tifosiman

Well, my KLA rear coil-overs came in today. They took me about an hour to install after work. It would have been faster if I didn't get interrupted by some friends dropping by to borrow some extra wheel mounts for their Yakima rack.

Anyway, they are very nicely done. They mount with the springs on the bottom and the shock body on the top. They have 12 points of adjustability for rebound/dampening. I set mine on the 6th click (approx the middle setting).

Before I mounted them, I measured the car'[s height from the center of the wheel to the fender lip. With a half tank of gas, the measurement was 12.5 inches on both sides. I set the spring collars to the point to where there was a slight bit of pre-load on them.

After finishing up the install and cleaning up, I went out for a spin. The ride is suprisingly better than the 3000mile Koni Yellows I removed. It felt slightly softer over bumps and didn't get affected by irregularities in the road like it did with the Konis.

Now, the big difference was in cornering. The slight hint of understeer that I had is now totally gone. The car is much more "throwable" into corners now. I can scream through a corner and make it stick, or provoke it a little and get the back to move in a controlled slide. Very nice.

Now, the only *possible* drawback. The car now measures 13.25 inches from the center of the rear wheels to the fender lip. They did indeed raise the ride height. I *think* there may be a little more room to adjust the collars to that I lose a little height and still keep some preload so the springs don't jump out and rattle. But I am not confident that that amount will get me back to 12.5". We'll see. I may need to do another torsion bar re-indexing.

But, overall I am very happy and they are very nice. Definetly a very nice product, at any price. I took some pics, I will post them tomorrow.

I have an autoX coming up sunday, so I'll try to lower the rear a bit more before then and then post some more feedback after the event.

Feel free to ask any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Tifo

tifosiman

OK, I found my card reader. Here are some shots. Please pardon the dirt. I haven't cleaned the car since chasing Perry951 thru the hills last weekend.
















Tifo

MTBarret

I installed a set a few weeks ago. I had some of the same observations. The ride quality around town is awsome, and teh cornering- WOW! Nicely done!!

nine-44

Would you guy suggest these on stock T-bars? I'd like to add some tunability and stiffnes to my swapped NA car.

tifosiman

Perfect for stock T-bars Andy. When you get ready to do it, let me know. I have a spread sheet of wheelrates/springrates that will enable us to figure out the correct rear spring rate to order.

Tifo

car_slave

I have mine on stock t-bars and it works fine, you can always buy some 200lb 2.5" coils later if you like. I set them on 6 also it's a really smooth ride, and it made my car derivable again. Tifo, now you are seeing the problem I found with lowered cars, think I will cut an inch off them. BTW I got them cracked up just far enough to keep my ride height and I have yet to here any spring noise (for now anyway).

Sam Lin

Are these recommended solely for use with torsion bars, or can they be run with a stiffer spring and no torsion bar? Are the internal damping curves appropriate for a spring that much stiffer?

Thanks
Sam

tifosiman

I'm not sure what KLA's official stance is, but I (and others) think that you shouldn't run coil-overs only on a street car. The mounts for the shocks in the rear are not designed to be that much "load-bearing".

Tifo

nine-44

Tifo, you've got pm on the way.

nine-44

BTW, are you running no Ebrake on the rear? front rotors on the rear?

turrbo

How much do they cost, I need 4 new shocks on my 113 k 86 951
should I buy konis yellows for the front and those KLA rear coil-overs for the back.

thanks
JC.

Scootin159

those look like normal rear rotors to me...

nine-44

They don't appear to taper like the stock rears and look like a wider face area too.

badcoupe

Tifo whatya doin with the koni yellows?

Super Dave

Here they are turrbo. http://www.klaindustries.net/

tifosiman, how long did it take once ordered till you received them?