Koni Shock/Strut & Epic Engineering Spring Install

Dimensions provided by Koni

 

M12 x 1.5 x 25mm Grade 8

 

Searching online and Oreily seems to have them but special order. found a bolt that works but its only a temp fix. Will go to Oreily and see if i can get two from them.

Send an email with the linked form below. The guy who will respond to you, Michael I think, will give you a phone number for a guy who can help you with replacement hardware. I just called, gave the guy the shock part number and told him I needed washer and a bolt to replace a stripped hex head. Had it within 3 days at no charge.

 

http://konimarket.com/pages/contact

Send an email with the linked form below. The guy who will respond to you, Michael I think, will give you a phone number for a guy who can help you with replacement hardware. I just called, gave the guy the shock part number and told him I needed washer and a bolt to replace a stripped hex head. Had it within 3 days at no charge.

 

http://konimarket.com/pages/contact

 

Thanks man

What strut mounts would be the best for the koni struts? Will spec B mounts work on these or would you have to go oem?

You can use SpecB front top hats. But you must "fab" a spacer. The Konis are designed to be used with LGT OEM top hats.

Does anyone know if these koni strut extenders apply to the legacys? http://www.tougetuning.com/store/tic-drex-koni-strut-extenders-p-614.html Edited December 4, 2013 by Yfarmeaahka

Do not apply.

Will these also work with the koni set up as I already bought these and finally saw this post. Seems everyone else is using epic springs...

I believe he was referring to the Tein H tech springs from his title.

 

Those springs will work but I believe will have a little less drop than the epic springs.

H tech are lower than epics

I'll be able to tell you for certain in a week or so. My Epics are getting loaded onto Bilsteins as we speak.

Epics are a 1" front and .8" rear. Tein claims the H techs only drop .9" front and rear, S techs drop 1.54" front and 1.46"rear. I havent seen any in person but it sounds like H techs would be close to the epics but dont help out the saggy butt issue.

FWIW, I heard my son telling a buddy about the differences in my two Legacy's. He said, he doesn't enjoy driving the Spec with the stock suspension on it as much as he enjoys the wagon with the Koni's and Epic's. He said, in the Spec, "its hard to feel where the tires are". After I heard that, I said, yes, that's the difference, I just couldn't put into words.

I just installed Koni's, Epics, and the Whiteline top hats in the front of my 07 LGT wagon (already had Whiteline sway bar and Moog endlinks on it) and while test driving it and driving it home from my mechanic's place (about a mile), it made all manner of loud chunks and thunks and springs and sproings and just general loudness--nothing like what I imagine the widely reported squeaking problem seems to be. Like the springs themselves, we're pretty unsettled by all of it. Or is this alarming degree of bonging and boinging normal?

 

We didn't have time to do the rears today, but tomorrow morning we're doing Koni's and Epics in the rear (already have the WL sway, AVO RSB mount, and Moog endlinks back there), but my mechanic and I feel like there's no way that the fronts should be clunking and thunking this much, so we're reluctant about making things even worse by tackling the rear before we get the front sorted out.

 

We can't find anything that seems loose, upside down, backwards, out of tolerance, etc., and we're pretty much stumped.

 

Might something somewhere need a jerry-rigged spacer or something?

 

Any ideas, advice, reassurance, recommendations, etc.?

Edited January 23, 2014 by The Green Monkey

Were the upper perches installed with the two drain holes pointed toward the outside of the car (step 16)?

No reassurance for you, sorry--something sounds wrong. Was everything installed correctly into the housings?

 

As far as I know. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary or like we were just plodding forward without everything making sense. He and I both read over the walkthrough on page one several times in advance of the install...

 

Were the upper perches installed with the two drain holes pointed toward the outside of the car (step 16)?

 

I can't say with 100% certainty that they are--I'll be sure to double check that first thing in the morning though.

 

I've been poking around here and on several other Subie sites (and general internetting) and it seems like a common initial diagnosis/recommendation is to lube up the swaybar bushings, but the noises definitely felt spring-related, not swaybar-y, and I'm pretty confident that isn't it.

The orientation of the upper perch is critical; the spring will not be seated evenly if it is installed wrong. Let us know the outcome, and take some pics to share in case the problem persists. Good luck!

Backwards front sway bar will hit the steering tie rods.

 

I am with Rick. Sounds like the upper seat is not correctly oriented and the springs are moving. That or the top hat nut is loose and the springs are moving.

The swaybars have been installed for ~6 months and I'm familiar with the squawky noise they occasionally make when shifting laterally, and that's not what this is. I didn't mess with the sways at all today--just provided that info for context.

 

Thanks guys--I'll make sure to check both of those possibilities first thing. The upper seat seems more likely to me than the top hat nuts both being loose, but who knows...

 

If the upper seat is properly oriented and the nuts seem secure, might it be an issue requiring a spacer somewhere in the mix similar to when the Spec B top hats are used?

There should be a conical spacer in between the upper perch and top hat (step 17). If that is missing then noises and difficult steering would probably result.

The conical spacers are both installed correctly.

Check to make sure the water drain holes (2 on each upper perch in the front) are pointing towards the knuckle (strut clevis) and the outside of the car. If not, the spring can not "lock" in place and will spin/bind with turns and clank over bumps.