By Justin Bedard
Last Updated: 12/06/96

For an update I purchased the Koni single rebound adjustable with ride height perches and H&R sport springs.

The Konis are pretty cool. They come in a yellow paint. They should look pretty cool in the wheel well. The ride height perches can be adjusted up to 1/2". The shocks have 3 notches for each position and you move this ring to the position you want the height to be. The ring has an opening on one side so you use a screw driver or something to help move the ring. It seems almost impossible to get the ring off of the shock so no worries there. When I go to install the shocks I'm making a mental note to put the opening in ring pointed towards the tire so that if I want to change the height around at all, it will be facing me and will require less effort.

More on the different settings. On the fronts, the notch closest to the top of the shock is considered stock (I only say considered because they include more diagrams then literature on these shocks). The next notch down would be 1/4" lower and the following notch would 1/2" lower.

This differs from the rear because the stock height is considered the middle notch. So you can go a 1/4" down or a 1/4" up with the rears. I guess they expect the rears to always come out a little lower then the fronts, thus you can lower the fronts more or try to raise the back a little.

Here's another simplification:
The fronts adjust from -0.5" to 0" The rears adjust from -0.25" to 0.25"

They would have made it a lot easier if they spelled everything out.

Both adjust a full 0.5", just a little different in range. Sorta like they expect lowering springs to drop the rears a little more then the fronts.

If you crank the spring perches up as high as they go, the fronts would be at stock height. The rears would be 1/4" higher then stock height.

If you crank the spring perches as low as they can go. The fronts would be 1/2" lower then the stock spring perch and the rears would be 1/4" lower then stock.

Also the back sitting lower then the front will depend on the springs. If the springs lower the car evenly (front 1.8" - rear 1.8" for example) and you put the spring perches up as high as they go, then the front will be lowered 1.8" and the rear will be lowered 1.55".

So if you take the other extreme and put the perches as low as they go, the front will be lowered 2.3" and the rears will be lowered 2.05". However, it seems like, for some unknown reason the rear of the car always seems to end up lower then the front with lowering springs. So with the adjustable spring perches, you can end up leveling out your car. Either by lowering the front to the rear, or raising the rear to the front.

I think you're looking more for coilovers then anything else where you can adjust spring height by up to 3". The spring perches on the Konis are mainly made to level out the car and maybe can help just enough with balancing out corner weight. A nice feature to have, but if you have coilovers, it is not necessary. It's also cheaper then coilovers and I got these Konis for only $45 more then Tokicos.

The perches are just big metal rings that slip over the shock onto the smaller ring used to adjust the height. Again, only diagrams to show which way is the correct way to install the perches. The rear ones were obvious. With the front ones and experimenting the a spring, the diagram started to make sense. Also the rear came with an extra metal ring that was the right size to slip over the shock and catch on the ride height ring. After further examination of the diagram, I determined that's where it belonged to help support the spring perch?. This extra ring on the rear shocks makes me think the rears will now sit a little higher then the fronts. I guess I'll finally see when I goto install them.

They also don't recommend or say anything about cutting the bumpstops (or in the small amount of writing they did do, they called them bumprubber). I've been informed Tokico recommends cutting the bumpstops in half. Also heard Tokico included new bumpstops (or did I lose my memory?). I'm probably going to cut my bump stops in half.

For adjusting the rebound it's just like the Tokicos. You turn a knob at the top of the shock tower in the engine bay. However, unlike the Tokicos, they do not click once you put them to a certain setting. The Konis warn you about having different settings for each shock telling you it's bad for tire wear. It would be nice if they made it easier to adjust each shock to each other. Right now, I'm hoping during installation, the adjuster knobs will be pointing the same direction from left to right. Therefore I can eyeball the settings pretty easily or maybe even mark the top of my shock towers accordingly. I don't see it being that big of a deal. Just wish it was a little easier.

The guy at RD Enterprises recommended to drive on the softest setting for a couple of days (maybe it was a week) to let the shocks break in.

Also, I love how in the diagrams they show the reasons for raising the ride height of the rear shocks: excess baggage in the trunk and towing a mini motor home!!!

Copyright 2002, Temple of VTEC