crushingday

I have an 87 944S with a 968 engine installed . I recently purchased rear Koni Yellow Sport shocks. The kind that can be adjusted only when OFF of the car.
I was wondering how many turns from full stiff people are using and what they think.
The full adjustment from stiff to soft on mine seems to be about 1.3 turns.
I have mushy front shocks that will soon be replaced with Koni yellows as well. I know the car will not be very well balanced until I install the fronts.
I use the car for hard street driving and the occasional autocross.

Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks
Ross T

phantom309

It depends on your tires and the amount of discomfort you can put up with. The Konis start out slightly stiffer than stock and get firmer from there. I found more than a quarter-turn from full soft to be too harsh for the street with the rears. I can put up with a bit more than that from the fronts.

The car handles unbelievably well like it is - but if I had it to do over I think I would've gone with the stock Boge shocks/struts and thicker sway bars.

Andre

do not put them more than 1/2 way.

i have mine at half right now and i mean its personaly preference because i dont find the ride too bad, i like the stiffness. I was informed that these shocks need a break in period and if put on full soft they will prematurely fail. Since i also heard a lot of stories about konis going bad really quick i decided to play it safe, so 1/2 way for about 2000 miles or so, then upto full stiff

Matt

If you have stock torsion bars, I'd suggest you start with the shocks at full soft, and after driving a while try stiffening in 1/4 turn intervals. Full soft or close to it will work best, those shocks can overpower the stock torsion bars and make the suspension unresponsive. With 29mm torsion bars, which are very much stiffer than stock, on my 2780lb track car Koni yellows are best at about 1/4 turn from full soft. Any stiffer hurts the handling over pavement that isn't really smooth.

Remember that you are adjusting the "stiffness" of the shocks in only one direction - the adjustment only affects rebound resistance. Compression resistance is not adjustable on the regular orange or yellow Konis. Setting the rebound too stiff will result in the car returning to normal ride height too slowly after the suspension is compressed by a bump (called "jacking down") or in a turn, and handling will suffer as a result.

Matt

crushingday

Matt I do have stock torsion bars. Would an upgraded rear sway bar help? I have the *7 Turbo sway bars now.

Thanks for your advise. The negative affect on handling, as a result of over stiffening the shocks, was not something of which I was aware.

Are there any other bushing or anything i want to change while I am down there.

Thanks

Thaddeus

I have Koni yellows at front and rear, and I run them both at full soft. That's firm enough for driving around town, and the car seems perfectly balanced at those settings-- front and rear hit the limit of adhesion at the same time when cornering.

Dave

Ross, I have almost the exact same setup (see sig!), my front struts are now gone and yellows will be a winter project. Since installing them I've driven about 2500 miles including 2 days of DE and 5-6 days of autocross. I set them at "half" when I installed them figuring I'd have to make a small adjustment once I got used to them, but so far I'm happy with that setting. I didn't think my front was that bad though until I changed the rears, now I can't wait for the front to "catch up".

Tom R.

Both at half on mine with 1500 miles. When I played with the front at full the ride was too bouncy for new york roads, and wasn't balanced.

Doug944s2

I've got mine at 1/4 turn from full soft too, and it seems great for auto-x and not too punishing for the street.

BTW, I had a rear shock failure after about 4000 miles (big pool of shock oil under the car) but Koni replaced it promptly.

IanM

I run my M030 Koni yellows at 50% stiff both front and rear. The back end of my car felt unsettled when entering long sweepers at speed with the rears at full soft. Now it feels perfect, with my stock M030 springs/torsion bars and upgraded Weltmeister 28mm/22mm swaybars.