor them and go softer. I don't commute in my car and if I run across a Porsche 911 Turbo on the road, I want to eat his lunch and take his pink slip!!!!!!

 

Good post Derek. Much of what you've said is right on point with thoughts I hadn't dedicated the time to touch on yet.

 

Maybe things have changed since I was young but, the adjustments on Koni standard shocks where you pull the nylon spacer out, bottom the shock and twist were to compensate for wear over the life of the shocks. I know Greenwood had some Koni shocks made with special valving that were not too well regarded by Koni engineers but all other conventional Koni shocks if you adjust them, I think the get around 20-30% more progressive with each click. Ill take some photos of real adjustable Koni shocks for those who don't know what they look like.

 

Here is front Koni double adjustable shock it is tuned for spring rates from 600in/lbs to 950in/lbs

 

Here is a rear adjustable Koni

 

Here are front/rear Koni street shocks they also have adjustment but, Koni only envisioned them being used for wear compensation (these are "Real" Dutch Konis made in Holland and for you NCRS types they are dated 12/72 and 2/73 so I consider them "correct for my 72 LT-1)

 

One way the Koni double adjustables make your Vette considerably faster is by lightening your wallet to the sum of over $2K so just on the loss of the that weight the Vette is much faster. If you really want to go broke buy Penske or JRZ shocks but bring lubricant to ease the pain of joining the club.

 

Yes they are (the orange ones) mostly on the race side, unless you buy the classics (the black ones). But the orange can be revalved.
Somewhere I have the graph chart on operating parameters on the orange. I also have a set of those ole vintage Greenwood/Koni units new unused and still in the boxes (that are not for sale). I will go out into the treasure vault and see if the range graph is included.

I don't know the QAL's and I have run the Bilsteins (I like the Sear Point Raceway valving) for all around hot street, track day lapping.

We are getting off topic, but interesting conversation.

On a lowered car, the orange koni's are getting into their operating range with the heavy suspensions. Because usually when you cut a spring coil off, that essentially raises the spring rate into the range as provided above by one of the other posters.

 

Mine are like these but in newer condition :-)

 

So the **** adjusts compression, and rebound by "compress and twist"? Or is there another ****?

 

I use the older Koni "Special Ds" on all four. Great acting shocks.

You can send them to any authorized rebuilder and they can make them into double adjustable and/or change the inside valving etc.

Don't know what you mean by bounce, but if it bounces like a worn out shock, then the rebound is probably not dampened enough. Shouldn't be a problem with the red Konis though.