Darklands

After changing the Konis at the rear against Bilsteins I have the asumption the Konis are different valved and make the rear of the car so unstable.

Landseer

You might be right. Am swapping out on 86 very dilapidated original bogues, such that back of car bounces. Will report back wk 2 Jan after I swap. I'm street driving, some of you guys are better sport drivers.

Hoping OP weighs in, very interested in path Shawn decides. He's got a lot of seat time in this old cars too.

Shawn Stanford

I went out with a set of calipers and the overall tube of the Koni is a couple millimeters narrower than the body of the Boges. However, the 'stop' at the bottom of the Koni is thicker than the body, and comes in two-steps. The narrower section is the same size as the body of the Boge, and the thicker section will serve as a stop for the threaded collar. The trick as this point is going to be getting the collar off the Boge. Stan said to heat it, but somehow I doubt it's going to obligingly just fall off when I do.

I'm at drill this weekend, so I won't be able to get back to this until at least Monday. I'll be sure to post updates on my progress.

A pair of Bilsteins for the rear is running close to $1k right now. No thanks.

I'm in the same boat: a blown set of shocks, bouncing and knocking. Going over expansion joints is like hitting wakes in a speedboat. I'm sure they're original to the car, which is an '82 with at least 150k on it.

You are correct: The fronts are also blown. I have a full set of new Konis.

I don't drive my Sharks as sportscars, I use them as GT cars, so I don't need or want a low or super tight suspension. My plan is to set the Konis somehwere on the soft side of the middle.

Gary Knox

Shawn,

I've installed nearly a dozen sets of Koni's on various cars since 1975, including several 928's. They are all 'adjustable for ride firmness (rebound, not jounce), but 'externally', and thus can not be done easily while on the car (there is a special long allen wrench type rod that was once sold to allow adjustment while they are installed on the car). They can be modified by Koni to make them adjustable while installed, but that costs about as much more as the shocks did originally.

I suggest you go to the Koni web site and find the 'how to adjust' before installation. I usually adjust both the front and rears to about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way from soft toward firm if I want them for street (GT type) driving.

I would never install a set without first confirming where they are in the range from soft to firm (might have one firm, one soft, etc!!!)..

Cheers, and I hope you like them (I obviously do!!).

Gary Knox

Mrmerlin

Shawn last I checked Roger was selling a set of Bilstiens 4 of them runs about 928.00
NOTE you also need the foam bump stops and the flat plastic washers.

NOTE first remove the shock body stop cap then
The aluminum collar will come off ,
but you have to get as much dirt and cosmoline off the shock body,
and use PB to help it slide ,
use a Mapp gas torch to heat the aluminum threaded collar and a big and sledge hammer,
or 10 LB barbell weight on the shock tube to drive it through the collar.

GregBBRD

They also had ample understeer, as delivered, from Porsche. The cars with the M030 option had externally adjustable (top) Koni front shocks....and difficult to adjust rear Konis.
The "clueless", who thought "stiffer" felt more like their perception of a race car, cranked the fronts stiffer.
This, of course, increased the understeer, to the point of being absurd.

Shawn Stanford

His web site said he was out of rears when I was shopping a few weeks ago. I probably should have emailed...

Thanks for the description of how to get that apart. I was planning on calling you to get that.

ROG100

What Gary said and we sell the special tool. We also have the externally adjustable Koni's but be prepared to spend $2k on top of the price of the shocks.

Complete sets of 4 shocks are tough to find at the moment - Boge, Koni & Bilstein.

Shawn Stanford

I'm going to try to set them up sort of in the middle and call it a day. It's bound to be an improvement over what's on there now!

That was my experience. Nobody had a full set, as far as I could see. This is an NOS set of Konis I bought off a Rennlister.

GregBBRD

Two issues we had, when dyno testing the Konis:

1. The adjusting mechanism varied considerably, from shock to shock. On multiple shocks. Fingerprints.
One shock would need to be "set" a full half turn further than the other shock, to be near the same.
2. The shocks get very stiff, very quickly. Very easy to get the shock rebound and compression all out of whack, since they are single adjustable.
I'd error on the "soft side" of halfway, for both comfort and handling.

Shawn Stanford

Thanks for the insight, Greg.

tv

Shocks are like wheels, takes a lot of time and reading to find the right ones. I spent years reading everything on here and elsewhere about what shocks to get. (Springs too) I want a firm no-dive ride but able to absorb bumps solidly w.o getting upset. I went with Koni's from Roger and the eye-candy collars from 928Msports.

The Koni adjustment procedure is somewhat vague. I was able to get 1 pair adjusted but the others I couldn't get it to feel right. I have been lucky to have one of the best exotic car dealerships in the country a few miles from me and they have been very helpful in my 928rehab process, so I brought the difficult pair over there to see if they had experience. They called a tech out but he had no clue. So before I left I checked out all the new cars and started a conversation with a salesmen I didn't know. Turns out he used to be the President of KONI NA. So I explained my issue and he started to mess with it on the floor between a new ROMA and a rare Speciale, We finally resolved it. (The Roma is what a 2021 928 would have been body-wise, uncanny resemblance in person)

Set halfway waiting to go on -- can't beat that look

Petza914

That's awesome. I have the same shocks and same wheels (but in silver) on my Spyder. Where did you source CMS wheels from over here in The States? I had to order mine from a distributor in Ireland who could get them from the dealer in Germany as they were the exact look I wanted for that car - similar to the TechArt Formula, but with better offsets

tv

I thought you might notice them. Like I said I have spent years on researching the perfect wheel/shocks because my euro was in storage for a long time due to life circumstances. Such a difficult deal for 928 wheels because of the offsets. I found (1)some modern interpretations of phone dials, (2) those new actual phone dials from Canada in 18's, and (3) YOURS a couple years ago. The CMS won but it wasn't easy. I contacted the company in Austria??? They said they don't sell to the US. So I had to hunt and found a distributor in England who was willing to jump thru the hoops to get the shipping to work. Bremen I think to my airport in december 2020.

These have great offsets and the width I want. They are the best looking wheel available IMO. A soild looking wheel with lots of detail, classic 5 spoke porsche and yes Techart look with the triangle type shapes in the openings. These are flat black and should go well with the color I want to paint my euro in, Amaranth Red.

Petza914

So, you did the same type of gyrations I did...

Seeing those black ones, I'm thinking they would look superb on the hellbronze Euro S I just bought because all the trim is black, even though I don't really like black wheels as well as silver ones. The fitment on the RH one's currently installed isn't ideal. The rears rub on big bumps and the fronts have poke. Thought about color matching the centers to the color of the car like I did with the phonedials on my 81 Euro S, but usually only like that look on white cars. The silver apinted centers with the polished lips I currently have are too many finishes going on for my taste and combined with the fitment and mismatched tire brands, not sure what I'll do just yet.