who else has done pinch fork mod?

[mykwikcoupe]

I did this to aset of my konis years ago and the part that involves reinstalling the bolt in a different part of the strut housing is starting to rust. Its just surface and I did reprime and repaint after I chipped the stock paint off. Im sure I can just wire brush it and repaint but thats not what Im asking here.

Im going to be installing revalved bilstiens and sprint springs on my hatch. Because of the hard springs (non adjustable) and the fact Im installing a much lighter b18c in place of the a20a and the lighter components (aftermarket intake manifold, other bolt ons). Ill be removing the AC unless I can find a pri ac bracket someplece and the PS is going for sure. Probably the cc as well but not sure on that one yet. The ond1 swap tells me the black box and alot of accord junk will bo going. Im guessing itll be a total weight lost of over 300 lbs. The front end already sat a little high with the a20a installed and Im thinking this will really rake up the front end.

Basically with the situation Im already experiencing with the konis, is it worth doing the same to the bilstiens? Ive got ground controls on the konis and dont want another adjustable suspension unless its the k sports.

Opinions? Comments? Thanks. Mike

[carotman]

I would just make the spring bottom seat lower on the strut. Just like you can machine a groove on the Konis.

[Pico]

I did for a short while on the 89, I wasn't too happy about the way the bracket for the brake hose sat almost on top of the bracket.

[mykwikcoupe]

I would just make the spring bottom seat lower on the strut. Just like you can machine a groove on the Konis.

do you have a picture? I dont fully understand. The spring perch sits on a tab that stick out from the koni. Wouldnt I have to weld a new lip onto the housing this way? I remember you saying this before but cant think of how you desribed it. Thats for the idea. Did you do it by chance?

[carotman]

If you get another groove machined for the circlip, you can change the spring seat height.

I want to have this done to my Koni reds.



You can see some extra grooves on the Koni SP3

[mykwikcoupe]

isnt that cool. is it a matter of having them engrave the housing or bead roll in another knotch. id like to use the correct terminalogy when i have it done. One would do good supposing the housing is the same internal dimension the entire shaft and not reinforced around the existing location correct? Obviously none of us have taken one aport yet but one would hope correct. Maybe an inch would be useful or even have multiple notches made. Whats the dimension in between those notches Jean/ Thanks for the pics that helps alot. Mike

[carotman]

Marthin did take one apart
https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69365

It was the other version with non adjustable spring perch tough.

I do believe that the housing thickness is the same all around since the piston would not travel all the way across if it was thicker in this area.

Here's some info on adding grooves
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross/konis.html

http://www.koni-na.com/faq.cfm

I don't know how far apart I would add one. I guess it's as low as you want the car to be.

[Oldblueaccord]

I wonder if you could use a shaft locking collar or split collar on them. A decent machine shop could do it for you the big thinkg is how think is the metal right in that spot.

http://www.climaxmetal.com/ couple pics of shaft collars.




wp

[MessyHonda]

yeah the konis i have dont have a adjustable perch

[mykwikcoupe]

Im sure mine are like that as well. I suppose the next and better question would be, If I was to take a dremel tool and manage to dring off the weld. Would it be easy enough to machine the knotches and use a c clip in it place making it a movable perch strut? I would like to know what size and grade the clip would be as its obviously caring the weight of the car. Would this be too much work to justify an extra inch drop?

[AccordB20A]

i didnt know they came in both. my front yellows dont have a circlip but my rear koni reds do. i has them set on the highest setting haha

[markmdz89hatch]

we never had the yellows available to us to the best of my knowledge.

...but as for the pinchfork mod, I'd stray away from it for the reasons you already mentioned. On top of that you're starting to drop the bottom of the shock into the area for the c/v to move around. Not that it's an issue, but IMO, it just doesn't sit well with me.

I'd do the same thing Carot suggested.

Messy -> You still have the option to just have the perch moved and tacked back into place. Of course at that point, you might just flash boil the oil inside the shock. Add that to the fact that I'm sure they have some mileage on them, I'd just consider shipping them off to Gordon at Koni and have him rebuild them for you to your specs/dimensions. It's damn expensive, but holy hell does it make a world of difference.

[mykwikcoupe]

what about biulding a new set perch. i think i remember the perch is welded but the silver part is removable? What if we just had a different set machined? Is it a possibility compared to the price of Koni toying with them.

[epic1400cs]

I have done extra grooves mod on my front Koni reds about a year ago. Older version of Koni came with fixed spring seat and newer version came with removable spring seat. I guess that was because, packaging is smaller (=cheaper) and in Europe there is demand for toeing caravan thus the rear damper should be height adjustable. In fact my rear Koni came with extra groove that is at 25mm higher than normal to cope with extra weight on rear axle when toeing. Anyway, I decided to raise my front cos Eibach ProKit spring was too low on front. I brought the koni to local machine shop (not Koni dealer) and asked for making two extra grooves on each, 20mm and 25mm above the normal groove. I made two just in case if my assumption for the height was wrong. The machinist copied the groove well and it worked wonderfully. This doesn't need dismantling the Koni. There are some paint chip but just matter of touching up.

If lowering the front, I am sure there are some space left below the normal groove but I guess it needs careful measuring up. If the Koni is fixed spring seat type, then I guess you may need to remove the seats by sanding the welding beads with angle grinder and hammer carefully, smooth it out, dismantle and remove the oil and weld it in desired height. But with these custom sus set up, you never know the spring rate calculation works or not so, on the safe side welding a sleeve type height adjustable might be good idea - I know that would bring in more head ache potentially.

And the name of the clip is circlip as far as I know. The circlip slips into to groove and there is metal ring provided will sit on top from its top by wrapping the circlip to stop it from expanding(=slip off from groove). Then Spring seat will sit on the metal ring finally. I hope I am making sense.